Reviews - The Dispossessed

2.63k reviews for:

The Dispossessed

Ursula K. Le Guin

4.28 AVERAGE

goosedollaz's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

space_flutters's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

vikrmm's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Brain chemistry altering read. There were so many things I wish were done better in the book. With couple scenes. But what it does well, it does so well like I’ve never witnessed in any piece of art form before.

omnijack's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous challenging reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

occred's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

seandelliot's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ursula K. Le Guin is and always will be one of the giants of the social sci-fi genre. The Dispossessed is not for you if what you're into is flashy space operas with laser swords and giant space battleships, but maybe you need to adjust your attitude. Left Hand of Darkness was a life-changing read for me back when I read it in community college. I went through my space opera/epic fantasy stage (okay, I still am to some degree), but in the end, the power of the deeply thoughtful social sci fi novel cannot be discounted. Le Guin has a knack for distilling the story, to capture the deep meaning and profound issues while sparing the reader excessive exposition. Her characters come across as distinctly real, almost because she does not spend a lot of time delving into deep inner thoughts for the sake of narration, but rather having them live, and think, and feel at a basic level. Her ability to portray a brilliant physicist without bogging down in scientific jargon makes The Dispossessed so much easier to read than might be expected. Anyone who wants to immerse themselves in the analysis of the human condition through science fiction should consider Le Guin mandatory reading. One need not have read Marx and Engles and Le Guin does a better job of explaining and portraying the communist utopia as inspired by those writers. Fifty years ago Le Guin managed to fully indict the market capitalist system in which we live today as an act of sheer extrapolation. If your sci fi isn't making you uncomfortable as a mirror, then it's not doing its job.