Although Le Guin's masterpiece has never been out of print since its first publication in 1974, so far few critics have commented on its radical political ramifications. In an attempt to
address what has been called a striking description of the seductions and snares of anarchist society, the contributors of these 16 articles analyze various aspects of its politics, including
the open-ended utopian, post-consumerist, classic anarchist, temporal, and revolutionary, with individual essays' topics including the need for walls, self-reflexivity, ambiguity, pluralism and
community, ecological political theory, Marcuse and the fate of utopia in the postmodern, and questions of individual and community. Le Guin provides an ansible response postmarked from Tau
Ceti, and the editors provide a fine, if necessarily short list of further readings. Annotation 穢2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
