Review
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Most of Le Guin's science fiction is set in a human
galaxy where the distance of time and space imposed by relativity
is mitigated by instantaneous transmission of information through
a gadget called the ansible. The Dispossessed, famous for being
Ken Livingstone's favourite science fiction novel, was the book
in which she told us of Shevek, the ansible's inventor, and the
ironies of his career. Shevek is a loyal citizen of a poor
anarchist world, Anarres, which finds frills like research hard
to afford; he travels to the neighbouring world of Urras, to find
that unbridled capitalism is not much fun either. "Nio Esseia, a
city of four million souls, lifted its delicate glittering towers
across the green marshes of the Estuary as if it were built of
mist and sunlight...Was all Nio Esseia this? Huge shining boxes
of stone and glass, immense, ornate, enormous packages, empty,
empty." At once one of the greatest of SF novels about political
ideas and idealism, and a stunning novel of character, The
Dispossessed has at its centre Shevek, scientist and near-saint,
a flawed human being whom we come to know as we know few
characters in modern science fiction. --Roz Kaveney
Review
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The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away
from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and
discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin (Roddy
Doyle THE TIMES)
An extraordinary work ... [Le Guin] created a working society in
exquisite detail ... a fully realised hypothetical culture [as
well as] living breathing characters who are inevitable products
of that culture (Baird Searles)
A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and
again (THE TIMES)
A deeply imagined work of art (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction)
Le Guin's book ... is so persuasive that it ought to put a stop
to the writing of prescriptive Utopias for at least 10 years (NEW
YORK TIMES)
[Le Guin had] the heart of a poet who knew all too well the
difference between miracle and eureka, revelation and revolution
(PUBLISHERS WEEKLY)
Synopsis
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The Principle of Simultaneity is a scientific
breakthrough which will revolutionize interstellar civilization
by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life
work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist
world of Anarres. But Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous
colleagues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras,
hoping to find more liberty and tolerance there. But he soon
finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.
About the Author
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Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her
books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many
awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula
Awards and a Newbery Honor. Among her novels, The Left Hand of
Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have
attained undisputed classic status; and her recent series, the
Annals of the Western Shore, has won her the PEN Center USA
Children's literature award and the Nebula Award for best novel.
In 2014 Ursula Le Guin was awarded the National Book Foundation
Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. She
lived in Portland, Oregon, until she passed away in January 2018.
Read more at http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/le_guin_ursula_k