Gifts by Ursula LeGuin
01/03/2005 . Source: Donna Jones 

pub: Orion. 274 page hardback. Price: £10.99(UK). ISBN: 1-84255-107-8.

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If the bloodline is not broken, there are gifts. From mother to daughter or father to son families can expect certain skills to appear in their offspring. Cordemont women having the gift to blind, make deaf or remove speech. The Barre gift is of calling animals. Callems may move objects at will, even the structure of the land is not immune. Rodds may send a knife into the back of their enemy or do what they please in the ways of the knife as long as their victim is in sight. The Ogge have the gift of slow wasting. But arguably the worst of all the gifts is the Caspro gift to undo whatever they desire, making limp the bodies of animals, men and even places. The gifts were given to each family to protect themselves and their people in times of conflict, when the last resort of using these gifts is the only option.



Orrec lives in the Uplands with his dear friend Gry. Together they are inseparable, but they both share the gifts of their domains. Gry of the Barre, her gift the power to call animals. Orrec of Caspro the worst and deadliest power of all, the natural ability to undo.

While Gry struggles against her mother's wish to use her gift to call the animals to the hunt, Orrec struggles with a gift that is slow in coming. A dangerous position to be in when he is the heir to the domain.

This is trademark Ursula LeGuin material: a beautiful fable of people just trying to make their way in one of her fantastic worlds. What LeGuin is best at is telling a story with a core of pure humanity, creating a greater significance to the words and images that she weaves.

If you have read any of Ursula LeGuin's work, you will be familiar with her writing style. It is a reflective prism of old style fable meets new style fantasy. Someone who has never read her works should stick with it, while the page count is low the concentration gauge for these stories needs to be high because her tales tend to tax your mind rather than your reading speed.

There is a shadow of an England long past in this book: of medieval hunts and large broad oak beamed manors. It smells like long burned fires and tingles the warm sensation of home in all of us.

The interplay of the two main characters, Orrec and Gry, are delicate but efficacious to the plot. Relationships are understated and technically drawn with LeGuin's precise and flowing prose.

I failed to see the final revelation coming, always a good thing when I read a book that has a twist. There is nothing more of a letdown than working out your writer's intentions before you have a chance to read them.

A writer for our time, LeGuin brings back what has been lost over our years of war and petty squabbles. She brings back the blazing light of humanity.

Donna Jones