Gifts
- 274
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Gifts” is a thoughtful, morally serious fantasy about power, inheritance and the fear of one’s own strength. In the barren Uplands, Orrec’s hereditary power to unmake arrives late and seems uncontrollable, so he goes blindfolded among feuding clans. Some readers see why this first volume of a Le Guin trilogy has drawn less attention than Earthsea, even while rating it well. It speaks to young adults and older readers alike.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Gifts (2004) is a young adult fantasy novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is the first book in the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, and is followed in the series by Voices. The story is set in a fictional world, in a barren and poverty-stricken region called the Uplands, some of whose inhabitants have hereditary magical gifts. The story follows the narrator Orrec, son of the leader of the domain of Caspromant, whose hereditary gift is the ability to "unmake", and Gry, the daughter of a neighboring domain, who can communicate with animals. Orrec's gift manifests late, and seems uncontrollable, and so he is blindfolded. Their families are caught up in the cycle of violent feuds and retribution that characterize Upland society in which the children are trying to find their place.
Reading order · Annals of the Western Shore
Full order & progress →- GiftsThis book
7.87.8 / 10 - Voices
–Not ranked yet - Powers
–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 55 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 27% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Young adult average of 7.8. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.4 | 5 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 50 | 91% |
Frequently asked
What age is Gifts for?
Gifts sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 274 pages — shorter than 90% of the ranked books in Young adult.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Young adult — with scores between 7.6 and 7.9, closest to this book.
