The Lathe of Heaven

from Tatiana_G

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 Or...

from eleanor_eader

Thought-provoking sci-fi, written with a clever turn of phrase and use of imagery... the diffident protagonist, George Orr, is having dreams that shape reality, an anomaly nicely at odds with his personality, since he is so passive that his waking life has little impact on anybody. Dr Huber (whos...

from DinadansFriend

As you dream, so shall it be! And Le Guin's fine book, demonstrates why that isn't as wonderful a wish as one might think! They made a TV movie out of it, but I don't think it made a fine transition to the small screen. To quote a better piece of filmed escapism,"With great power comes great resp...

from auntmarge64

In Portland, OR, in the near-future (our near past - this was written in 1971), George Orr discovers his dreams are changing reality and turns to drugs to quell them. He is sent to a psychiatrist, whose response is to start experimenting with George's dreams to design his own utopian world. With ...

from Sunyidean

Like many LeGuin books I wasn't sold on the beginning; the psychiatrist stuff is quite dated and poorly done. However the book is excellent conceptually and many of the "dated" concepts can be explained away by the narrative functions existing in the novel (SPOILER: multiple realities).