Disappointingly slow and bland. Much repeating of the same information. Weird shift in the story narration - starts with visitor, goes back several years, then back further, then to visitor again, then continues on. Place names and people/clan names confusing - has a detailed map in front of the boo...
Orrec is born into a Gifted family in the Uplands. Although his family controls a fey and unsettling Gift, they are nevertheless barely able to eke out a life from their sparse and rocky land. The Gifted families raid each other for the few resources that remain: livestock, wood, serfs. Cut off f...
The first part was a little strange- the way it seemed to begin one way to jump right into a story-mode flashback... and how at the end it didn't seem like an "end" to the flashback itself, but instead as if the story was still being told.Other than that, I found the book very enjoyable. It was inte...
The first part was a little strange- the way it seemed to begin one way to jump right into a story-mode flashback... and how at the end it didn't seem like an "end" to the flashback itself, but instead as if the story was still being told.Other than that, I found the book very enjoyable. It was inte...
I was a little bit disappointed when I had heard that this recent book from LeGuin was a ‘children's book' – but I needn't have worried. It's just another one of those publishers' marketing ploys. This is definitely a story that can be appreciated by readers of any age.It's a very bleak story, in ma...
With the recent publication of the third volume of the Annals of the Western Shore, I decided to go back to the start and re-read the first two and follow it up with the latest.Gifts is the first book. It is narrated by Orrec Caspro son of his clan's leader. The clans of the uplands have uncanny p...
I enjoyed it but it totally grab me, I guess. Similar to Magic or Madness, it involves people with magical powers that are a bit outside the normal (read: comic book/superhero-y) range of magical powers. So I liked that. But then everyone uses their powers in subtle ways or not at all, and I guess I...
It's a long time since Ursula Le Guin produced a book for young people so I was looking forward to reading this new novel from the author of the Earthsea trilogy. Unfortunately, despite lavish praise from critics, Gifts sorely disappointed me. I've seen it described as a 'compelling' tale but it's a...
This is the story of Orrec, and how he comes to terms with his family's gift, which is the gift of unmaking. There are some pretty graphic descriptions of unmaking that are, oh, let's just call them effective. *shudder* I liked this book a lot, yet it's not going to be one of my favorites of hers. I...
Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantastic writer. She's one of my very favorite writers of all time. If you haven't read The Lathe of Heaven, or the Earthsea books, or The Left Hand of Darkness, I highly recommend them. This book is billed as young adult fiction but there's nothing dumbed-down about it. ...
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