The Dispossessed

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

Short-listed for John W Campbell Award 1975 (UK)

“The book I wish I had written ... It's so far away from my own imagination, I'd love to sit at my desk one day and discover that I could think and write like Ursula Le Guin”

-- Roddy Doyle THE TIMES
An extraordinary work ... [Le Guin] created a working society in exquisite detail ... a fully realised hypothetical culture [as well as] living breathing characters who are inevitable products of that culture -- Baird Searles
A well told tale signifying a good deal; one to be read again and again THE TIMES
A deeply imagined work of art Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
Le Guin's book ... is so persuasive that it ought to put a stop to the writing of prescriptive Utopias for at least 10 years NEW YORK TIMES
[Le Guin had] the heart of a poet who knew all too well the difference between miracle and eureka, revelation and revolution PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Le Guin's storytelling is sharp, magisterial, funny, thought-provoking and exciting, exhibiting all that science fiction can be Empire
Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power OBSERVER

SALES POINTS

#16 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards

'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power. She sets up enormous challenges and meets them fully; she invites, as Tolkien does, total belief' Observer

'To be read again and again' -- The Times

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

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