Together for the first time, all 5 standalone novels from the Hugo and Nebula award–winning writer who reinvented science fiction, including one restored to print
Spans from the 1971 classic The Lathe of Heaven to her career-crowning 2008 masterpiece LaviniaThis 7th volume in the definitive Library of America edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s works presents 5 remarkable standalone novels that showcase her boundless creativity and literary range.
In the Locus Award–winning
The Lathe of Heaven (1971), one of Le Guin’s most admired works of science fiction, George Orr begins have effective dreams: dreams that change reality itself. But when he turns to the sleep researcher William Haber for help, the doctor sees an opportunity to use Orr’s strange gift for his own ends.
A former Terran prison colony on the planet Victoria seems destined for revolution in
The Eye of the Heron (1978), when the authoritarian leaders in the City try to assert control over the peaceful farmers who have been sent to live around them.
The Beginning Place (1980) is a parable-like story in which Hugh and Irena have both found their way to the Beginning Place, a gateway to another world. The two initially become enemies, but must learn to work together when the utopia they’ve found turns out to have a shadow.
The long out-of-print
Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand (1991) is a
Winesburg, Ohio-like series of linked stories set in a small vacation town on the Oregon coast, where some of the characters have come for a weekend and some for longer, but all are pilgrims in the grip of inexpressible longings.
And Le Guin’s final, powerfully feminist novel,
Lavinia (2008), reimagines Virgil's
Aeneid from the perspective of a woman who, in poet's telling, never speaks a word.
Special features include an appendix presenting three essays by Le Guin related to the novels, previously unseen hand-drawn maps by author herself, helpful annotation, and a chronology of Le Guin's life and career.
Brought together here for the first time, these 5 remarkable standalone novels showcase a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning master at her very best.
"Here together for the first time are all five remarkable standalone novels by the writer who transformed American speculative fiction. In The Lathe of Heaven, George Orr has dreams that have the power to change reality itself. The Eye of the Heron is set on the planet Victoria in a former Terran prison colony ripe for revolution. The Beginning Place follows two young people who discover a portal to a different, seemingly better world. Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand is a Winesburg, Ohio--like series of interconnected stories about the lives of artists and seekers in a small vacation town on the Oregon coast. Le Guin's powerful final novel, Lavinia, retells Vergil's Aeneid from the perspective of a woman who is not given a voice in the original. Volume features include hand-drawn maps by the author; three essays by Le Guin offering background on the novels; an updated chronology of her life and career; and detailed notes."--Dust jacket.
