The Dispossessed

by Ursula K. Le Guin

SF Masterworks (2nd Series), 324 pages

English language

Published Sept. 29, 2015 by Gollancz.

ISBN:: 978-1-4732-0606-9

(22 reviews)

The Principle of Simultaneity will revultionise interstellar civilization by making possible instantaneous communication. It is the life work of Shevek, a brilliant physicist from the arid anarchist world of Anarres. Shevek's work is being stifled by jealous collegues, so he travels to Anarres's sister-planet Urras, hoping to find more tolerance there. But he soon finds himself being used as a pawn in a deadly political game.

40 editions

dr4co reviewed The dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

One of the books I want to keep returning to

5 stars

I first read this book 20 years ago in a German translation and liked it a lot, but I didn't get a lot of it. Now, reading the English original and having had more of a political education, at first I was: "Is this book as good as I remember it?", but then, I enjoyed it even more.

I love that it's not an unbroken utopia and the ending leaves some things open. I also liked how it shows how power-laden relationships and positions can inadvertently creep back into a society that's not supposed to have them.