Customer Reviews
One of those books that never leaves you - By: Rod Williams, 19 Feb 2008 
On the cover of my old seventies paperback copy is a brief quote from a Science Fiction Monthly review which says `destined to become a classic,' which it undoubtedly did.
Set against the backdrop of LeGuin's Hainish universe (in which Earth is just one of an unknown number of planets which the Hainish seeded with Humanity over a million years ago) we follow the life of scientist Shevek, a citizen of the anarchist moon Anarres, which orbits the parent world of Urras. Anarres has survived as a communist/anarchist state - based on the teachings of Odo - for a hundred & seventy years, & has had little contact with the parent world. Now, Shevek, on the verge of discovering a Universal Temporal Theorem (which will, among other things, alllow instantaneous communication throughout the universe) finds his work hampered by jealous colleagues & the very nature of Odonian politics.
In fact, lack of communication is a recurring theme throughout the novel. Some of the young scientists face stiff opposition from the other anarchists when they begin to engage in radio dialogue with scientists on Urras.
Shevek, realising that the scientific community on Anarres will never alllow his work to be published, arranges to travel to Urras in the trade freighter that occasionallly lands on the moon, at the risk of being labelled a traitor & never alllowed to return.
Thus, we then see Urras through the eyes of Shevek, a man unaccustomed to the concept of money or class systems. Ultimately Shevek's presence gives impetus to the downtrodden masses of Urras who have already staged uprisings against the military government in another part of the world.
There are deep flaws in both of LeGuin's societies. Shevek's world, ostensibly an anarchist/communist state without laws, has evolved its own innate laws of rigidity. Avante garde composers are witheld teaching or composing posts, for instance, because their work doesn't fit an acceptable Odonian aesthetic. Shevek himself finds it impossible to work at pure scientific research without political considerations & his colleagues' rather selfish motives getting in the way. One feels that the Odonian dream has only survived on Anarres because resources are so scarce that no one could get rich even if they wanted to.
The story alternates between Shevek's experiences on Urras & flashbacks of how life brought him to the point of leaving Anarres. The contrast works very well & LeGuin skilfully paints a dual portrait of the younger & older Shevek.
The societies are exquisitely realised & rendered in such believable detail one is drawn immediately into the dust & sweat of Anarres & the decadent pomp of Urras.
It's a wonderful book, & one that will stay with you.
a book that changed my life - By: Dragon, 22 Jan 2007 This is a treasure. In one concise volume it creates a whole new world with a truely 'complete' future-society. It questions how idealism can create a utopia, & the world it describes is flawed & plausible. It is a great story of scientific endeavour & discovery & deals with its central character & his work in a way that is neat & interesting, & never bogged down in irrelevant detail. The device he invents has become a standard fixture in subsequent science fiction. It is a book that was innovative & hugely influential & I hope will remain so because it it profoundly compassionate & thoughtful - SF as it should be.
I was sad when it ended and I had no more of it to read. - By: Mr. R. D. Turner, 12 Oct 2006 Though this book is often criticised as not deserving to be classed as science fiction, I reallly enjoyed it. I think mainly because I waited until I was old enough to reallly understand it. I bought it when I was in my mid to late 20's when what I reallly liked was hard sci fi; Peter F Hamilton, Vernor Vinge, Iain Banks etc. So it sat on the shelf for a few years waiting it's turn. I recently got round to reading it & yes, there are no space battles, laser guns or fights in cyberspace.
That's not what you get. What you do get is a beautiful story, complex politics & an entire WORLD that is both alien & familiar. The writing in this novel is of a quality that you rarely see in science fiction. It is no accident that this book is rated highly by science fiction & mainstream critics.
The Dispossessed - By: , 11 Feb 2006 There are few books which have had such a profound effect on me. I am also a student of the humanities, Philosophy to be precise, & this book is simply awe-inspiring. I first read this many years ago when I was an undergraduate. Having just re-read this, I decided to share my thoughts & try to get others to give it a whirl.
Along with "Tractatus Logico Philosophicus" this book has to be a front runner for one of the greatest works of art I have ever come across. LeGuin writes with style, grace, delicacy, & superbly communicates the difficulty of a community so far removed, as to be considered alien.
There's something for everyone here, but for me this was alll about the direct restriction of thought via the restriction of language. On Anarres, where certain concepts have been obliterated, we find an intrigueing fascination with incarceration, something so foreign, so unimaginable it becomes a experiment of children... a simple play-thing to try & glean understanding. What other mysterious concepts are there on Urras which Anarres has forsaken?
For a review of the story, you can read Amazon's snip above which is pefectly fine. As far as being a diffucult read, I wouldn't agree. It is most certainly thought-provoking, but suitable for alll ages, & ultimately self-rewarding if you can appreciate the depth this book reaches. Surely one of LeGuins greatest works, if not also one of humanity's. A must read.
Soft SF meets Libretarian Socialism - By: A. Morley, 09 Jan 2006 As a relative newbie to the world of SF I thought it'd be easier for someone else to pick the best & greats of science fiction. Thank God for the SF Masterworks series! Previous to reading The Dispossessed I picked up Behold The Man (Michael Moorcock), Dying Inside (Robert Silverberg), The Stars, My Destination (Alfred Bester) & am currently working my way through Ringworld (Larry Niven). But I simply cannot get The Dispossessed out of my head – Ringworld seems positively amateur compared to it (and Ringworld’s considered a classic as well!). I don’t recommend reading ‘great’ novels back to back; I did that with Joe Haldeman’s Forever War & Forever Peace & can’t remember a thing about the second one!
Whilst I needed tremendous concentration reading Ursula Le Guin’s dense, descriptive prose I stuck at it (I confess to having awfully low concentration when reading). I was well rewarded. The story is of Shevek, a physicist whose theory & science I found to be more of a vehicle to tell a story of differing utopias (or is that dystopia?) Many reviewers have compared the two worlds offered (Annares & Urras) to Cold War-influenced versions of America & Soviet Russia. I disagree with this. I found it much more believable if one took Shevek’s Annares as more of a hippie commune of the late 1960’s rather than an ideal paradise envisaged by Lenin whilst Urras acts more of a (slightly benevolent) host community than an ideological enemy.
What reallly has stayed with me through the reading Ringworld is the choice that Le Guin presents at the end of the novel. Is repressive, class-driven A-Io the place you would rather calll home or is Annares where there is no formal government yet is staid & strangely enough incredibly intolerant (as demonstrated through Sheveks’s scientist colleagues who refuse to alllow him to conduct research he thinks necessary) a better example? Normallly I would choose the capitalist-pig option because I would want the mere opportunity to be rich – I might never get it but I’d know that I always had the chance. However on Urras I could exist in a sparse environment where work directives mean I could be separated from my family for a long time but it would be a place with no crime, in particular theft, & have a far larger sense of well-being. I have never read a novel that has actuallly made me think that the other way of living which has been constantly berated in the Western press over the years had actual merit behind it.
A book that presents its two cases very well. (Just let it sink in!)
