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Young Gav can remember the page of a book after seeing it once, and, inexplicably, he sometimes remembers” things that are going to happen in the future. As a loyal slave, he must keep these powers secret, but when a terrible tragedy occurs, Gav, blinded by grief, flees the only world he has ever known. And in what becomes a treacherous journey for freedom, Gav’s greatest test of all is facing his powers so that he can come to understand himself and finally find a true home.
Includes maps.
Audiobook
First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,047 books30.3k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 537 reviews
February 8, 2014
This one was the longest and best of the three. I really loved it and didn't want it to be over. It follows the story of a slave boy in an important house in a large city. He was stolen from the Marsh People as a baby, and has little or no memory of his home.
UKL understands slavery, what it does to your mind and how it changes who you are. She's well-acquainted with grief. Sometimes her stories are like pain dipped in honey, they're so sad and beautiful.
Through the various people he lives with and the cultures he's exposed to, Gavir (the viewpoint character) learns a lot about the meaning of freedom. Again and again he finds he must leave the people he's with, the life he has learned, and travel somewhere else, as each group which had seemed benign and benevolent, who seemed to be his people, turn out to be something different.
I highly recommend this series. It's some of the best fantasy that I've ever read, and UKL is one of the best writers.
UKL understands slavery, what it does to your mind and how it changes who you are. She's well-acquainted with grief. Sometimes her stories are like pain dipped in honey, they're so sad and beautiful.
Through the various people he lives with and the cultures he's exposed to, Gavir (the viewpoint character) learns a lot about the meaning of freedom. Again and again he finds he must leave the people he's with, the life he has learned, and travel somewhere else, as each group which had seemed benign and benevolent, who seemed to be his people, turn out to be something different.
I highly recommend this series. It's some of the best fantasy that I've ever read, and UKL is one of the best writers.
November 4, 2025
„Сили“ е страхотна финална книга от „Хроники на Западния бряг“! Тази фентъзи трилогия на Урсула Ле Гуин се състои от философски и трогателни истории, чрез които писателката задълбочено е разгледала различни важни социални теми. Главен герой в последната част е чудесно изграденият персонаж Гавир, който е израснал в робство, обаче има способността да вижда събития от близкото бъдеще. Впоследствие той тръгва на доста опасно, но и вълнуващо пътешествие...
„От известно време думи като свобода и равенство бяха заели особено място в съзнанието ми и напоследък доминираха над мислите ми, тъй както лятно време големите ярки звезди доминират на нощния небосвод над Венте. Бяхме на свободен режим, вечерите в спалното бяха изцяло наши и свещениците дори ни отпускаха масло за лампите. Аз четях „Преобразяване“ на Дениос, беше ми я дал Таддер, и тази книга беше невероятно откритие за мен. Беше като онзи сън за стаите, които откривам в непознатата къща, и хората, които ме посрещат в тях, сякаш живеем заедно от години.“
„От известно време думи като свобода и равенство бяха заели особено място в съзнанието ми и напоследък доминираха над мислите ми, тъй както лятно време големите ярки звезди доминират на нощния небосвод над Венте. Бяхме на свободен режим, вечерите в спалното бяха изцяло наши и свещениците дори ни отпускаха масло за лампите. Аз четях „Преобразяване“ на Дениос, беше ми я дал Таддер, и тази книга беше невероятно откритие за мен. Беше като онзи сън за стаите, които откривам в непознатата къща, и хората, които ме посрещат в тях, сякаш живеем заедно от години.“
July 13, 2019
Çok mutluyum bu üçlemeyi yeniden okuduğum için. Okuma konsantrasyonumda zorlandığım bir dönemde, okumanın, yazmanın, bilginin ve kitapların kutsallığına dair bu kadar güçlü hikayelerin beni kendi patinajımdan çıkarmamasına imkan yoktu.
Güçler benim bu seride en güçlü bulduğum roman. Diğer iki romanda olduğu gibi yine hayata tutunma yolunu, mücadele azmini okumaktan ve kitaplardan alan bir karakter var. Onun kölelikle başlayan büyüme hikayesi, adaleti, özgürlüğü, güveni ve gücü sorguladığı esaslı bir serüvene dönüşüyor. Bu romanın bence ana teması olan güç/itaat/güven üçlemesinde Ursula’nın elimize bıraktığı dersler beni can evimden vuruyor.
Önemli olan güç değil güvendir; güvense sorgusuz sualsiz verilmesi gereken birşey değildir, hak edilmelidir.
Şehirlerden, Ormanın Kalbi’ne, Ormanın Kalbi’nden bataklıklara, bataklıklardan üniversiteye bu serüveni bize yaşatırken düşündürdüğün, ayna tuttuğun, taşları yerinden oynattığın için binlerce kere teşekkür sana Ursula.
Güçler benim bu seride en güçlü bulduğum roman. Diğer iki romanda olduğu gibi yine hayata tutunma yolunu, mücadele azmini okumaktan ve kitaplardan alan bir karakter var. Onun kölelikle başlayan büyüme hikayesi, adaleti, özgürlüğü, güveni ve gücü sorguladığı esaslı bir serüvene dönüşüyor. Bu romanın bence ana teması olan güç/itaat/güven üçlemesinde Ursula’nın elimize bıraktığı dersler beni can evimden vuruyor.
Önemli olan güç değil güvendir; güvense sorgusuz sualsiz verilmesi gereken birşey değildir, hak edilmelidir.
Şehirlerden, Ormanın Kalbi’ne, Ormanın Kalbi’nden bataklıklara, bataklıklardan üniversiteye bu serüveni bize yaşatırken düşündürdüğün, ayna tuttuğun, taşları yerinden oynattığın için binlerce kere teşekkür sana Ursula.
March 31, 2009
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
Powers is the third and, in my opinion, the best of the Annals of the Western Shore novels. In this book, we meet Gavir, a slave in the City State of Etra. Gavir was born in the marshes but was stolen, along with his sister, by slavers and brought to Etra. He has the power to clearly remember things he has seen before and even some events that have not yet happened to him. This power is not uncommon in the marshes, but the people of Etra fear powers, so his sister tells him not to speak of it. His memory, however, is prized by the household who owns him and he is being trained to be the teacher of the households' children. He is well treated (except by another slave who holds a grudge against him), well educated, and happy.
But things go awry and Gavir ends up on a journey in which he encounters different people, ideas, and cultures. And this is what Ursula Le Guin does so well. She makes us believe in these cultures, perhaps even admire them, and then, without explicitly telling us so, she show us that there are always negative sides to an apparently perfect society. And, without telling us to do it, she makes us think about such constructs as freedom, slavery, justice, leadership, work, loyalty, and education. We find ourselves asking some tough questions: What is the value of a slave's life? Is it better to be an educated, happy, and comfortable slave, or to be cold, hungry, ignorant, and free? Is true democracy possible? Or even desirable? What is the value of an education in a society or job that doesn't require it? Is ignorance bliss?
Le Guin's Western Shore novels are books for those who want to think about our own world while they read. They're not escapist literature -- there aren't sword fights and dragons and quests for magic talismans. Instead, there are issues to think about and questions to ask .... but not necessarily answers. And this is all done, of course, in Le Guin's perfect polished prose.
Each of the Western Shore novels stands alone, but the reader who reads them in order will appreciate them more because references are made to previously seen characters and societies. In some cases, we see characters and societies we experienced in one novel from a different perspective in another, and this adds to the complexity and depth of this world.
I listened to this on audiobook and was impressed with the production. I recommend this format for the Western Shore novels.
Read more Ursula Le Guin book reviews at Fantasy literature.
Powers is the third and, in my opinion, the best of the Annals of the Western Shore novels. In this book, we meet Gavir, a slave in the City State of Etra. Gavir was born in the marshes but was stolen, along with his sister, by slavers and brought to Etra. He has the power to clearly remember things he has seen before and even some events that have not yet happened to him. This power is not uncommon in the marshes, but the people of Etra fear powers, so his sister tells him not to speak of it. His memory, however, is prized by the household who owns him and he is being trained to be the teacher of the households' children. He is well treated (except by another slave who holds a grudge against him), well educated, and happy.
But things go awry and Gavir ends up on a journey in which he encounters different people, ideas, and cultures. And this is what Ursula Le Guin does so well. She makes us believe in these cultures, perhaps even admire them, and then, without explicitly telling us so, she show us that there are always negative sides to an apparently perfect society. And, without telling us to do it, she makes us think about such constructs as freedom, slavery, justice, leadership, work, loyalty, and education. We find ourselves asking some tough questions: What is the value of a slave's life? Is it better to be an educated, happy, and comfortable slave, or to be cold, hungry, ignorant, and free? Is true democracy possible? Or even desirable? What is the value of an education in a society or job that doesn't require it? Is ignorance bliss?
Le Guin's Western Shore novels are books for those who want to think about our own world while they read. They're not escapist literature -- there aren't sword fights and dragons and quests for magic talismans. Instead, there are issues to think about and questions to ask .... but not necessarily answers. And this is all done, of course, in Le Guin's perfect polished prose.
Each of the Western Shore novels stands alone, but the reader who reads them in order will appreciate them more because references are made to previously seen characters and societies. In some cases, we see characters and societies we experienced in one novel from a different perspective in another, and this adds to the complexity and depth of this world.
I listened to this on audiobook and was impressed with the production. I recommend this format for the Western Shore novels.
Read more Ursula Le Guin book reviews at Fantasy literature.
October 28, 2020
Phenomenal read. I think this might be the most powerful of all the Le Guin I’ve read. She had a lot to say here - at 502 pages Powers is one of the longest books she’s written*. I’m pleased it won the Nebula despite the YA labeling.
One of Le Guin’s biggest strengths is her convincing, seamless portrayal of societies and cultures outside the norm, and it’s on full display here. It all starts with a slave called Gavir who can sometimes remember events from the future. He’s an educated, happy slave in a city where slaves and the families who own them share a relationship of mutual trust and responsibility. It’s all seemingly tranquil. But soon things go amiss, and Gavir flees.
On his journey he finds many promising utopias, with intriguing ideologies and social hierarchies. The way Le Guin intertwines themes here is masterful; each new culture adds a different perspective and subtly makes you rethink and re-examine elements of the societies you’ve already seen. There’s also a really strong narrative drive - emotions hit hard and the pages just fly by.
Though this is the third book of a trilogy, it could totally be read as a standalone. You could even read the three in reverse**. These novels seem to be woefully underread. I think I like them even more than Earthsea - this series is more intimate, more character-driven. Le Guin was definitely on top form here.
__________________
* Her only longer book appears to be Always Coming Home.
** If you go by Jo Walton’s classification system, this is a style 4 series: “the volumes are completely independent of each other though they may reflect interestingly on each other”.
One of Le Guin’s biggest strengths is her convincing, seamless portrayal of societies and cultures outside the norm, and it’s on full display here. It all starts with a slave called Gavir who can sometimes remember events from the future. He’s an educated, happy slave in a city where slaves and the families who own them share a relationship of mutual trust and responsibility. It’s all seemingly tranquil. But soon things go amiss, and Gavir flees.
On his journey he finds many promising utopias, with intriguing ideologies and social hierarchies. The way Le Guin intertwines themes here is masterful; each new culture adds a different perspective and subtly makes you rethink and re-examine elements of the societies you’ve already seen. There’s also a really strong narrative drive - emotions hit hard and the pages just fly by.
Though this is the third book of a trilogy, it could totally be read as a standalone. You could even read the three in reverse**. These novels seem to be woefully underread. I think I like them even more than Earthsea - this series is more intimate, more character-driven. Le Guin was definitely on top form here.
__________________
* Her only longer book appears to be Always Coming Home.
** If you go by Jo Walton’s classification system, this is a style 4 series: “the volumes are completely independent of each other though they may reflect interestingly on each other”.
April 30, 2021
4.5 stars
The last book of the trilogy was the most powerful (fitting for the title) for me. It deals with the subject of slavery, the different ways of freedom and the hardship that comes with both. Like with the first book of the series Le Guin managed to create an underlying feeling of menace during most of the narration which had me subconsciously biting my nails. Only when the audionarration (highly recommended) ended I realised the tension I obviously had been experiencing. An intense coming of age tale in flawless prose intimately told through the eyes of a slave boy.
As with most of this author's works, the pace is slow going, the emphasis is less on action but on inner growth.
The last book nicely rounds up the series and ties all three volumes together, but can easily also be read as a standalone.
The last book of the trilogy was the most powerful (fitting for the title) for me. It deals with the subject of slavery, the different ways of freedom and the hardship that comes with both. Like with the first book of the series Le Guin managed to create an underlying feeling of menace during most of the narration which had me subconsciously biting my nails. Only when the audionarration (highly recommended) ended I realised the tension I obviously had been experiencing. An intense coming of age tale in flawless prose intimately told through the eyes of a slave boy.
As with most of this author's works, the pace is slow going, the emphasis is less on action but on inner growth.
The last book nicely rounds up the series and ties all three volumes together, but can easily also be read as a standalone.
April 23, 2025
No he conseguido acabarlo. Debo de haberlo leído en una mala época porque las valoraciones de gente afín a mis gustos son mucho más elevadas pero en general la trilogía de los Anales de la Costa Oeste ha sido una decepción para mí.
No quito una pizca de mérito a Le Guin. En 'Poderes' cuenta la historia de Gavir, un esclavo que tiene el don de poder "recordar" el futuro. Pero la historia se centra más en la búsqueda de libertad a la que vez de una búsqueda de uno mismo, de su identidad como persona y no como objeto.
No es una trilogía continuista. Puedes leer cualquiera de las tres historias en el orden que quieras porque tienen unos nexos en común muy lejanos que permite esto. Son 3 historias sobre adolescentes y la búsqueda de quiénes son y su papel en el mundo. Y el tema de los dones es algo tangencial que los define pero no influye en el mensaje central de lo que quiere contar la autora.
Dadle una oportunidad y no me hagáis caso a la valoración. Siempre es un placer leer a Le Guin.
No quito una pizca de mérito a Le Guin. En 'Poderes' cuenta la historia de Gavir, un esclavo que tiene el don de poder "recordar" el futuro. Pero la historia se centra más en la búsqueda de libertad a la que vez de una búsqueda de uno mismo, de su identidad como persona y no como objeto.
No es una trilogía continuista. Puedes leer cualquiera de las tres historias en el orden que quieras porque tienen unos nexos en común muy lejanos que permite esto. Son 3 historias sobre adolescentes y la búsqueda de quiénes son y su papel en el mundo. Y el tema de los dones es algo tangencial que los define pero no influye en el mensaje central de lo que quiere contar la autora.
Dadle una oportunidad y no me hagáis caso a la valoración. Siempre es un placer leer a Le Guin.
May 31, 2020
LeGuin really was a master storyteller.
December 9, 2022
YA is just not my thing, not even when it's Le Guin...
April 17, 2025
Third and the best book in Annals of western shore trilogy. First two while good in their own right are very unassuming books. This is full Ursula Le Guin experience. It's long, more complex and often unpleasant book tangling with different themes, set in very vivid world with some familiar cultures and some very different from what we know but still so well crafted they feel real.
January 11, 2011
In my previous reviews for the preceding two books in this trilogy, I commented that they could read as standalone novels. This last installment to the trilogy is no exception, and in fact this story strays the most. Yet at the book’s end, the overall story arc does come full circle and in a way that is completely satisfying.
Unlike in Gifts and Voices, where our original narrator Orrec Caspro is still very much a major player, Powers is solely Gavir’s story…a personal reflection written for his wife detailing the trials and tribulations faced as a youth during his personal quest to find home. Out of the three books, this is arguably the hardest to read due to the subject matter and the implications of all of the horrors that occur to Gavir, his sister Sallo, Melle and all of the other friends Gavir meets along his journey. (N.B. And even though he is no longer a major player, Orrec is still present through his work and poetry.)
This is also a story about different societies—various social ideologies, relationships and hierarchical structures across all the extremes—from the typical master-slave to the “ideal” utopian society. It’s also about disillusionment and betrayal of trust, learning how to read people and your current situation…discerning right from wrong.
The ending is both bittersweet and optimistic, a beautiful way to end the series. I love the juxtaposed image at the beginning of this book and the end through Gavir’s vision… “a shining like the trembling of sunlight all around her head.” It gives the concept of “home” another layer of meaning. ;)
Unlike in Gifts and Voices, where our original narrator Orrec Caspro is still very much a major player, Powers is solely Gavir’s story…a personal reflection written for his wife detailing the trials and tribulations faced as a youth during his personal quest to find home. Out of the three books, this is arguably the hardest to read due to the subject matter and the implications of all of the horrors that occur to Gavir, his sister Sallo, Melle and all of the other friends Gavir meets along his journey. (N.B. And even though he is no longer a major player, Orrec is still present through his work and poetry.)
This is also a story about different societies—various social ideologies, relationships and hierarchical structures across all the extremes—from the typical master-slave to the “ideal” utopian society. It’s also about disillusionment and betrayal of trust, learning how to read people and your current situation…discerning right from wrong.
The ending is both bittersweet and optimistic, a beautiful way to end the series. I love the juxtaposed image at the beginning of this book and the end through Gavir’s vision… “a shining like the trembling of sunlight all around her head.” It gives the concept of “home” another layer of meaning. ;)
June 29, 2025
Dans la pure veine de l'autrice. Le meilleur de sa trilogie. De la fantaisie adulte et lente.
Chronique des rivages de l'Ouest n'a pas à trop rougir devant la Saga Terremer.
Chronique des rivages de l'Ouest n'a pas à trop rougir devant la Saga Terremer.
September 15, 2018
Özgürlük nedir sorusunun çevresinde şekillenen şahane ötesi bir kitap. Ursula kölelik ve özgürlük kavramlarını kaleminin en güçlü özelliğiyle, ruha değen bir sevgiyle birleştirerek Güçler'in ana teması olarak işlemiş. Seriyi çok etkileyici ve devamını öngörebileceğiniz bir bitiş kitabıyla sonlandırmış.
Keşke Yerdeniz'in üçleme halinin devamının gelmesi gibi bu da devam etseymiş. Gerçekten çok sevdim, üç kitap yetmedi. Serinin her kitabının bir teması var ama genel olarak bakınca üç kitabın da kendini tanımak üzerine olduğunu görüyorsunuz. Ve her kitabın arka fonunda aynı samimi his; yalın, olması gerektiği gibi bir sevgi. Batı Sahili Yıllıkları'nı herkese şiddetle öneriyorum, benim için neredeyse Yerdeniz kadar güzeldi.
Keşke Yerdeniz'in üçleme halinin devamının gelmesi gibi bu da devam etseymiş. Gerçekten çok sevdim, üç kitap yetmedi. Serinin her kitabının bir teması var ama genel olarak bakınca üç kitabın da kendini tanımak üzerine olduğunu görüyorsunuz. Ve her kitabın arka fonunda aynı samimi his; yalın, olması gerektiği gibi bir sevgi. Batı Sahili Yıllıkları'nı herkese şiddetle öneriyorum, benim için neredeyse Yerdeniz kadar güzeldi.
March 6, 2017
I think of this book when I think of those who romanticize the antebellum South, the fantasy of plantations where perhaps the institution of human bondage was not so very terrible. This novel is set in just such a household, and yet it reveals how much worse the betrayal in such situations could be. No house, no matter how beautiful, built on the foundation of injustice will stand.
Everyone who's a fan of "Those Who Walk Away from Omegas" should read this book.
Everyone who's a fan of "Those Who Walk Away from Omegas" should read this book.
November 25, 2020
Bir aydan fazla zaman geçti Güçler'in son sayfasına baktığımdan beri. Bitti, diyebilecek gücü ancak bulabildim.
Güçler bitmedi, yalan söylüyorum :')
Güçler bitmedi, yalan söylüyorum :')
March 7, 2024
This was a beautiful end to Le Guin's Western Shore series where we follow the coming-of-age story of Gav, a hero with somewhat confusing (to him at least) powers of memory both forwards and backward. It is told as always by Le Guin with beautiful, evocative prose and a host of supporting characters. I think it was the strongest of the trilogy and would easily have read another one. I think that Earthsea was an even stronger and more luscious series, but this one has strong merits as well!
This book also completes my reading of all the winners of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus SF award winners. It was fantastic to finish on such a nice note!
Fino's Reviews of Ursula Le Guin
Hainish Cycle
: Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Earthsea Cycle
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Annals of the Western Shore
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Other Novels
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Short Stories
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This book also completes my reading of all the winners of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus SF award winners. It was fantastic to finish on such a nice note!
Fino's Reviews of Ursula Le Guin
Hainish Cycle
: Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...#
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Earthsea Cycle
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Annals of the Western Shore
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Other Novels
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Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...Short Stories
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Fino Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
January 21, 2022
This the final third volume of Annals of the Western Shore Series by Ursula K. Le Guin. I’ve read all three volumes and my reviews for the first two can be found here and here respectively. All books can be read as standalones, they all have different, unrelated protagonists and places where the action takes place. However, they are all good, so give yourself a present and read all, in any order. I read them as a part of monthly reading for January 2022 at Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels group. The novel was nominated for Nebula for 2008 and won it.
This story is about Gavir (or Gav for short). He and his sister Sallo were kidnapped from their marshes and brought to a city of Etra, where they are brought as home slaves. The author doesn’t overplay brutality of slavery – as such, the sibling are relatively well off, they are fed, not overworked and are encouraged to study. Moreover, initially, with knowing no other ways (they were taken very young) Gav admires both Father and Mother – heads of the family. What Le Guin shows in the banality of evil – from the fact that girls upon growing up will be sent (sold, exchanged) to other noble families of the city or newborns will be taken from their mothers – this all is seen as a norm, part of ordinary life. Even an accidental killing of another kid slave by master’s son doesn’t initially shocks Gav.
Gav has a Power to see the future, but his gift is rather inconsistent and doesn’t bring details – when exactly something will happen, or whom and what he sees. He hides his power, instead delving in learning, especially after finding out his almost eidetic memory for poetry. He wants to grow up useful for his masters, but as he grows, a tragedy affects him greatly, not with a fit of anger but a severe psychological trauma.
This is the longest, the most depressing and heart-wrenching volume. The prose is beautiful, the story flows and touches one deeply. It also shows the author’s background as an anthropologist as well as her distrust to any utopia, as can be seen in her other award-winning novel, The Dispossessed.
This story is about Gavir (or Gav for short). He and his sister Sallo were kidnapped from their marshes and brought to a city of Etra, where they are brought as home slaves. The author doesn’t overplay brutality of slavery – as such, the sibling are relatively well off, they are fed, not overworked and are encouraged to study. Moreover, initially, with knowing no other ways (they were taken very young) Gav admires both Father and Mother – heads of the family. What Le Guin shows in the banality of evil – from the fact that girls upon growing up will be sent (sold, exchanged) to other noble families of the city or newborns will be taken from their mothers – this all is seen as a norm, part of ordinary life. Even an accidental killing of another kid slave by master’s son doesn’t initially shocks Gav.
Gav has a Power to see the future, but his gift is rather inconsistent and doesn’t bring details – when exactly something will happen, or whom and what he sees. He hides his power, instead delving in learning, especially after finding out his almost eidetic memory for poetry. He wants to grow up useful for his masters, but as he grows, a tragedy affects him greatly, not with a fit of anger but a severe psychological trauma.
This is the longest, the most depressing and heart-wrenching volume. The prose is beautiful, the story flows and touches one deeply. It also shows the author’s background as an anthropologist as well as her distrust to any utopia, as can be seen in her other award-winning novel, The Dispossessed.
March 2, 2011
A third book in the Annals of the Western Shore and a third first person narrator in a third location.
Gavir was taken as a slave as a baby, too young to remember his native Marshes. He is brought up and educated in a city - one of the City States that are forever warring with each other. Initially content with his life, even happy, Gavir is loyal to the House that keeps him, until his trust is tragically betrayed by an event that drives him both mad and away. Thus begins a tour of different societies where Gavir searches for freedom and purpose.
This novel appears plotted largely to allow LeGuin to discuss the merits and demerits of various forms of government, rather than to provide a really gripping story - indeed there is little sense of peril despite Gavir's various adventures. This theme of discussing forms of government is prevalent in many of LeGuin's books, most famously The Dispossessed, and is a major pre-occupation of science-fiction as a genre. Here we see it in the Fantasy genre and primarily in the context of defining the nature of "liberty".
Liberty is the over-arching theme of the Annals of the Western Shore: In Gifts individual liberty in the context of the family. In Voices the liberty of a people and how to regain it when it has been forcibly removed. In Powers the liberty, apparent and real, allowed a people by its government.
Interestingly, books and education play a significant role in all three and it might be that LeGuin's thesis is that true liberty cannot be obtained without uncensored education.
Not one of LeGuin's absolute best and suffering in my view from the dearth of direct involvement of Gry Barre and Orrec Caspro, this is nevertheless more worthwhile than many an "adult" "literary" novel by contemporary writers.
Gavir was taken as a slave as a baby, too young to remember his native Marshes. He is brought up and educated in a city - one of the City States that are forever warring with each other. Initially content with his life, even happy, Gavir is loyal to the House that keeps him, until his trust is tragically betrayed by an event that drives him both mad and away. Thus begins a tour of different societies where Gavir searches for freedom and purpose.
This novel appears plotted largely to allow LeGuin to discuss the merits and demerits of various forms of government, rather than to provide a really gripping story - indeed there is little sense of peril despite Gavir's various adventures. This theme of discussing forms of government is prevalent in many of LeGuin's books, most famously The Dispossessed, and is a major pre-occupation of science-fiction as a genre. Here we see it in the Fantasy genre and primarily in the context of defining the nature of "liberty".
Liberty is the over-arching theme of the Annals of the Western Shore: In Gifts individual liberty in the context of the family. In Voices the liberty of a people and how to regain it when it has been forcibly removed. In Powers the liberty, apparent and real, allowed a people by its government.
Interestingly, books and education play a significant role in all three and it might be that LeGuin's thesis is that true liberty cannot be obtained without uncensored education.
Not one of LeGuin's absolute best and suffering in my view from the dearth of direct involvement of Gry Barre and Orrec Caspro, this is nevertheless more worthwhile than many an "adult" "literary" novel by contemporary writers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2021
In this concluding Annals of the Western Shore installment, memory connects present with past and future. Slavery, storytelling and the journey home.
The strongest and longest book in the trilogy. It took me a while to fall in love with Powers, but eventually it hooked me in.
Favorite Passages
Freedom is largely a matter of seeing that there are alternatives.
________
The quality and virtue of a slave is invisibility. The powerless need to be invisible even to themselves.
________
She was no rebel, but she was not resigned. She was a solitary soul.
________
You have been given trust. The sacred gift.
________
If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn, winter, spring are all change and passage, but at the height of summer the year stands poised. It's only a passing moment, but even as it passes the heart knows it cannot change.
________
. . . leadership means personal magnetism, active intelligence, unquestioning acceptance of responsibility, and something harder to define: a tension between justice and compassion . . .
________
We went back to building for a while, but a shadow had fallen across our make-believe.
________
I didn't know why he reached out to me across the ignorance and enmity that kept the farm people and the city people apart, or how he knew that we could make friends despite the enormous difference of our knowledge and experience. But we did; we said almost nothing, but in our silence there was trust.
________
As before, on the hilltop, he made no reply and was silent for a long time; then he sang, the same strange, high, soft singing that seemed to have no source or center, as if it did not come from a human throat but hung in the air like the song of insects, wordless but sad beyond all words.
_________
History would be my art.
_________
Are we then men of Morva
To flee before the foe,
Or shall we fight for Etra
Like our fathers long ago?
_________
As in the dark of winter night
The eyes seek dawn,
As in the bonds of bitter cold
The heart craves sun,
So blinded and so bound, the soul
Cries out to thee:
Be our Light, our fire, our life,
Liberty!
_________
It was like that dream I had had of finding rooms in a house that I had not known were there, where I was made welcome among wonder, and greeted by a golden animal.
_________
"What a comfort the past is," Mimen said, "when the future offers none."
_________
Around his words silence spread out. Silence enlarged around me, wider and deeper. I was in a pool, at the bottom of a pool, not of water but of silence and emptiness, and it went on to the end of the world. I could not breathe the air, but I breathed that emptiness.
There was a wall across my mind. On the other side of the wall was what I couldn't remember because it hadn't happened.
_________
If you looked into the earth of the bank you'd find white bones thin as roots, bones of little children buried there where the water would come and eat their graves.
_________
There is much I will never remember of the days after that day. When at last I learned forgetting, I learned it very quickly and all too well. What fragments I can find of those days may be memories or may not., they may be the other kind of remembering that I do, of times that have not come and places I have not yet been.
_________
The way took me. If there was a path I followed it, if there was a bridge I crossed it, if there was a village and I smelled food and was hungry, I went and bought food.
_________
It didn't matter where I walked. The ways were all the same. There was only one way I could not go, and that was back.
_________
"Are you crazy, boy? He nodded. "You are, you are."
Then he chuckled and said, "So am I, boy. Crazy Cuga."
_________
"Sheepdog bitch," he said. "Had her litter up over there east on the rocky slopes. I seen the pups playing. Thought they was wolves, went over there with my knife to dig 'em out and cut their throats. I just got to the den and the bitch come around the hill, and she was going to go for me, but I says hey now, hey there, mother, I'll kill a wolf but never hurt a dog, will I? And she shows her teeth" -
_________
"Oh yes. Oh yes. They live soft there. Roofs and walls and all. Beds and coats and all."
_________
"The Uplands are beyond and beyond," he said, "north of the moon and east of the dawn. A desolation of hill and bog and rock and cliff, and rising over it all a huge vast mountain with a beard of clouds, the Carrantages. Nobody deserves to live in the Uplands but sheep. It's starving land, freezing land, winter forever, a gleam of sunlight once a year. It's all cut up into little small domains, farms they'd call them here and sorry farms at that . . . "
_________
The power of his being was in itself like a spell, leaving me only corners of my own being, where I hid in shadow.
_________
I asked Ammeda how he knew his way and he said, "The birds tell me."
Hundreds of small birds flitted about above the rushes; ducks and geese flew overhead, and tall silver-grey herons and smaller white cranes stalked the margins of the reed islets.
_________
I knew, I knew all too well, that I was prone to put too much trust in people. I wondered if the fault was inborn, a characteristic, like my dark skin and hawk nose. Overtrustful, I had let myself be betrayed, and so had betrayed others. Maybe I had come to the right place at last, among people like me, who would meet trust with trust.
_________
"Prut's a good mouser," my uncle said.
I kneaded the nape of the cat's neck. Prut purred.
After a while Metter said, "Mice are thick this year."
I scratched behind Prut's ears and wondered if I should tell my uncle that for one summer of my life I had eaten mice as a major part of my diet. It seemed unwise. Nobody had yet asked me anything about where I came from.
_________
I'd been elsewhere. They didn't want to know about elsewhere. Not many people do.
_________
In the villages of the Sidoyu existence was full, rich, elaborate, a tapestry of demanding relationships, choices, obligations, and rules. To live as a Sidoy was as complex and subtle a business as to live as an Etran; to live rightly as either was, perhaps, equally difficult.
_________
. . . his dog Minki, a kind old bitch who showed up just in time for her supper.
_________
It was dull life, I suppose, but it was what I needed. It gave me time to mend. It gave me time to think, and to grow up at my own pace.
_________
"It means she can see through the world. And hear voices from far away."
. . .
"Gegmer hears dead people talking, sometimes. Or people who aren't born yet."
_________
"Is this a power of our people - of the Rassiu? Is it a gift or a curse? Are there any people here who will tell me what my visions are?"
_________
Often she and I didn't understand each other, but it didn't matter; there was understanding beneath words, a likeness of mind beneath all differences.
_________
The people who stole me from my people had stolen my people from me. I could never wholly be one of them.
To see that was to see that I must go on.
_________
They were my age, but we'd reached our age by different roads.
_________
"Three things that, seeking increase, strengthen soul: love, learning, liberty."
_________
"It's as if a chain has broken."
_________
"Can slavery not be evil?"
. . . .
"If everybody believes it's the way things are and must be, then you can not know that. . . that it's wrong."
_________
Let the swan fly to the northlands.
. . . . .
Let grey gander fly beside grey goose,
North in the springtime; it is south I go.
_________
"If we're guided, are we to argue with the guide?"
The strongest and longest book in the trilogy. It took me a while to fall in love with Powers, but eventually it hooked me in.
Favorite Passages
Freedom is largely a matter of seeing that there are alternatives.
________
The quality and virtue of a slave is invisibility. The powerless need to be invisible even to themselves.
________
She was no rebel, but she was not resigned. She was a solitary soul.
________
You have been given trust. The sacred gift.
________
If eternity had a season, it would be midsummer. Autumn, winter, spring are all change and passage, but at the height of summer the year stands poised. It's only a passing moment, but even as it passes the heart knows it cannot change.
________
. . . leadership means personal magnetism, active intelligence, unquestioning acceptance of responsibility, and something harder to define: a tension between justice and compassion . . .
________
We went back to building for a while, but a shadow had fallen across our make-believe.
________
I didn't know why he reached out to me across the ignorance and enmity that kept the farm people and the city people apart, or how he knew that we could make friends despite the enormous difference of our knowledge and experience. But we did; we said almost nothing, but in our silence there was trust.
________
As before, on the hilltop, he made no reply and was silent for a long time; then he sang, the same strange, high, soft singing that seemed to have no source or center, as if it did not come from a human throat but hung in the air like the song of insects, wordless but sad beyond all words.
_________
History would be my art.
_________
Are we then men of Morva
To flee before the foe,
Or shall we fight for Etra
Like our fathers long ago?
_________
As in the dark of winter night
The eyes seek dawn,
As in the bonds of bitter cold
The heart craves sun,
So blinded and so bound, the soul
Cries out to thee:
Be our Light, our fire, our life,
Liberty!
_________
It was like that dream I had had of finding rooms in a house that I had not known were there, where I was made welcome among wonder, and greeted by a golden animal.
_________
"What a comfort the past is," Mimen said, "when the future offers none."
_________
Around his words silence spread out. Silence enlarged around me, wider and deeper. I was in a pool, at the bottom of a pool, not of water but of silence and emptiness, and it went on to the end of the world. I could not breathe the air, but I breathed that emptiness.
There was a wall across my mind. On the other side of the wall was what I couldn't remember because it hadn't happened.
_________
If you looked into the earth of the bank you'd find white bones thin as roots, bones of little children buried there where the water would come and eat their graves.
_________
There is much I will never remember of the days after that day. When at last I learned forgetting, I learned it very quickly and all too well. What fragments I can find of those days may be memories or may not., they may be the other kind of remembering that I do, of times that have not come and places I have not yet been.
_________
The way took me. If there was a path I followed it, if there was a bridge I crossed it, if there was a village and I smelled food and was hungry, I went and bought food.
_________
It didn't matter where I walked. The ways were all the same. There was only one way I could not go, and that was back.
_________
"Are you crazy, boy? He nodded. "You are, you are."
Then he chuckled and said, "So am I, boy. Crazy Cuga."
_________
"Sheepdog bitch," he said. "Had her litter up over there east on the rocky slopes. I seen the pups playing. Thought they was wolves, went over there with my knife to dig 'em out and cut their throats. I just got to the den and the bitch come around the hill, and she was going to go for me, but I says hey now, hey there, mother, I'll kill a wolf but never hurt a dog, will I? And she shows her teeth" -
_________
"Oh yes. Oh yes. They live soft there. Roofs and walls and all. Beds and coats and all."
_________
"The Uplands are beyond and beyond," he said, "north of the moon and east of the dawn. A desolation of hill and bog and rock and cliff, and rising over it all a huge vast mountain with a beard of clouds, the Carrantages. Nobody deserves to live in the Uplands but sheep. It's starving land, freezing land, winter forever, a gleam of sunlight once a year. It's all cut up into little small domains, farms they'd call them here and sorry farms at that . . . "
_________
The power of his being was in itself like a spell, leaving me only corners of my own being, where I hid in shadow.
_________
I asked Ammeda how he knew his way and he said, "The birds tell me."
Hundreds of small birds flitted about above the rushes; ducks and geese flew overhead, and tall silver-grey herons and smaller white cranes stalked the margins of the reed islets.
_________
I knew, I knew all too well, that I was prone to put too much trust in people. I wondered if the fault was inborn, a characteristic, like my dark skin and hawk nose. Overtrustful, I had let myself be betrayed, and so had betrayed others. Maybe I had come to the right place at last, among people like me, who would meet trust with trust.
_________
"Prut's a good mouser," my uncle said.
I kneaded the nape of the cat's neck. Prut purred.
After a while Metter said, "Mice are thick this year."
I scratched behind Prut's ears and wondered if I should tell my uncle that for one summer of my life I had eaten mice as a major part of my diet. It seemed unwise. Nobody had yet asked me anything about where I came from.
_________
I'd been elsewhere. They didn't want to know about elsewhere. Not many people do.
_________
In the villages of the Sidoyu existence was full, rich, elaborate, a tapestry of demanding relationships, choices, obligations, and rules. To live as a Sidoy was as complex and subtle a business as to live as an Etran; to live rightly as either was, perhaps, equally difficult.
_________
. . . his dog Minki, a kind old bitch who showed up just in time for her supper.
_________
It was dull life, I suppose, but it was what I needed. It gave me time to mend. It gave me time to think, and to grow up at my own pace.
_________
"It means she can see through the world. And hear voices from far away."
. . .
"Gegmer hears dead people talking, sometimes. Or people who aren't born yet."
_________
"Is this a power of our people - of the Rassiu? Is it a gift or a curse? Are there any people here who will tell me what my visions are?"
_________
Often she and I didn't understand each other, but it didn't matter; there was understanding beneath words, a likeness of mind beneath all differences.
_________
The people who stole me from my people had stolen my people from me. I could never wholly be one of them.
To see that was to see that I must go on.
_________
They were my age, but we'd reached our age by different roads.
_________
"Three things that, seeking increase, strengthen soul: love, learning, liberty."
_________
"It's as if a chain has broken."
_________
"Can slavery not be evil?"
. . . .
"If everybody believes it's the way things are and must be, then you can not know that. . . that it's wrong."
_________
Let the swan fly to the northlands.
. . . . .
Let grey gander fly beside grey goose,
North in the springtime; it is south I go.
_________
"If we're guided, are we to argue with the guide?"
February 7, 2025
Ay Ursula cuando pienso los pocos libros que me quedan sin leer de vos, me da una pena terrible, que mitigo enseguida sabiendo que voy a volver una y otra vez a aquellos que me han maravillado.
Este cierre de esta trilogía bastante desconocida para el público en general , es como lo era el segundo de esta saga , una hermosura , nuevamente una historia que da pena terminar porque uno querría saber hasta el último día de cada personaje que crea Ursula, esos personajes que se sienten como familia.
Nota:10/10
Este cierre de esta trilogía bastante desconocida para el público en general , es como lo era el segundo de esta saga , una hermosura , nuevamente una historia que da pena terminar porque uno querría saber hasta el último día de cada personaje que crea Ursula, esos personajes que se sienten como familia.
Nota:10/10
May 27, 2023
"Yalana inanmak, yalan bir hayat yaşamaktır. "
February 21, 2020
Serinin beni en az tatmin eden kitabı! Yine de seri şahane okuyunuz!
January 27, 2025
** Hugo/ Nebula Awards Reading Challenge - 78 of 107 **
I'm sad to have reached the end of this beautiful series, each novel focusing on a new character and new setting. Gavir, as a slave, looked on his world and thought it was how things needed to be, and with a kind master and mistress, knew himself to be more fortunate than others. It is not until the loss of his sister that he truely understands how little slaves are valued. His gifts, his journey and the people he meets along the way lead to the perfect ending of this series and all is right is the world now Orrec, Gry, Memer & Gavir are together.
I'm sad to have reached the end of this beautiful series, each novel focusing on a new character and new setting. Gavir, as a slave, looked on his world and thought it was how things needed to be, and with a kind master and mistress, knew himself to be more fortunate than others. It is not until the loss of his sister that he truely understands how little slaves are valued. His gifts, his journey and the people he meets along the way lead to the perfect ending of this series and all is right is the world now Orrec, Gry, Memer & Gavir are together.
September 8, 2009
Hmm. The three books of this trilogy aren't that directly related -- I think they can be read alone. I think Voices is probably the best, in that it has a plot as well as the other things that make Le Guin's writing so lovely. I might like this better on a reread, as I did with Gifts, but I think perhaps I found this the weakest -- and I'm not sure why I think so, really. It seems quite slow, and ponderous, and there doesn't seem to be much of a conclusion or climax. The themes of stories and learning from the other books continue, and the theme of liberty, and Gry and Orrec show up again...
There's a lot of world-building -- some beautiful, beautiful stuff. But it all seems a little meaningless. Hoby ties the beginning and the end together, but weakly: we see hardly anything of him, in reality. Characters like Yaven and Astano, who I wanted to see more of, ultimately meant nothing. Chamry, who I liked a lot, doesn't show up again. Diero ultimately has little part to play. Maybe there was something I missed in the reasons why he never sees these people again, but it felt like more could have been done.
Not my favourite, but it's Le Guin, so it's not bad, either.
There's a lot of world-building -- some beautiful, beautiful stuff. But it all seems a little meaningless. Hoby ties the beginning and the end together, but weakly: we see hardly anything of him, in reality. Characters like Yaven and Astano, who I wanted to see more of, ultimately meant nothing. Chamry, who I liked a lot, doesn't show up again. Diero ultimately has little part to play. Maybe there was something I missed in the reasons why he never sees these people again, but it felt like more could have been done.
Not my favourite, but it's Le Guin, so it's not bad, either.
January 29, 2018
The third book in The Annals of the Western Shore is amazingly good. Le Guin is on top of her game, exploring slavery and its reverberations. It's excellent in every way. And it includes this transcendent piece, which caused me to catch my breath and blink away tears:
"To look back on that summer and the summers after it is like looking across the sea to an island, remote and golden over the water, hardly believing that one lived there once. Yet it's still here within me, sweet and intense: the smell of dry hay, the endless shrill chant of crickets on the hills, the taste of a ripe, sun-warmed, stolen apricot, the weight of a rough stone in my hands, the track of a falling star through the great summer constellations."
ETA: 1/29/08- Listened to the audio, and stand by the five star review. This is a phenomenal book.
"To look back on that summer and the summers after it is like looking across the sea to an island, remote and golden over the water, hardly believing that one lived there once. Yet it's still here within me, sweet and intense: the smell of dry hay, the endless shrill chant of crickets on the hills, the taste of a ripe, sun-warmed, stolen apricot, the weight of a rough stone in my hands, the track of a falling star through the great summer constellations."
ETA: 1/29/08- Listened to the audio, and stand by the five star review. This is a phenomenal book.
February 14, 2018
I loved this novel. But, I haven't read the other Annals books yet. I read this first. I found this book to be fascinating - and surprisingly so. I just didn't go into it thinking it was going to be so engaging, moving, and, really, beautiful. Le Guin is such a clear writer, her prose is never heavy or overstuffed. I don't have a lot of faith in most science fiction writers: they tend to write too much and thus write poorly. Anyway, I'm a Le Guin fan but I was sad to complete her Hainish work and didn't think this one would be the sort of thing that grabbed me. But I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this imaginative and rather touching tale. Never a dull moment or a wasted paragraph!
February 1, 2015
This one was good, but even though it was 502 pages, the longest book in the series, I felt there should have been more. And this is the last book in the series, too. There was so much more I wanted to see happen in this story. I wanted a revenge for Gavir's loss of his sister that didn't happen, at least not against the family that owned them as slaves. I loved this series, though, and definitely think it's worth a read.
June 12, 2017
Dün Batı Sahili Yıllıkları dizisini yeniden okumayı bitirdim. Üç kitaptan oluşan seri birbiri ile teğet geçen hikayelerle örülmüş. Sanırım benim en sevdiğim 2. kitap (SESLER) oldu. Yeteneklerin keşfi, kölelik ve hürriyet tanımları, hayatın amacını, kendi yerini bulmak ile ilgili harika kitaplar... Le Guin sevenlere tavsiye ediyorum.
August 14, 2017
Batı Sahili Yıllıkları üçlemesinin en güzel kitabı.
December 6, 2021
Is it wrong to be enslaved if you are treated well? If your master isn't cruel and you don't know that there are other ways to live? If everyone believes it's the way things should and must be?
Powers is about the psychic powers of the narrator, Gavir, and his sister, Sallo, but it is also about the oppression and privilege in their society (our society???). Because the Father and Mother of Arcamand are kind and both slave children and their masters school and play together, it is easy to overlook the cruelty embedded in their society and its silk rooms; in its prohibitions against slaves holding weapons, even play weapons, or serving in the military; and its decisions that serve the ruling family but not the slaves. As a result, Ris "had no dread and a good deal of lively curiosity about where and to whom she would be sent" as concubine (p. 57). She believed in the benevolence of the Arca family and did not believe she deserved more.
If you read a history of Etra or any other of the City States, it’ll be about kings, senators, generals, valiant soldiers, rich merchants—the acts of people of power, free to act—not about slaves. The quality and virtue of a slave is invisibility. The powerless need to be invisible even to themselves. (p. 23)
Things happen in Powers – sex and murder; war, siege, and starvation; grief and healing; leaving slavery and more – but I didn't read Powers for the thrills and excitement (these interludes were often brief, anyway), but for Gavir's slow and contemplative observations. In Powers, Gavir starts a slave but runs away where he moves through several more "benevolent" communities. These changes gave Gavir the opportunity to consider possible worlds and recognize alternatives.
Writing about our life in the House of Arcamand in the City State of Etra, I fall back into it and see it as I saw it then, from inside and from below, with nothing to compare it to, and as if it were the only way things could possibly be. Children see the world that way. So do most slaves. Freedom is largely a matter of seeing that there are alternatives. (p. 22)
As I often do with series, I read this one (#3 of 3) before #1 and #2. GR reviewers suggest that wasn't a wise decision, but I enjoyed and appreciated Powers, nonetheless.
Powers is about the psychic powers of the narrator, Gavir, and his sister, Sallo, but it is also about the oppression and privilege in their society (our society???). Because the Father and Mother of Arcamand are kind and both slave children and their masters school and play together, it is easy to overlook the cruelty embedded in their society and its silk rooms; in its prohibitions against slaves holding weapons, even play weapons, or serving in the military; and its decisions that serve the ruling family but not the slaves. As a result, Ris "had no dread and a good deal of lively curiosity about where and to whom she would be sent" as concubine (p. 57). She believed in the benevolence of the Arca family and did not believe she deserved more.
If you read a history of Etra or any other of the City States, it’ll be about kings, senators, generals, valiant soldiers, rich merchants—the acts of people of power, free to act—not about slaves. The quality and virtue of a slave is invisibility. The powerless need to be invisible even to themselves. (p. 23)
Things happen in Powers – sex and murder; war, siege, and starvation; grief and healing; leaving slavery and more – but I didn't read Powers for the thrills and excitement (these interludes were often brief, anyway), but for Gavir's slow and contemplative observations. In Powers, Gavir starts a slave but runs away where he moves through several more "benevolent" communities. These changes gave Gavir the opportunity to consider possible worlds and recognize alternatives.
Writing about our life in the House of Arcamand in the City State of Etra, I fall back into it and see it as I saw it then, from inside and from below, with nothing to compare it to, and as if it were the only way things could possibly be. Children see the world that way. So do most slaves. Freedom is largely a matter of seeing that there are alternatives. (p. 22)
As I often do with series, I read this one (#3 of 3) before #1 and #2. GR reviewers suggest that wasn't a wise decision, but I enjoyed and appreciated Powers, nonetheless.
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