Le Guin, Ursula K. - Gifts
Orrec and Gry live in the Uplands, where every clan has a gift. Gry's gift is calling animals, while Orrec's is to wreak havoc on anything he lays his eyes on. But even though the power balance of their society centers around the gifts, which keeps various clans in check, neither Orrec nor Gry really want to use their gifts the way everyone else wants them to.
I feel like I should have been much more touched by this than I was. This is a very quiet book; I knew that, and yet, for some reason, I kept expecting big, flashy moments. And part of me was glad that the big flashy moments never came, or if they did, that they were undercut. The other part of me has been feeling blah for a while and was probably not in the right mood to read this book.
That said, I did like how Le Guin portrayed Orrec's care with regard to his highly destructive gift, the doubt and the discomfort that it causes him. I also very much liked the friendship between him and Gry, how solid and dependable and non-flashy it was. And I liked the way Le Guin handled Orrec and Gry's decisions to not use their gifts the way everyone thought they should, how it wasn't couched as teenage rebellion or as anything large. It's instead a personal decision on both their parts.
I think I should have been much more affected by this book than I was, because I totally admire the craft in the story and how it went. I just never quite emotionally connected to it for some reason.
I feel like I should have been much more touched by this than I was. This is a very quiet book; I knew that, and yet, for some reason, I kept expecting big, flashy moments. And part of me was glad that the big flashy moments never came, or if they did, that they were undercut. The other part of me has been feeling blah for a while and was probably not in the right mood to read this book.
That said, I did like how Le Guin portrayed Orrec's care with regard to his highly destructive gift, the doubt and the discomfort that it causes him. I also very much liked the friendship between him and Gry, how solid and dependable and non-flashy it was. And I liked the way Le Guin handled Orrec and Gry's decisions to not use their gifts the way everyone thought they should, how it wasn't couched as teenage rebellion or as anything large. It's instead a personal decision on both their parts.
I think I should have been much more affected by this book than I was, because I totally admire the craft in the story and how it went. I just never quite emotionally connected to it for some reason.