Die Geißel des Himmels ist ein wunderbar ironischer Abgesang auf die Psychoanalyse, ein Manifest für die Macht der Phantasie, die ebenso grenzenlos wie unbeherrschbar ist, und nicht zuletzt ein modernes Gleichnis über das unausweichliche Scheitern von Weltverbesserern aller Art, auch wenn ihre Absichten und Motive durchaus edel sein mögen.Es ist ein geringfügiges Vergehen, weswegen George Orr sich einer Therapie unterziehen muß: Medikamentenmißbrauch. Der Patient tut alles, um seine Träume zu unterdrücken, worauf sein behandelnder Arzt, der Psychiater Dr. Haber, eine gewöhnliche psychische Störung diagnostiziert. Doch George Orrs Träume sind keine gewöhnlichen Träume, denn sie können die Realität verändern. Von dem (freilich nicht ganz uneigennützigen) Wunsch beseelt, eine bessere Welt zu erschaffen, zwingt Dr. Haber seinen anbefohlenen Schützling, eine Reihe künstlich induzierter Träume zu erleben, bis von der Welt, wie wir sie kennen, keine Spur mehr übrig ist.Der Roman wurde mit dem Locus Award als bester Roman des Jahres 1971 ausgezeichnet.

“El ojo de la garza” es la historia de dos comunidades de proscritos que, expulsados de la Tierra, viven en un remoto planeta. Una de estas comunidades, los violentos y ambiciosos habitantes de la Ciudad, trata de oprimir a la otra, heredera del movimiento pacifista que comenzara tiempo atrás en la Tierra. La heroína de la novela, Luz, abandona los privilegios y la seguridad doméstica de la Ciudad e intenta buscar su identidad personal, la libertad y el amor, entre esas gentes pacíficas que viven en los límites del mundo. Por último, decide encabezar una expedición a las tierras salvajes (enfrentada a la indiferencia de la naturaleza y a sus propios miedos) para fundar una nueva colonia y empezar una nueva vida en tierras desconocidas.

Here for the first time is the complete suite of five linked stories from Ursula K. Le Guin’s acclaimed Hainish series, which tells the history of the Ekumen, the galactic confederation of human colonies founded by the planet Hain. First published in 1995 as Four Ways to Forgiveness, and now joined by a fifth story, Five Ways to Forgiveness focuses on the twin planets Werel and Yeowe, two worlds whose peoples, long known as “owners” and “assets,” together face an uncertain future after civil war and revolution.In “Betrayals” a retired science teacher must make peace with her new neighbor, a disgraced revolutionary leader. In “Forgiveness Day,” a female official from the Ekumen arrives to survey the situation on Werel and struggles against its rigidly patriarchal culture. Embedded within “A Man of the People,” which describes the coming of age of Havzhiva, an Ekumen ambassador to Yeowe, is Le Guin’s most sustained description of the Ur-planet Hain. “A Woman’s Liberation” is the remarkable narrative of Rakam, born an asset on Werel, who must twice escape from slavery to freedom. Joined to them is “Old Music and the Slave Women,” in which the charismatic Hainish embassy worker, who appears in two of the four original stories, returns for a tale of his own. Of this capstone tale Le Guin has written, “the character called Old Music began to tell me a fifth tale about the latter days of the civil war… I’m glad to see it joined to the others at last.”

La premonición de los sueños se convierte en realidad. En un futuro esta posibilidad se convierte en una facultad de los seres humanos. George Orr es el primero en disponer de la misma. Su caso pasa a ser tratado por un psiquiatra quien trastornado mentalmente lo induce a soñar nuevas realidades que llevarían a un mundo feliz sin superpoblación, sin guerras y sin paz. Sueño a sueño esas inducciones se van transformando en realidades catastróficas.Una novela magistral de la ganadora de los premios Nébula y Hugo, que la muestra nuevamente como uno de los autores mas importantes de la actualidad en el campo de la ciencia ficción.

In a richly imagined, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voiceIn The Aeneid, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.Lavinia is a book of passion and war, generous and austerely beautiful, from a writer working at the height of her powers.

What if you could not only travel any location in the world, but to any possible world?We can all imagine such “other worlds”—be they worlds just slightly different than our own or worlds full of magic and wonder—but it is only in fiction that we can travel to them. From The Wizard of Oz to The Dark Tower, from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass to C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, there is a rich tradition of this kind of fiction, but never before have the best parallel world stories and portal fantasies been collected in a single volume—until now.Review“Anthologist Adams presents readers with a wide variety of alternate Earths, some only slightly askew and others completely unfamiliar. […] Adams’s selections are mirrors reflecting one other with the best images of alternate realities. Readers will greatly enjoy this exploration of our world's foremost and ascendant speculative authors.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)“Reminds longtime readers of fantasy and sci-fi what we love about the genre, while also and aptly demonstrating to newcomers that these stories are about so much more than dragons and multitentacled monsters. It comes highly recommended to both and all.”—Bookgasm

L’antologia è composta da racconti legati da un filo conduttore descritto nel primo racconto che fa da introduzione agli altri. L’opera trae spunto dalla possibilità di spostarsi in dimensioni parallele, detti piani, e rappresenta una specie di diario di viaggio narrato in prima persona dall’autrice stessa come se fossero esperienze vissute in prima persona o riferite da autentici conoscenti. Ogni dimensione offre spunto per la descrizione di una realtà fantastica ed affascinante, spesso rappresentazione allegorica e satirica della nostra, ma sempre ricca di poesia, sul filone de I viaggi di Gulliver di Jonathan Swift.

The Many Points of WonderFrom dream worlds to

nightmare planets, through mazes of madness to tiny time holes in space,

down Pathways of Desire to a New Atlantis, THE COMPASS ROSE points the way

to the wonder-filled mind-country of a remarkable

writer."As good as any contemporary at

creating worlds, imaginary or our own… Le Guin writes with painstaking

intelligence. Her characters are complex and haunting, and her writing is

remarkable for it's sinewy grace."—TIME Magazine

In Victoria on a former prison colony, two exiled groups—the farmers of Shantih and the City dwellers—live in apparent harmony. All is not as it seems, however. While the peace-loving farmers labor endlessly to provide food for the City, the City Bosses rule the Shantih with an iron fist. When a group of farmers decide to from a new settlement further away, the Bosses retaliate by threatening to crush the “rebellion.”Luz understands what it means to have no choices. Her father is a Boss and he has ruled over her life with the same iron fist. Luz wonders what it might be like to make her own choices. To be free to choose her own destiny.When the crisis over the new settlement reaches a flash point, Luz will have her chance.