Book Review – Gifts

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Harcourt
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: 2004

There’s something about the way Ursula K. Le Guin writes that makes me feel secure when I read one of her books. She promises me excellent prose, wonderful details, and surprise upon surprise. Most of all, though, she promises me a structured world with laws, rules, heroes, villains, magic, emotions, and everything else that makes a fantasy realm seem real.

With Gifts, she goes even beyond that to create an amazing yet dark tale of what it means to have a deadly magical power and how to live one’s life knowing that that power could kill at any time.

The story is about a family living in the Uplands—a place where magical powers, referred to as gifts, are passed down from father to son or mother to daughter. Those with the strongest of gifts often become the strongest of each family and only by utilizing their gifts wisely can they survive. Orrec’s gift unfortunately did not show until late for his age and when it did, he could not control it. His father had him blindfolded for the rest of his life until he could learn to control his killing gaze. But was that the only reason or was clan diplomacy an issue more important than family?

Le Guin uses every piece of writing craft to demonstrate the highs and lows in those people that live in the Uplands. Some are snobbish, some are cruel, some are afraid to use their gifts for bad—but they are all people, well-defined and real. Gifts has an interesting way of portraying itself as a fable, a bedtime story for youngsters, but deep within it is a dark tale of power and trust.

I enjoyed this story very much. Maybe it was my fascination with the different gifts assigned to each family and how they used them or it could be that I enjoy a dark fantasy tale. Gifts is not very long, but in its short amount of space it manages to ask some heavy moral questions. This, in my opinion, is what makes reading worth it. Gifts has also just been awarded the PEN/USA for children’s literature.

View/Post Comments

Buy it now at Amazon!