SF Masterwork of the Week: The Lathe of Heaven

Shortlisted for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1972, our current SF Masterwork of the Week is Grand Master Ursula K. Le Guin‘s The Lathe of Heaven.

Through his dreams, George Orr can make alternate realities real

George Orr is a mild and unremarkable man who finds the world a less than pleasant place to live: seven billion people jostle for living space and food. But George dreams dreams which do in fact change reality ? and he has no means of controlling this extraordinary power.

Psychiatrist Dr William Haber offers to help. At first sceptical of George?s powers, he comes to astonished belief. When he allows ambition to get the better of ethics, George finds himself caught up in a situation of alarming peril.

This is SF of the highest quality, as one would expect from a writer of Ursula Le Guin‘s quality and reputation. We refer you to this review on Ian Sales‘ excellent SF Mistressworks site:

At its best, science fiction has something important to say, and does so in a unique and exciting way. This is a genre of limitless potential, after all, but works that are both thought-provoking and gripping are less common than you’d think. That definition fits The Lathe of Heaven well: it’s one of those few SF books that’s intellectually stimulating and emotionally compelling at the same time.

The Lathe of Heaven is available as an SF Masterworks paperback, and you can read more about Ursula K. Le Guin in her entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.