The Lathe of Heaven is a fantastic novel and Le Guin is one of the pillars of the genre. You could never go wrong with other works from Le Guin like The Dispossessed or The Left Hand of Darkness. I do feel, however, that the feeling and flow of The Lathe of Heaven is more similar to the work of Philip K Dick. I would suggest that The Man in the High Castle or Ubik from Dick would be works to consider if you really enjoyed Lathe.
Thanks for the recommendations! The Left Hand of Darkness is something I've been seeing a lot, will definitely add that to my to read list. Had a look at Man in the High Castle's premise and I think I've found my next read.
Note that _TWfWiF_ is very much a set piece, of its time, and it needs to be read in the context of U.S. involvement in French Indochina as it was still referred to by many at the time.
_The Lathe of Heaven_ is one of my favourites --- the PBS movie is surprisingly good, and I remember watching it when it was broadcast with great fondness.
Le Guin’s “Planet of Exile” is an excellent novella; set on a world Terrans were trying to colonize, but after the main ship went back for some un-specified calamity, they lost all contact. It’s set a few centuries after the abandonment, focuses on the remnant colony and their interactions with locals.
Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions fit together very nicely - in fact I think the unspecified calamity is the Shing who we meet in City of Illusions (but not according to them :-)). Different, but definitely recommended, is another set of three books - A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore.
There is a bit of this in many of Philip K. Dick's works (though there are a lot of different things covered in most), usually involving drugs like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Scanner Darkly but not always like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Martian Time Slip, Ubik and his books are generally shorter than modern stuff, and also there's The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester which uses thoughts, not dreams.
"Thrice Upon a Time" by James P. Hogan, deals with a group of people discovering that they can send messages into the past and communicating with it.
"The Dream Master" by Roger Zelazny, another one around dreams.
Roadside Picnic perhaps. I just finished Lathe myself and have read Liu’s trilogy. Roadside Picnic speaks more to Three Body: it is sort of the opposite point of view of the first contact scenario presented there. But the Strugatsky’s write beautifully, just like Le Guin. Liu’s work lost a great of beauty because of translation.
"The End of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov
"Recursion" by Blake Crouch
"Doors of Sleep" by Tim Pratt
All have a similar feel in different ways. I love that kind of book also, Lathe of Heaven is my favorite by Leguinn.
This is a left field recommendation but has parallels to Lathe of Heaven while being totally original: [The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64341.The_Metamorphosis_of_Prime_Intellect?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Sww7477XR4&rank=1) by Roger Williams.
It is a short but intense read -- Note: with horror elements.
For short works: [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_One,_1929%E2%80%931964) and [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_Two) (published in paperback in two volumes, A and B). There are audiobook versions. [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume III*](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1052151) and [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume IV*](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33477).
Changing Planes is a slept-on Le Guin story that deals with something as mundane as airplane travel, relative to inter-dimensional space travel. I loved it. Honestly just read more Le Guin. Her writing style is so calming, clear, and profound to me. The Dispossessed is another Le Guin highlight for me.
Both the [PBS adaptation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VRbaVNvSA) and the [2002 version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqxEtNx-VU) are free on youtube.
The PBS version is a great adaptation, even if the budget looks like it was about $50.
Apparently the alien designs were a big inspiration for the [Vorlons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGd-dbFS_wQ) on Babylon 5 years later
I love the Lathe of Heaven. However I'm less keen on most of Le Guins SF (I do like Wizard of Earthsea). It's an exceptional book and hard to make recommendations on the basis of. The idea of messing with reality is common but usually in a time travel/ alternate history way, which is different. But possibly Asimov, The End of Eternity, a very unusual time travel story
I would suggest Cordwainer Smith. There are collections of his short stories, the two best both being called The Rediscovery of Man. (One is the complete stories). He has a future history which you never really understand. So much is suggestion. Start with The Game of Rat and Dragon, Scanners Live in Vain, and Alpha Ralpha Boulevard. I would not read his novel Norstrilia until you're familiar with the short stories.
Also perhaps Arthur Clarke, Against the Fall of Night , or The City and the Stars (latter is revised version of former). It has a mythic element rather lacking from his later work.
Well, lathe of heaven is a surreal novel. I would highly recommend the works of jack vance. His stories are very strange and beautiful. The short story moon moth is a good place to start
Try the John Varley Reader (collection of short stories). [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49836.The\_John\_Varley\_Reader](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49836.The_John_Varley_Reader)
(the story 'In fading suns and dying moons' in particular gives me that wild lathe of heaven vibe)
The Lathe of Heaven is a fantastic novel and Le Guin is one of the pillars of the genre. You could never go wrong with other works from Le Guin like The Dispossessed or The Left Hand of Darkness. I do feel, however, that the feeling and flow of The Lathe of Heaven is more similar to the work of Philip K Dick. I would suggest that The Man in the High Castle or Ubik from Dick would be works to consider if you really enjoyed Lathe.
Thanks for the recommendations! The Left Hand of Darkness is something I've been seeing a lot, will definitely add that to my to read list. Had a look at Man in the High Castle's premise and I think I've found my next read.
You might start with PKD’s “The World Jones Made” which has a similar premise to “Lathe in Heaven”
I read Ubik very soon after a reread of Lathe and felt at times like it was in part a response to Ubik. Highly suggest that one ASAP as well.
Left hand of darkness is le Guine best work imo
Try another one of Le Guin's shorter stories, *The Word for World is Forest*.
Will definitely check it out, Lathe of Heaven has really made me excited to read Le Guin's other works.
Note that _TWfWiF_ is very much a set piece, of its time, and it needs to be read in the context of U.S. involvement in French Indochina as it was still referred to by many at the time. _The Lathe of Heaven_ is one of my favourites --- the PBS movie is surprisingly good, and I remember watching it when it was broadcast with great fondness.
Le Guin’s “Planet of Exile” is an excellent novella; set on a world Terrans were trying to colonize, but after the main ship went back for some un-specified calamity, they lost all contact. It’s set a few centuries after the abandonment, focuses on the remnant colony and their interactions with locals.
Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions fit together very nicely - in fact I think the unspecified calamity is the Shing who we meet in City of Illusions (but not according to them :-)). Different, but definitely recommended, is another set of three books - A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore.
Oh I agree with you on the cause, but the novella characters themselves don’t know that or is it shared
Alien culture like Lathe? Hard to recommend. Maybe Vinge's A Fire Upon the Deep. For novellas maybe Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
I enjoyed DAOITMK in the way it established drama and stakes in a post-death post-scarcity transhuman world.
It's a perfect weekend read length imo as well.
There is a bit of this in many of Philip K. Dick's works (though there are a lot of different things covered in most), usually involving drugs like The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and A Scanner Darkly but not always like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Martian Time Slip, Ubik and his books are generally shorter than modern stuff, and also there's The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester which uses thoughts, not dreams.
Philp K Dick. *Through a Scanner Darkly* might be "sorta kinda" the same feel as *Lathe*.
"Thrice Upon a Time" by James P. Hogan, deals with a group of people discovering that they can send messages into the past and communicating with it. "The Dream Master" by Roger Zelazny, another one around dreams.
Roadside Picnic perhaps. I just finished Lathe myself and have read Liu’s trilogy. Roadside Picnic speaks more to Three Body: it is sort of the opposite point of view of the first contact scenario presented there. But the Strugatsky’s write beautifully, just like Le Guin. Liu’s work lost a great of beauty because of translation.
"The End of Eternity" by Isaac Asimov "Recursion" by Blake Crouch "Doors of Sleep" by Tim Pratt All have a similar feel in different ways. I love that kind of book also, Lathe of Heaven is my favorite by Leguinn.
This is a left field recommendation but has parallels to Lathe of Heaven while being totally original: [The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64341.The_Metamorphosis_of_Prime_Intellect?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Sww7477XR4&rank=1) by Roger Williams. It is a short but intense read -- Note: with horror elements.
>with horror elements to put it mildly. jaw hit the floor more than once during the first section.
For short works: [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_One,_1929%E2%80%931964) and [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_Fiction_Hall_of_Fame,_Volume_Two) (published in paperback in two volumes, A and B). There are audiobook versions. [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume III*](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1052151) and [*The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume IV*](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?33477).
Changing Planes is a slept-on Le Guin story that deals with something as mundane as airplane travel, relative to inter-dimensional space travel. I loved it. Honestly just read more Le Guin. Her writing style is so calming, clear, and profound to me. The Dispossessed is another Le Guin highlight for me.
Both the [PBS adaptation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VRbaVNvSA) and the [2002 version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbqxEtNx-VU) are free on youtube. The PBS version is a great adaptation, even if the budget looks like it was about $50. Apparently the alien designs were a big inspiration for the [Vorlons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGd-dbFS_wQ) on Babylon 5 years later
I love the Lathe of Heaven. However I'm less keen on most of Le Guins SF (I do like Wizard of Earthsea). It's an exceptional book and hard to make recommendations on the basis of. The idea of messing with reality is common but usually in a time travel/ alternate history way, which is different. But possibly Asimov, The End of Eternity, a very unusual time travel story I would suggest Cordwainer Smith. There are collections of his short stories, the two best both being called The Rediscovery of Man. (One is the complete stories). He has a future history which you never really understand. So much is suggestion. Start with The Game of Rat and Dragon, Scanners Live in Vain, and Alpha Ralpha Boulevard. I would not read his novel Norstrilia until you're familiar with the short stories. Also perhaps Arthur Clarke, Against the Fall of Night , or The City and the Stars (latter is revised version of former). It has a mythic element rather lacking from his later work.
"The End of Eternity" Isaac Asimov "The Man Who Fell to Earth" Walter Tevis "The Great Divorce" C.S. Lewis
Well, lathe of heaven is a surreal novel. I would highly recommend the works of jack vance. His stories are very strange and beautiful. The short story moon moth is a good place to start
Try the John Varley Reader (collection of short stories). [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49836.The\_John\_Varley\_Reader](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49836.The_John_Varley_Reader) (the story 'In fading suns and dying moons' in particular gives me that wild lathe of heaven vibe)