Voices and Gifts

[bibliogramma]

Voices – Ursula K LeGuin

Voices is the second volume in a series LeGuin (or her publisher) is calling the Annals of the Western Shore; I read the first volume, Gifts, a couple of years ago when it first came out and was quite enchanted with it.

Voices is not exactly a sequel, although the main characters of Gifts appear and play crucial roles. It is rather a continuation, a development of themes and issues touched upon in the first book – the importance of understanding and accepting your own abilities and gifts, of knowing who you are and following your own path.

The main protagonist of Voices is a young woman, Memer, who herself has a gift to be acknowledge, accepted and nurtured. For Memer, however, the use of her gift – a gift of vision – can become one of the flashpoints of rebellion against a tyranny that has limited not only the freedoms of the body and of choice, but of the mind and of thought. Memer’s city has been conquered by a people who believe that reading and writing are acts of evil – the works of demons. Memer’s family guards the only surviving collection of her people’s books – their history, their literature, their dreams, their cultural heritage. And closely linked to these books is Memer’s oracular gift to read and voice the truth.

Into Memer’s world come Orrec and Gry, the protagonists of Gifts. Orrec is now a master storyteller, with the gift to create and communicate his creations. When both Orrec and Memer give voice to their gifts, they restore the past, illuminate the present and change the future.

I could also talk about the topicality of a depiction of a war characterised by leaders who believe they are chosen by their deities to drive out evil and demonic forces, of the tragedies that can result from a vast communication gap between cultures, of the muffling and shrouding of women, of the uses that power has for keeping the lessons of history, the voices of truth, the strength of personal integrity and the hope of free creative vision out of the hands of the people, but you’ll get all that and more when you read the book. LeGuin never writes on just one level.