Ursula (Kroeber) Le Guin (1929 – 2018) was a prolific American writer with a large
body of work in what most people would categorize in the science fiction genre.
[The Wikipedia post on her is the longest I’ve ever read] She is known for
creating fantasy settings for her works, including the Hainish Universe,
Earthsea and the Western Shore and many others. They are fantasy series in the
manner of say Narnia, or King Arthur.The
Annals of the Western Shore is a trilogy written late in her career. The novels
are from ancient times and contain stories with related characters and topics scanning
multiple generations. Unique to each of the main characters is an
individualized inherited supernatural trait. The novels tell the story of how they deal with
this mysticism, is it an honor, or a curse?
Book
One is titled Gifts.
It is set in the uplands of the ancient Western Shore where each village is said
to have a resident who is “gifted” with a special trait. It is a coming-of-age
tale of two individuals from neighboring villages. One is Orrec, a young man
who has the power of “the undoing,” the ability to destroy anything with a
stare, a useful trait in warfare. But Orrec was terrified of his gift,
believing that he could not control it. He feared he would accidentally destroy
that which he loved, as well as that which he might purposely target. He would
spend much of his adolescence blindfolded to prevent such accidents. When not
blindfolded, he reads in secrecy and becomes an excellent storyteller.
The
other individual was a young woman named Gry. She had the power to communicate
with animals, from ants to cattle. When she came into her power her village
always took her on hunts with them expecting her to call the deer to come to
slaughter, a chore that spiritually distressed her.
Orrec
and Gry eventually marry and leave the uplands, traveling to where no one would
know of or expect them to use their powers.
Book
Two is Voices. After
Orrec and Gry leave their home in the uplands, they wander throughout the
Western Shore earning their keep, he by storytelling, she as a horse trainer. They
eventually came into the subjugated town of Ansul in the lowlands with the
intention of telling stories in the market place. Storytelling had become
popular in town when it was conquered by the warrior Alds who were illiterate and
banned and destroyed all books in an effort to wipe out the prior culture.
Orrec’s
first public storytelling drew a large crowd which the Alds moved to disperse. When Orrec
moved on with Gry and her pet lion, they needed a place to stay and a young
orphan girl named Memer led them to where she lived, at the Oracle House, which
the soldiers stayed away from because of the fear it was populated with demons.
The head of the Oracle House was a secretly gifted man known as the Waylord. He
had hidden books in the caverns in the back of the House, only he knew the
ancient password to get into the caverns, though he had found out Memer too was
gifted and discovered on her own how to get in. To keep the secret, the Waylord
was teaching her to read.
To
greatly condense what’s next, a revolt broke out, which the multi-lingual Orrec
was able to mediate. As a thank you for his role, the Waylord presented Orrec
an ancient lost history from the hidden library that he had been seeking
throughout the Western Shore.
When Orrec, Gry and the lion move on, they will
take Memer with them to see and travel throughout the Western Shore, with the
understanding that she return to Ansul in a year.
Book
Three is Powers.
It shifts gears significantly. While a mystical trait aspect of the trilogy is
still in play, the storyline becomes much darker. The lead character is a boy
named Gavir, a slave owned by a wealthy family in the town of Etra. His worldview is entirely shaped by his enslaved condition, which as a child occurs to
him to be “normal.” But he’s also
educated, which makes him realize his life is not normal. He will escape,
during a war, to a world unknown to him. His mystical trait is the ability to
see bits of the future, though without any power to change it. (This is the
same “gift” outlined in the current movie: The Life of Chuck).
I think
I could easily make this minireview several pages longer, but I won’t. Just
keep in mind that while the above is a structural review of Annals of the
Western Shore, there are many excellent substories and discussions in this
trilogy that should be given equal justice.
Recommendation: A good, leisurely read. The
books can be read independently. My favorite would definitely be Voices.