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Apr 23, 2011

Manny rated it:

When I first came across this book as a teenager, I think I only really noticed the surface story. George Orr is a man whose dreams, literally, come true; he dreams something, and when he wakes up the world has changed. There's an unscrupulous psychiatrist who wants to exploit George's gift, a love story, some interesting aliens, and a good ending. I really liked it.

I've read it three or four times since then, and each time I've appreciated it more. One could imagine a book with a s More...

25 comments like (40 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2008

D_Davis rated it:

I've never been a huge fan of Ursula K. Le Guin. Now, granted, I've only read a handful of her short stories (all dealing with her fictional race of a/bi-sexual beings), and I have started but failed to crack a few of her novels. I really want to like her, and with all the praise she gets, I think I should like her. I don't think authors are this highly regarded, both with critics and with readers, for no good reason. I recently told a friend of mine that I was going to read a Le Guin book, and More...

9 comments like (32 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2009

tim rated it:

I've always assumed chronic readers share the experience of finding connecting patterns from one book to the next. No matter how seemingly disparate books read consecutively may be, I've always come across overlapping concepts or some sort of shared meaning that is more difficult to pin down and describe. Whatever these synchronicities may be, I am always genuinely amazed and interpret them as signs that I'm witnessing something important--or at the very least, that I am reading the right book a More...

12 comments like (15 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

Would you like to play God?

Would you like to shape the world to your liking? Maybe to rid it of war, overpopulation, hunger, racial prejudice, decease? To make it into your own idea of Heaven?

Well, the two main characters of The Lathe of Heaven have different opinions on this subject. George Orr, who possesses a unique ability to change the world by dreaming about, seemingly, the most mundane things, wants this power to be gone, he is sure the events should take their nat More...

14 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jan 28, 2012

Sparrow rated it:

I have long been a fan of dreams: talking about dreams, working out the interweavings between dreaming life and reality. I almost scare-quoted reality there, but then I realized that this review is probably going to be douchey enough as it is without adding a scare-quoted reality to it. Anyway, Ursula LeGuin’s worlds are typically not my worlds; when I’m reading her books, I tend to bump into walls and trip over furniture, where other readers intuitively know the lay of the interior decorating More...

45 comments like (14 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Tatiana rated it:

This book is one of my all time favorites. First of all, UKL is an amazing writer. The book plays with the nature of reality and idea of creative dreaming. I believe UKL studied Australian aboriginal cultures' understanding of the dreamtime and how it interacts with the worldtime, and that study informs this book, as well as her book "The Word for World is Forest". The book is wildly creative and touches on elements of the human psyche that are far beneath the surface. The ideas s More...

1 comment like (11 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2011

Robert rated it:

I always say my favourite film is Raiders of the Lost Ark and my favourite book is the original Earthsea trilogy, or if pushed A Wizard of Earthsea. Picking one favourite is always a bit arbitrary but both of these are childhood favourites that have survived repeat viewings/readings and have developed accretions of personal associations that add to their significance to me. I think I can now go a step further and say that LeGuin is becoming my favourite author because she just has so many compl More...

2 comments like (12 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2011

Kaethe rated it:

I watched this on PBS once long ago. It’s a modern take on the fairy tale about the fisherman’s wife. Whereas in the fairy tale the fisherman is the protagonist, here it would be the fish. George Orr is remarkable in only two ways. He is utterly, completely normal on virtually any scale; he is perfectly balanced. The other remarkable feature is that he sometimes changes reality in his dreams. In this distopian future George is busted for abuse of his pharm card, and for borrowing other peo More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Nov 19, 2007

Nora rated it:

This was my first legitimate foray into sci-fi... having tried and tried for years to dedicate myself to finishing one book from this genre, only to fail miserable and be left scratching my head, wondering why?why?why? do people read this, given the array of other vastly more interesting and entertaining things to engage oneself in?

I read this on the plane from east to west. Apocalyptic Portland, identities awry... captivating brain powers, power hungry, narcissistic shrinks. I lo More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Sep 20, 2007

Anne rated it:

The Lathe Of Heaven is a taoist parable masquerading as a novella. Through the metaphor of George Orr, a man whose dreams become reality, it examines the consequences of interference and the hubris of believing that we can "improve" the world.

I read this book during a flight to Central America, where I was going to spend the summer before my second year of medical school doing HIV/AIDS education. The contrast could not have been more striking: the purpose of my summer and More...

0 comments like (8 people liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Meg rated it:

I have been meaning to read some Ursula K. Le Guin for years-pretty much since my brother started reading the Wizard of Earth Sea series when we were kids. I managed to read a short story in high school, but that's about it. I don't know what took me so long, but this book was an excellent introduction. It concerns the re-arranging of reality via one lonely guy's dreams and the creepy, Ghost-of-Christmas-Present-type oneirologist assigned to treat his time/space-distorting malady.

It More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Misha rated it:

Published in 1971 but set in 2002, the Lathe of Heaven is a phenomenal read, albeit a scary look into the future’s possibilities. Aside from some scientific lingo and references to dream states, the novel isn’t overly technical. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy Le Guin’s science-fiction pieces. She also has an exceptional way of writing, storytelling, and stirring up questions.

While reading Le Guin’s fable, the proverbial leprechaun granting a wish that wasn’t exactly wished for cam More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 25, 2010

Ken-ichi rated it:

This was probably my favorite LeGuin book to date. Languid, thoughtful, well-written. I loved the transitions between realities, which at first were hard to notice when I didn't have a baseline for what constituted reality in this book. Kind of like, "Ok, aliens. Wait, were there aliens before?" which is exactly what the characters experience as well. In one sense this is a classically ironic story a la The Twlight Zone, or The Monkey's Paw: person gains supernatural powers, but a More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 28, 2011

Ben rated it:

I've been reading a good deal of Miss Le Guin's books lately and something that's really impressed me is how the old school science fiction writers would craft these excellent, compelling, thought-provoking stories in less than 200 pages. It strikes me that today's science fiction and fantasy authors are over-enamored with flaunting their powers of description and so clutter up their books with hundreds of pages of delightful details.

The Lathe of Heaven is a fantastic concept, elega More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2007

Craroline rated it:

this book was given to me by a close friend and it changed my outlook on a lot of things. it's science fiction, and there are aliens and battles and stuff, but also a lot about balance and how it is inevitable that good and evil will have to co-exist somehow. probably my favorite book ever.

12/28 ok i just read it again because i couldn't remember why it ended the way it did. the stuff with how the world ended in 1998 confused me because i thought maybe that's what Haber was dreami More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Moira rated it:

I've lost count of how many times I've reread this book -- one of my permanent favourites. I saw the classic PBS adaptation when it first aired, too!

8 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 09, 2008

Mary rated it:

I'd like George Orr to dream me up a puppy, but of course it would end up being some horrible zombie puppy that needs to eat my flesh to survive. Damn you and your uncontrollable effective dreams!

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Rhonda rated it:

The Lathe of Heaven is a book of profound impact. I recall thinking that the concept of a world constantly turning inside out was almost too terrible to consider and, after I read it it, I began to feel like George, constantly disturbed while awake and unable to sleep peacefully. I began thinking about possibilities of our own world's demise, through no fault of my own, and suddenly felt responsible yet unable to aid it in any way. If anyone has suffered from insomnia, especially because of dis More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Williwaw rated it:

This is a terrifying book. Think Frankenstein. Think "The Monkey's Paw." And then lace it with Taoism.

George Orr represents a man who is perfectly balanced. Except that he discovers within himself a talent that no person should ever have: the power to change reality by falling asleep and dreaming that things are different. It's not something that George does intentionally. In fact, he even recognizes that this is not a good thing. Especially since dreams are not thi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 15, 2011

Reid rated it:

Another classic I can check off my list. And yet another book I am a bit ashamed to say I have never gotten to before. It has probably been suggested to me by dozens of people over the years.

This is the story of George Orr, who can change reality with his dreams. Sounds pretty good, huh? I wouldn't mind living in some of my dreams. Well, not all of them. Now that I think of it, not even most of them. Ooo, especially not THAT one! Hmm...come to think of it, maybe that wouldn't be such a More...

0 comments like

Dec 15, 2011

Jen rated it:

From http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com/4382...

I love, love, love, love dystopian fiction. To that end, if you love dystopian fiction as I do, you will love this book.

The premise of this story is that there is a man who is capable, through subconscious dreams, of altering the universe. Or perhaps he is capable of transferring his consciousness onto a parallel, yet subtly different, universe. As most of us dream resolutions to our conflicts, so too does he, but with far re More...

0 comments like

Dec 12, 2011

Ggazic rated it:

I read this on airplanes, to and from Maui. In between halves of Lathe, I read half a cheesy romance novel.

*spoiler alert*

I liked the book, but it didn't absorb me. It's hard when the main character is continuously described as passive and weak, and seems so. Heather saw admirable qualities in him, but I was put off that long after he knew that Haber was remaking the world in big ways with his dreams, he just continued going. There was no gun to his head; the worst that could More...

1 comment like

Sep 18, 2011

Bev rated it:

George Orr is afraid to dream. He has discovered that he has what he calls effective dreams. His dreams can change things. That pesky Aunt Julia who came to stay when he was seventeen? Suddenly she was gone and had never stayed with them at all. Not just vanished from their home--but dead in a car crash. That wasn't precisely what he wanted when he decided in his waking hours that he wanted her out of the house, but his subconscious seemed to think it an adequate solution and so he dreamed it. A More...

0 comments like

Jul 26, 2011

Erik rated it:

I believe I first read this in a Nebula collection of the year's best stories, then, in its expanded form, as this novel. At the time I was a senior living a college-sponsored vegetarian cooperative, "Vegie House", located in what had served as Grinnell, Iowa's first hospital. I read it what had been the second-storey surgery, the best room in the place, given me by the collective for having the greatest seniority as a vegetarian. The hospital having been constructed at the turn of More...

0 comments like

Jul 23, 2011

David rated it:

I highly recommend that sci-fi readers new to Le Guin's work do not follow the route I did. I often figure that if an author is worth reading, then they're worth reading from the very beginning. More often than not, this works out well. With Le Guin, this is not true. The books "Rocannon's World" was mediocre sci-fi decorating a melodramatic space soap opera. Her second book, "Planet of Exile", is one I gave up on fairly early. I took some heart. This author was acclai More...

0 comments like

Jul 13, 2011

Suzanne rated it:

If I were reviewing this book 40 years ago, it would get 5 stars. However, as with so much scifi from that period, it seems quaint and dated. The central theme -- the dangers of playing god -- is as strong and resonant as ever. Where the work fails is in its view of the future, although the frequent references to Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq as trouble centers are more than a little prescient, as are the predictions about the effects of global warming. The scientific advances envisioned, particul More...

0 comments like

Apr 01, 2011

Tommy rated it:

I am constantly surprised by the quality and interesting thought provoking premises of good science fiction. I've certainly come to the genre a bit later than some but am impressed, (yes thank you Tara)!

So the premise of this is a man who can dream and physically change the world around him with his dreams. Of course while dreaming, his unconscious reigns so he's terrified of the potential effects of his dreams on the world and humanity. He doesn't want to kill himself, which would see More...

0 comments like

Mar 30, 2011

Pikachu rated it:

Orr is a soft-spoken, rather passive man; he believes that everything happens for a reason, and that we're all part of a pattern that we really have no right to pick apart and re-weave. So you can understand why he's upset with his preternatural ability to change reality with his dreams. He gets in trouble for illegally taking dream suppressants and gets sent to a specialist, a Dr. Haber, to see what, exactly his problem is.

Dr. Haber thinks Orr is crazy at first, delusional and possibl More...

0 comments like

Jan 05, 2011

Patricia rated it:

I had to read this book for a sci-fi class that I took in college. I wrote a huge paper on it. This book is trippy, and it kind of has that inception vibe, where you have to think about everything and make your own interpretation. It's about a man who every time he dreams.. his dreams change reality. If he dreams everyone is a zombie and the world is ending, when he wakes up.. that's whats going on now.. that's his reality. That's the "new" world. I'll just paste my old paper ;o

More...

0 comments like

Aug 17, 2010

Michaelbert rated it:

This was a nice little book. What's a man to do whose dreams reshape reality? Afraid his dreams might hurt people,he decides to avoid dreaming first by means of drugs. When this nearly kills him, he is forced to seek professional help. Then we really go down the rabbit hole. A highlight of our protagonist's reshapings of reality is the time he dreams up alien invaders who scare the shit out of humanity and then decide to just set up pleasant little shops selling antiques and other knick knacks. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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