The Lathe of Heaven

Another one of the writers that I know I’ll like most of the time is Ursula Le Guin. This book is not part of one of her series, but stand-alone.

The main character in this book, George Orr has noticed that some of his dreams come true. They are not predictive dreams, but they come true retroactively, changing the world to fit the dream. He gets desperate to stop the dreams and uses drugs illegally, using other people’s medical cards. The world he lives in is a dystopian future (in the 1980′s) of pollution, over-population, food- and space-shortages. He gets caught and forced into voluntary therapy. The therapist, Haber, has a machine that can force Orr to have the vivid dreams that change the world, and he uses them for his own goals. Orr wants to fight back, because the changes, while usually made in good faith, make the world a very different and not necessarily better place to live in.

I really liked this book, which was short but sweet. It explored the ethical question about knowingly changing the world, and how balance must always exist. A good, short read. Four out of five stars.