Book Review: The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin

When one of my friends left town, she left me a lot of varied books. This was one of them and I finally picked it up to read while waiting for Baldur's Gate 3 to release. It's an older title, from 1971, and has that classic sci-fi feel to it. Here's the Goodreads blurb for it:

A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity.

In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.

The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity's self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

This very much felt like a classic 70s sci-fi book focused heavily on the premise. The cast of characters is very small- barely 3 and the plot is tense. The setting is ever changing thanks to the nature of the story, though mainly focused on a hypothetical late 90s Portland. It was an interesting and short read, though somewhat confusing in its premise and how things play out.

Plot

The plot is fairly straightforward- George Orr is under therapy for abusing drugs to control his dreaming as they can affect reality. He's paired with Dr. Haber who takes advantage of this to his own ends. It's actually somewhat upsetting to see George stuck in this abusive relationship that he can't get out of. Other characters and the story setting itself prevent him from getting real help and that feels absolutely frustrating. That said, it is a testament to the nature of the story that it can invoke such emotions from the reader.

Characters

The main character is George Orr, an otherwise ordinary individual with the unusual ability that his dreams can alter reality. He feels rather bland, something that other characters react to. Some of the 70s sensitivities are in play and he gets criticized for being soft, passive, feminine. Dr. Haber serves as a bit of an antagonist as he is power-hungry and abuses the doctor-patient trust to use George's dreaming ability. There's also a woman, Heather, who appears more towards the later part of the novel. The main conflict of the story is actually the relationship between George and Dr. Haber over the use of his power.

Setting / World Building

The story is set in an imagined late 1990s Portland Oregon. This was written in the 70s so there are things that don't make sense to us today, but it's not totally out of the ordinary. A big focus is of course the nature of REM sleep, the dreaming state. Dr. Haber frequently pontificates about it as he uses various machines to probe George's mind. I don't know much about this but it sounded quite interesting. In addition to this, there are a few themes of reality and dreams. There's certainly a lot of re-writing of the world as George alters it via dreaming.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this was an interesting short novel. While deceptively simple, the premise makes you think about a lot its concepts, including dreams, reality, and the power to change it. The characters lead the conflict- there is an abusive relationship at its core as one takes advantage of the other. That was disturbing but the main character is a little too passive in working to get out of it.