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The Dispossessed
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.
Critic reviews
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Featured Article: 45+ Quotes to Help You Make Peace with—and Take Charge of—Change
Reeling from change? Or ready to make some changes in your life? These wise words from authors just might give you the comfort or boost you need. Their words reflect the nature of change and the swirl of feelings surrounding it—from fear to exhilaration. In this collection, you'll find gentle reminders that change will keep happening and reassurance that you can handle it. When you face it and embrace it, change can enrich your life in unexpected ways.
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The Unreal and the Real is a major event not to be missed. In this two-volume selection of Ursula K. Le Guin's best short stories--as selected by the National Book Award winning author herself--the reader will be delighted, provoked, amused, and faced with the sharp, satirical voice of one of the best short story writers of the present day. Where on Earth explores Le Guin's earthbound stories which range around the world, from small town Oregon to middle Europe in the middle of revolution to summer camp.
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Shame on you, Audible
- By Audrey McCombs on 07-03-20
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1984
- New Classic Edition
- By: George Orwell
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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George Orwell depicts a gray, totalitarian world dominated by Big Brother and its vast network of agents, including the Thought Police - a world in which news is manufactured according to the authorities' will and people live tepid lives by rote. Winston Smith, a hero with no heroic qualities, longs only for truth and decency. But living in a social system in which privacy does not exist and where those with unorthodox ideas are brainwashed or put to death, he knows there is no hope for him.
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Come one, Come all into 1984!
- By Kit McIlvaine (GirlPluggedN) on 02-18-08
By: George Orwell
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The Schooldays of Jesus
- By: J. M. Coetzee
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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David is the small boy who is always asking questions. Simon and Ines take care of him in their new town, Estrella. He is learning the language; he has begun to make friends. He has the big dog, Bolivar, to watch over him. But he'll be seven soon, and he should be at school. And so, with the guidance of the three sisters who own the farm where Simon and Ines work, David is enrolled in the Academy of Dance. It's here, in his new golden dancing slippers, that he learns how to call down the numbers from the sky.
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SEXUAL PERVERSION PRESENTED AS BRILLIANT
- By Amazon Customer on 09-29-18
By: J. M. Coetzee
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And There Was Light
- The Extraordinary Memoir of a Blind Hero of the French Resistance in World War II
- By: Jacques Lusseyran
- Narrated by: Andre Gregory
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Abridged
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When Jacques Lusseyran was an eight-year-old Parisian schoolboy, he was blinded in an accident. He finished his schooling determined to participate in the world around him. In 1941, when he was seventeen, that world was Nazi-occupied France. Lusseyran formed a resistance group with fifty-two boys and used his heightened senses to recruit the best. Eventually, Lusseyran was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in a transport of two thousand resistance fighters.
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One of the three most important books in my life
- By William R. Stevenson on 12-12-15
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The Heart of the Matter
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Kitchen
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Scobie, a police officer in a West African colony, is a good and honest man. But when he falls in love, he is forced into a betrayal of everything that he has ever believed in, and his struggle to maintain the happiness of two women destroys him.
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Starts Very Slowly then Boom!
- By Michael on 05-21-17
By: Graham Greene
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Red Plenty
- By: Francis Spufford
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Strange as it may seem, the gray, oppressive USSR was founded on a fairy tale. It was built on the 20th-century magic called "the planned economy," which was going to gush forth an abundance of good things that the lands of capitalism could never match. And just for a little while, in the heady years of the late 1950s, the magic seemed to be working. Red Plenty is about that moment in history, and how it came, and how it went away. Red Plenty is history, it's fiction, it's as ambitious as Sputnik, and as uncompromising as an Aeroflot flight attendant.
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Simple review
- By Jay J Peters on 06-24-18
By: Francis Spufford
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The Quiet American
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Joseph Porter
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Alden Pyle, an idealistic young American, is sent to Vietnam to promote democracy amidst the intrigue and violence of the French war with the Vietminh, while his friend, Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, looks on.
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Terrible narrator nearly derails Greene novel.
- By Richard on 07-12-12
By: Graham Greene
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The Memory of Earth
- Homecoming, Volume 1
- By: Orson Scott Card
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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High above the planet Harmony, the Oversoul watches. Its task, programmed so many millennia ago, is to guard the human settlement on this planet, to protect this fragile remnant of Earth from all threats...to protect them, most of all, from themselves.
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I keep hoping, but, alas, ...
- By Old Hippy on 02-22-10
By: Orson Scott Card
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Herzog
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
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Grows Within You
- By Chris Reich on 08-06-11
By: Saul Bellow
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A Place of Greater Safety
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 33 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1789, and three young provincials have come to Paris to make their way. Georges-Jacques Danton, an ambitious young lawyer, is energetic, pragmatic, debt-ridden - and hugely but erotically ugly. Maximilien Robespierre, also a lawyer, is slight, diligent, and terrified of violence. His dearest friend, Camille Desmoulins, is a conspirator and pamphleteer of genius. A charming gadfly, erratic and untrustworthy, bisexual and beautiful, Camille is obsessed by one woman and engaged to marry another, her daughter.
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Disaster
- By Frank Dudley Berry Jr. on 08-01-13
By: Hilary Mantel
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How Do You Live
- By: Genzaburo Yoshino, Bruno Navasky, Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, 15, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend.
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pure joy
- By greta shlafmitz on 01-09-22
By: Genzaburo Yoshino, and others
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Too much fluff and interruptions.
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Amazing!
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Shame on you, Audible
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Only worth it for Paradises Lost
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Shame on you, Audible
- By Audrey McCombs on 07-03-20
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Only worth it for Paradises Lost
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Great story!
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Anyone who would give this a bad score is boring
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chapter names
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At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
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A comment on negative reviews
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Dogeaters
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Dogeaters follows a diverse set of characters through Manila, each exemplifying the country’s sharp distinctions between social classes. Celebrated novelist and playwright Jessica Hagedorn effortlessly shifts from the capital’s elite to the poorest of the poor. From the country’s president and first lady to an idealist reformer, from actors and radio DJs to prostitutes, seemingly unrelated lives become intertwined.
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Gifts
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Born in 1917, Tennessee author Peter Taylor won the Pulitzer Prize for this exceptional work of literature. The well-to-do Carver family moves to Memphis from Nashville, where they become embroiled in a domestic dispute over the widower patriarch's decision to remarry.
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Not at all interesting
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Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching
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In this landmark modern-day rendition of the ancient Taoist classic, Ursula K. Le Guin presents Lao Tzu’s time-honored and astonishingly powerful philosophy like never before. Drawing on a lifetime of contemplation, she offers an unparalleled window into the text’s awe-inspiring, immediately relatable teachings and their inestimable value for our troubled world.
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I wanted to love this
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A Fire Upon the Deep
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A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
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What a wild, wacky, awesome book!
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The Found and the Lost
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Every novella by Ursula K. Le Guin, an icon in American literature, collected for the first time - and introduced by the legendary author - in one breathtaking volume. Ursula K. Le Guin has won multiple prizes and accolades, from the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters to the Newbery Honor, Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, and PEN/Malamud awards. She has had her work collected over the years but never as a complete retrospective of her longer works.
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You gotta be kidding me.
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City
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Jenkins was a robot. He was built to be the perfect worker, tireless and uncomplaining. But, quite unexpectedly, he also became a close companion to generation after generation of his owners as the human race matured, moved beyond the confines of its once tiny planet, and eventually changed beyond all recognition.
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A very special kind of story.
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Blood Music
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Vergil's innovative experiment restructuring the cells of a common virus becomes a nightmare when, in order to save his research, Vergil injects the entire culture into his bloodstream.
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THOUGHT UNIVERSE
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By: Greg Bear
What listeners say about The Dispossessed
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Isaac
- 10-09-10
One of my favorite novels of all time
Some readers and critics have suggested that Le Guin is "promoting" anarchism/communism; this is too simplistic, since the book is far too subtle and tentative to work as propaganda. Instead, she posits an attractive and idealistic society, contrasts it with a world with an appealing facade and an unattractive underclass, and shows how human nature tends to corrupt even the most well-meaning of civilizations. A book of ideas rather than of advocacy, "The Dispossessed" challenges readers to envision humankind's limitless possibilities.
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125 people found this helpful
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- Darwin8u
- 06-17-14
The ^HIGH^ orbit of what SF can do
le Guin's 'The Dispossessed' represents the high orbit of what SF can do. Science Fiction is best, most lasting, most literate, when it is using its conventional form(s) to explore not space but us. When the vehicle of SF is used to ask big questions that are easier bent with binary planets, with grand theories of time and space, etc., we are able to better understand both the limits and the horizons of our species.
The great SF writers (Asimov, Vonnegut, Heinlein, Dick, Bradbury, etc) have been able to explore political, economic, social, and cultural questions/possibilities using the future, time, and the wide-openness of space. Ursula K. Le Guin belongs firmly in the pantheon of great social SF writers. She will be read far into the future -- not because her writing reflects the future, but because it captures the now so perfectly.
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56 people found this helpful
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- Jim "The Impatient"
- 06-12-16
EGOTISCALLY
THEY ARGUED BECAUSE THEY LIKED ARGUMENT
AND HE TALKED TO THEM AND THEY ANSWERED
This is another conversation book or Thesis. When I say nothing happened, I mean it, nothing happened.
ORGANIC WORD
HE WAS TIME
THERE WAS AN EYE, A LARGE DARK EYE, MOURNFUL
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47 people found this helpful
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- thomas
- 04-29-13
I Thoroughly Enjoyed It.
What made the experience of listening to The Dispossessed the most enjoyable?
Great production of a great scientific fiction classic. The narrator went back and forth between characters with ease. He also highlighted the gravity of the writing, which is spectacular in a clear and simple manner.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Shevek has to be one of the most compelling characters I have every read. I didn't always like him but he served as a touchstone for the ideas and concepts in the book from economics, to the Sapir Whor hypothesis, moral and ethics and physics. A very compelling and thought provoking character.
Which scene was your favorite?
The scenes of Shevek as a young man were interesting, I couldn't help thinking of Catcher in the Rye at times. I also wondered how powerful this might have been to read this book as a younger man.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The scenes of Shevek with his family were very moving. As a fan of traditional or hard science fiction I typically don't get into more relationship driven stores, but this was an exception. These scenes were a stark contrast to the modern lifestyle of constant entertainment that many of us find ourselves dependent on for fun. It really made you re-evaluate how you decide to spend your time. It was something I did not expect of the novel and I found it fascinating, a real meditation on modern life.
Any additional comments?
I think it would be too easy to dismiss this story as "anti-Ayn Rand" or "socialist", its really more multi layered than that...If you can be open to a story that will make you rethink social, political, moral, ethical and existential ideas you would truly enjoy the novel. The book is not written in black and while tones, there are critiques and nuances to all the social and political structures that make it incredibly well written.
My only disappointment is that The Left Hand of Darkness is not on Audible, which makes more insight into LeGuins "Hannish Cycle" not complete.
I am really glad I listened/read this novel.
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41 people found this helpful
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- Eilert
- 07-28-19
Strangely unlistenable
I've enjoyed Mrs Le Guin's writing for four decades now. I'm guessing that "The Dispossessed" is of her usual high standards, but Don Leslie's reading is so bland as to make me lose the thread again and again, so I can't say what I think of the story yet . This is a problem with some American voice artists; They have pleasant voices, very nice enunciation, read at an unrushed tempo, but their delivery is more suited to grief counseling, insomniac cures or similar. Mr Leslie is, I'm sure, a very pleasant man with many endearing qualities, and his reading is impeccable, but he doesn't engage with the listener at all. I gave the performance two stars, that's one star for the overall performance and a bonus star for very good diction, as I appreciate good craftsmanship.
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- Janelle
- 10-18-17
Better suited for traditional reading
I think I'm going to have to give this book another shot, old school style. I vaguely enjoyed the story, but had trouble paying full attention with the narrator's calming voice. I felt that when it switched between past/present there should have been a more pronounced change in the narrator's tone perhaps. I'm not sure...
Exploring the ideas of anarcho-communism is intriguing, and I think Le Guin does a good job of showcasing some of the benefits, requirements, and ultimate struggles that such a society entails. Again, I think to truly get this book I would like to read it normally, or at least listen again in one setting when I can pay closer attention.
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- Peregrine
- 04-23-12
Great story, philosophical and poignant
One of the 2 best adult sci-fi titles Le Guin has given us; I was very happy to re-read it (after about 30 years) when it came to Audible finally. It's a meditation on human nature, disguised as commentary on the Cold War. At first it seems as if she's idealizing socialist society, but she does an excellent job critiquing it, with an almost Randian notion of egalitarianism suffocating human ingenuity. I finished it yesterday and I'm still chewing it over.
The reader is fine, a little slow and I used the audible app's 1.5x speed feature sometimes.
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- Vincent Jeffries
- 04-30-18
Literary, Political & Philosophical Explorations
The Dispossessed is an interesting, important work with a science-fictional setting. However, I'm not sure it functions as much of a "story" per se. Little actually happens in the book (by my admittedly uneducated standards) and characters serve more as a variety of symbols that reflect human behavior/nature and political ideas than as actors in a narrative.
If you aren't interested in deep explorations of non-authoritarian communism contrasted with capitalist and other more familiar economic/political concepts, then I'm not sure how you could enjoy this book. I'll leave the question of whether or not anyone should be interested in these examinations alone.
The anarchic, communistic Utopia at the center of the novel is one that the world has yet to produce in it's non-authoritarian essence. The more materialistic, contrasting society in the book will look very familiar to any reader within or familiar with modern America.
I couldn't help but feel that I was reading a opposing response to Ayn Rand's libertarian, objectivists "novels" that function more as enormous political speeches. Rand does seem a little more interested in her characters at times, but Lequin's superior writing skills more than compensate, making the Dispossed much more readable for anyone except the most devoted Cato Institute types.
Shorter, and with better prose, the Dispossessed is (like Atlas Shrugged) a framework for social arguments. The commentary is more subtle, complex and potentially more agreeable to the literary audience this book appears to have been aimed at.
Essentially, the Dispossessed is a set of long internal and external conversations generally involving Sheveck, the main character across two timelines. One uses a few anecdotes and (of course) conversations to illustrate Shevek's intellectual development, and the other, later timeline puts Shevek in the role of political agitator and historical narrator during events that the protagonist generates and witnesses with a scientist's contrasting idealism and curiosity. There are better plot summaries in reviews and commentary all over the internet so I won't try to explain what "happens" in the book in any more detail. Plus, I'm not sure that what happens is more than a backdrop for Shevek's conversations.
As compelling as the ideas and arguments within this book were for me, I can't recommend it to readers pursuing anything other than an academic interest either in Vietnam-era, American protest writing or the history of literary science fiction.
Personally, I find the main criticisms of capitalism, class and the war-based economy self-evident, but my reading of the book came decades after it was written. It's interesting that someone of Leguin's powerful intellect felt that these things needed to be said at the time, but the notions themselves are pretty much accepted by now as truths to anyone (at least anyone American) capable of observing the world with just a tiny bit of self-reflection.
So I can't say that I was persuaded by the Dispossessed, but as a fan of science fiction, becoming familiar with this book has informed me about the genre's history and tradition and will help me put other canonical efforts and new works in better context. For that reason, I strongly recommend it for anyone with similar interests.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-20-14
Well, that was quite the mind-full!
I think I'm going to have to go back and read this one with my eyeballs rather than my ears. It's a lot easier to stop and mull things over when you're reading, as opposed to listening, and there were quite a few times that I felt I was rushed through the moment by the audio. Also, the first "flashback" (for want of a better term) was rather jarring and I spent a few minutes trying to work out if there had been some malfunction with the audio player/file.
Medium aside, this was a very interesting book on several levels. It's the story of a man (Shevek) from the anarchist planet of Anarres and follows his early and middle years (in an interleaved fashion) describing life on both Anarres and, to some extent, the nearby Urras - both planets of the star Tau Ceti. There's a relatively objective view of both the vast anarchistic commune that is Anarres as well as the major capitalist/socialist countries (in what appears to be a rather blatant mirroring of Earth). The story includes plenty of the nitty-gritty details of running Anarres by the generally pacifist-anarchists, and how humans are generally likely to mess up a "perfect" political situation with their inevitable desire for personal power. Overlaid is Shevek's tale, usually told from his perspective and, since he's a physicist, he often brings a very clinical logic to bear on his everyday life that leads to a number of thought-provoking insights.
Story aside, the writing was extremely enjoyable, if not beautiful. It felt a little wordy at times, like it needed one more round of culling to make it perfect.
The version I listened to was beautifully read by Don Leslie and had no annoying audio additions to get in the way of the book.
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- Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
- 08-16-11
Best of Audible SFF, September 2010
Ursula K. Le Guin???s classic 1974 novel The Dispossessed is brought wonderfully to audio courtesy a Harper Audio production of an excellent Don Leslie narration. Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, it is also (and much less impressively, I might add!) my pick for the best new science fiction and fantasy audiobook at Audible.com in September 2010. The publisher???s summary is brief: ???Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.??? Here, there is simply too much to say, and so I will play a bit of the coward and not say much at all, other than: Le Guin???s Anarres is the definitive rendering of anarchism in fiction, and this is an unforgettable novel, and a masterful narration.
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