Search - The Dispossessed (Hainish Cycle, Bk 5)

I found this book to be an interesting mixture of Golden Age science fiction and New Wave examination of modern life. The general depiction of life on Urras is reminiscent of Asimov's sort of hand-wavy descriptions of some of the societies in his robot novels (please note that I say this with affection). Also, space travel is described with little detail--it is the reason we call this book science fiction, but it's not central to the story.

Le Guin's characters, however, are much more deeply fleshed out than most of the stuff coming out of the 1950s. _The Dispossessed_ is first and foremost a story of *people*--real people that have sex, use the toilet, and maybe go a little crazy. The attention to the inner life of her characters sets Le Guin's writing apart. And while I'm jaded enough to think that her depiction of the anarchist society of Urras might be a little rosy and that of Annares a bit two-dimensional, the fact is that Le Guin was quite successful in transporting me into this universe and holding me there.

I recommend this book unreservedly.