Powers

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.
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4 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Gav and his sister Sallo are house slaves; well enough treated, but living within very strict limits. Gav keeps his occasional prophetic dreams to himself, and they seldom seem to help him. As life goes from poor to bad to worse, his circumstances become more and more dire, and his choices ever more desperate.

Review
Since I've mentioned a referent for each of the prior books, I'll say here that the start of this book reminded me of John Christopher (Sam Youd), one of the pre-eminent purveyors of YA SFF, and with a similarly deft hand in showing young people encountering feet of clay. And that bitter disappointment in, not only breach of trust, but in idols who turn out to be flawed people, is very much what this book is about. Our protagonist, Gav, is on a long journey of disappointment in people, cultures, and life in general. That sounds grim, and there are some dark bits in the book, but it's also about hope, perseverance, and silver linings.

Le Guin's customary rich prose and flowing style keeps the book moving along smoothly. Gav and his acquaintances are engaging, interesting, and moving, and you feel for him and them in everything they go through. We're back to something closer to real magic in this last book, though it's not the driving force of the story. We also come back to characters from the previous books, though not until very late in the book. That ending, in fact, feels incomplete – more a stopping point than a real resolution of Gav's story. While it could be read as a vindication of faith, I found it a bit of an odd ending given everything Gav has seen and learned in life. In fact, Le Guin leaves a number of other threads only partially resolved – one, a dire threat from Gav's past, re-emerges late in the story, terrifies him, and then... goes away, and no one worries about it, because magic. I found it very unsatisfying, and not a good match for the previous careful plotting.

I'm fairly confident I've not read these books before (I bought this one years ago, but the second only recently), yet they felt extremely familiar. Am I wrong about reading them? Did Le Guin merely make use of familiar tropes? Do the books build on core archetypes of the genre? I don't know. I think it's very unlikely that a writer as skilled as Le Guin (and to every indication still very sharp until her death), lost her ability to innovate. However, I found that this nagging sense of familiarity undermine the books a bit, in that I was fairly confident where they were going (which is part of why I didn't give a higher rating). They're still very well written, though.

I first started reading this book about 3 years ago, immediately after the prior two books. I distinctly remember what I'd read- the early parts depicting Givar's childhood learning and playing, which to my memory was about half of the book, but apparently it was only around 1/4th- unfortunately, as much as I was enjoying the book, it was due at the library and somehow it took me three years to come back to it.

In a way, I'm thankful I was able to save this book a little longer, being able to look forward to it for years. I found myself returning to it with perfect timing. After a few recent disappointing reads, and a longing for some Le Guin, I read Powers at the exact right time. What I found was a complex work, very low on fantasy (Powers feels like a slightly misleading title. The powers are only mentioned off-hand a couple times until the last part of the story, and it never felt like the novel's focus), but big on characters.

Imperialism, slavery, reading, culture, memories, utopia, ideologies, rebellion, revolutions, grief, freedom, learning, justice, work, societies, hierarchies, (betrayal of) trust, morality, ... Whereas books like Earthsea are mythological tales, the annals of the western shore are deeply personal novels of normal people living their life, and Powers exemplifies this most of all. It's a great travel story.

Le Guin at some of her most direct (without ever getting too obvious, like in The Word for World is Forest) and humanist.