Dear Ursula Le Guin, You've given me many gifts over the years, and I cherish them all, so it is fitting that your most recent gift is a book of the same name. I know it is not the favourite of many of my friends who love your work too, and I don't know if I can even call it a favourite, but I accepted Gifts from you at the perfect time, much as I've accepted your other works. When all my fantasy worlds were filled with too obvious expressions of god vs. evil, and I was struggling with the binary world view I was being fed, you gave me Sparrowhawk, showing me a manifestation of the contradictions I felt in myself. Sparrowhawk was neither good nor evil. He was. And there was no character like Sparrowhawk or book like A Wizard of Earthsea that I could find when I accepted your gift.When I was struggling with my sexuality and fighting off indoctrinated prejudices that betrayed my core and made me a homophobe despite my bisexuality, you painted a picture of gender I couldn't have imagined until you revealed it to me on the cold landscapes of Gethen, teaching me a tolerance on an ice planet so like my own. And I learned that tolerance not just for others, but above all for myself. When I needed to aspire to something better, you gave me the only character in literature I wished (and still wish) I could be. Yes, many would pick Jesus, or Buddha or Muhammed, but for me the character was(is) Shevek. I can imagine a future where the only surviving book is The Dispossessed and a new religion forms around the scientist from Annares. But before that happens I will simply strive to live as Shevek lived, strive to be like Shevek was. I will approach our world with eyes open to its inequities and refuse to be silenced -- even when no one can hear my voice for the din. Those gifts you bestowed are more than I could ever hope to gain from any author, and here you've given me another. Gifts may be the most emotionally satisfying gift you've given me, Ursula. It didn't make me cry, or reduce me to deep depression, or lift me to places of unfettered joy, or fill me with spiritual uplift, but it was a place of quiet peace, wherein Orrec's telling of his story was perfectly suited to the simplicity of the betrayals and sacrifices that shaped his life -- deep and personal and true and satisfying. I have heard that Voices is even better, but I find that hard to believe because I have not read a better book than Gifts in a good, long time. So thank you, Ursula, for being the author of my heart. I hope I get to stand in your presence some day. You are one of my heroes, and I love you. Accepter of your gifts, Brad
I think the highlight of this novel for me was the way in which the story was told. The narrative was truly beautiful. The narrator basically told stories, more like wove stories/threads together until in the end it came together in one fascinating tapestry. Its also so well-rounded! I love stories that are like the old image of the snake eating its tale, stories that start at one place and end relatively near there. Coming full circle basically.As for the characters...I wanted more from Gry, the girl who refuses to bring animals to death in the hunt. Her character, what we see of her through Orrec's storytelling, captivated my interest from the beginning. Unfortunately aside from her helping Orrec you don't see overly much of her. You get bits and pieces, scraps really, of her story because Orrec is really thoroughly lost in his own tale. Basically he's a wee bit self-absorbed. Can't blame him overly much though because his life is pretty much Chaos.The structure of the "magic" and how it was used/not-used was great. I actually wouldn't have minded learning more about how the gifts worked for the characters who had them particularly if the Gifts took any thing out of them physically. You know, what the wear and tear of having these sorts of incredible powers were. Limitations really. But that is probably just the writer in me [I'm a fantasy girl] wanting to poke and prod at a set-up until I can replicate the process myself. xDOverall I think Gifts was a pretty solid fantasy read, the start of a series I'd really like to finish, and Le Guin an author I want to collect more books from.
What do You think about Gifts (2006)?
Wonderful. Beautiful. UKL's use of the English language is without equal or parallel. Not a word wasted. Not an idea wasted. Simple, efficient, and yet touching and thoughtful. I don't know how she does it.How fortunate that I read Gifts during the Christmas season, when we in western culture are too often focused on the wrong "gifts" in our lives. Gifts is not a book about Christmas or the Christmas season, but the parallels are unmistakable. Of course the other themes are all there ... a parent's expectations, worlds colliding, the struggle through our ignorance of the adult world as we grow up ... but this book definately has something to say about the Christmas season, whether it was intended or not.
—Ian
Gifts is a quiet story, in the way that Ursula Le Guin can do really well: those moments of silence, introspection, contemplation. It isn’t my favourite of her books, but I love the things she explores here: the longing of parents to see their children succeed; love within families; grieving and loss; trying to choose the lesser evil… Orrec’s voluntary blindness and the way it affects the world around him, his fears and his wants, are beautiful; Canoc is a wonderful portrait of a difficult man: difficult to love, impossible to hate.The whole feel of the book is really epitomised by Gry, for me; her quiet loyalty and determination, her love of Orrec which is undemanding and completely rock-solid. Their friendship and later the love between them is perfect.I’m looking forward to rereading the rest of this trilogy; as I recall, the other two books feature more suspense and tension, and less of the solid quietness of this book. All of them have their own loveliness, though: it’s Le Guin, so how not?Originally posted here.
—Nikki
After reading several books by Ursula K. Le Guin and a little more about her and her writing, I think that she may not be capable of writing a bad story, perhaps not capable of writing a bad sentence. Gifts, her 1999 novel, has tone and imagery reminiscent of Anne McCaffery or Robert Silverberg. The gifts she described, powerful spell-like traits associated with a family or lineage call to mind the knacks Orson Scott Card invents in his Alvin Maker series – though those powers seem to appear sporadically and without trend, like mutations – the gifts from this Western Shores series are passed from father to son and mother to daughter, and may be distinctly associated with the family in question. This is an excellent story and a very Good Read.
—Lyn
