The Flip Side of Tradition is Novelty

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	• Powers (Annals of the Western Shore) Ursula K. Le Guin Harcourt Children's Books, 2007 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Flip Side of Tradition is Novelty

Le Guin is the Grand Dame of American literature and this is evident in her latest book "Powers". Her moral compass never fails, and she is a trusted guide into the quite horrific events that happen to Gavir, the main character, and the people around him. On the surface what this book is about is Gavir's escape from slavery and maturation into freedom - a difficult process for anyone. However beneath the surface, the book is about books, about memory and visions. Gavir is in crucial passages of the novel a kind of book. Gavir has the power of a near perfect memory of what he has read, the flip side of his "gift" is to "remember things that has not happened yet". Gavir tells the stories and poems he remembers and leaves it up to his audiences to digest what they've heard. But if Gavir is the perfect repository of traditional learning the flip side of his gift seems to suggest that tradition always already points towards the new. So too is Gavir on his way to meet the new in the guise of Orrec Caspro, who in a particular sense keeps being a main character (even if at times completely absent) throughout the now three novels of the "Annals of the Western Shore". Perhaps Caspro - whose "gift" is being an author - is a meta-character the implications of which are gently suggested at the end of the novel to the effect that there is more to tell about the Western Shore and the various people who come into contact with Caspro. This reader is waiting with great expectation for the next installment of this wonderful and wonderfully complex series.

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A slave escapes ...

(probably 4.5 stars)

Powers is the third book in Ursula K. Le Guin's ongoing series of YA books, Annals of the Western Shore. These are set in fairly standard fantasy world, at a tech level a couple of centuries in arrears to that of our world. The three books so far (the others being Gifts and Voices) are loosely linked by a couple of common characters, Orrec and Gry Caspro: we meet them as children in the first book, where they are the protagonists; and they have much smaller roles as adults in the later books. The three books are set in geographically separate areas of the "Western Shore," and they concern characters with differing magical abilities. But in the end the magical abilities are less important than the social milieus of the characters. Indeed, after three books I can detect a common theme. In each book, the characters are first displayed in a society based in one way or another on slavery. And in each book, the eventual key to escaping slavery is not violent resistance but rather learning.

Powers is probably my favorite so far in this series. Gavir is a boy who was kidnapped from his home in the Marshes as a tiny baby, and taken to the City State called Etra to be a slave in the House Arcamand. The Father of the House of Arca is a relatively benign slaveowner, and Gavir, along with his sister Sallo, grows up fairly comfortably. Gavir does have a magical talent, apparently unique to people of the Marshes -- he occasionally "remembers" future events. But his sister urges him to conceal these visions.

Slaves in this House are educated, and Gavir in particular is a promising scholar, and he is trained to become a teacher. But his abilities also earn him the resentment of the mentally ill younger son of the House, Torm, as well as Torm's toady, the slave Hoby. Meanwhile his beautiful sister Sallo is destined to be a gift-girl -- a slave whose only duty is to provide sex for the masters -- but happily for her she and the heir of the House, Yaven, fall in love, and she will be given to him as a mistress.

Things seem well enough -- Gavir tends to believe, with most of his fellow slaves, that such a social order is the natural way of things. Only slowly does he begin to perceive injustice -- in part because of Torm's unchecked violence, which extends eventually to murder (only lightly punished); and in part because he dimly realizes that in many ways women in this society -- even "free" women -- are enslaved in different ways than men. His life begins to change even more when Etra is besieged -- it seems that the various City States are constantly at war. Then a further tragedy strikes, and Gavir, almost by accident, escapes. From there his path takes him to a couple of colonies of escaped slaves -- who sadly replicate many of the ills of the societies they escaped -- and then eventually to his original home in the Marshes. He must try to understand the nature of his own talent -- but his past as a slave also continues to haunt him.

I loved this book throughout. Gavir is well-depicted and a good person. His life is plausibly portrayed, full of tragedy but also some contentment. Naturally his fascination with scholarship and reading endears him to typical readers. Le Guin nicely uses his visions as foreshadowings of future events in the book, without ever letting them take over the story. She portrays two (or three, if we count the escaped slaves) societies in interesting detail: this has always been a strength of hers (daughter, as she is, of a famous anthropologist). And the book avoids unrealistic clichés: for instance, even the "good" slaveowners are not shown (as we might naïvely hope) coming miraculously to their senses and renouncing their evil ways. There are no easy answers, but there is hope.

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One of LeGuin's best

I read this book in one sitting and finished it at 3:34AM. It is an extraordinary book, one of LeGuin's best, IMO, and I've read many (if not all) of her books. Her strengths of vision, language, compassion, and thought-provoking storytelling shine in this book.

The different societies LeGuin portrays are fascinating, and I was glad to see her return to the anthropological emphasis of some of her earlier books. I was also aware of LeGuin's maturity as a writer compared to some of her earlier works: the characters are sharply drawn and compelling, the main character grows plausibly with his experiences, and the story moves well to an exciting conclusion. I loved most of the characters that LeGuin has brought to life, and I was troubled by the others. In particular I liked the portrait of a family and society based on the injustice of slavery. After reading this book, I didn't hate these people (I didn't admire them either), but I felt I understood better how they saw and lived in their world. Now that's something to get out of a book.

My only qualm is: is this really a book for children or most teenagers? It is so far removed from most other children's and YA literature. It is not a simple book, and it is not entertaining like movies or television. I can't imagine a typical child being interested in this book. But a teenager who loves to read, who shows curiosity about the world, and who likes a challenge might enjoy this book.

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The best in the series so far

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.

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A great series

The 3 books of the Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts/Voices/Powers are terrific. I read, enjoyed and then shared them at Christmas with a sister, 2 nieces and a nephew and a step daughter and a grandson. we like them, and we range in age; 16, 17, 19, 21, 38, 55, 61. ULG is a fantastic story teller, with a body of work that is compelling. I had lost track of her, as these books are in the teen section, and I thought she just wasn't writing. Boy was I wrong: she is always for all ages.

reviews: page 1, 2

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.

This third book in the Annals of the Western Shore series is an epic story of survival and self-discovery that speaks to the power of new beginnings, and most importantly, of hope.
Includes maps. (09/01/2007)

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