Reviews

Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin

jimmyviera's review against another edition

5.0

Read every Ursula book

erasmios's review against another edition

4.0

This was my third time reading Gifts. I'd never read Powers, the third and last book in the series, so I decided to reread Gifts and Voices. Le Guin does an amazing job at world-building and crafting believable, real characters. Although Gifts is a YA novel its themes are mature and heavy. There's magic too, but it's subtle and mysterious. I feel like Annals of the Western Shore never got the attention it deserves. I would recommend Gifts a thousand times.

lazwright's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

elenajohansen's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

A rare miss for me from Le Guin. I don't require all my fiction to be fast-paced or action-packed, but this was glacially slow, on top of having an odd structure where most of the book was essentially an extended flashback, on top of having all characters who weren't the protagonist be functionally one-dimensional.

I kept going, hoping it would get better because the reason I was reading this at all was that I found the second book in the series, Voices, at a secondhand shop and thought "Le Guin that I haven't read yet? Sold!" without realizing it was a second book at all. But the start to this series was so disappointing I'm going to re-donate Voices unread.

I never found much of anything to care about; the story is yet another coming-of-age for a teenage boy with unusual powers, and Orrec is no Ged.

mkhare's review against another edition

4.0

4.5 stars. Overall, I adored this book thoroughly, but I must admit that the end felt a bit abrupt compared to the pace of the rest of the book. I also really could have used a map (I think other editions may have one?) as I couldn’t keep all of the family names/locations/gifts straight in my head. If I do a reread, I think I will write some notes for myself.

applegnreads's review against another edition

3.0

This series seems to be about kids who will one day be great, but not today.

zelos's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

pretty solid, though not one of le guin's best works in my opinion. i'll probably finish the series once i get through my other library books, but I don't feel suuuper invested

zober's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is surprising for a fantasy book nowadays - slower paced, not heavy on plot, simple writing. I understand why it's not a big hit, but I quite liked it. It's a reflective meditation on who has power, who uses it, relationships, and more. The premise and world-building are interesting and I wanted more!

I was a little disappointed with how heavily the story focused on Orrec rather than Gry, or even equal focus on Orrec and Gry.

kangokaren's review against another edition

4.0

Listened to this with Ben. He thought it was boring. I enjoyed the story and plan to read the other books in the series.

kitdunsmore's review against another edition

5.0

Happy to have found this newer series by Le Guin. As always, she knows how to tell a story. I especially loved that she didn't do the usual thing with this story. The ending was a pleasant surprise. Eager to read the next book.