Reviews

Poderes by Ursula K. Le Guin

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katmarhan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

8.5/10
This story was absorbing, a little slow in parts, with a cast of interesting characters. Gavir’s journey to learn the truths about himself, his world, and his powers is the plot of the book; the reader experiences and learns only what he does, and so some things remain unknown, some questions remain unanswered. Seeing everything from only Gavir’s perspective gives the reader a sense of intimacy with him but, unfortunately, that also means there is always a distance between the reader and the other characters.
The author does a masterful job of creating the various settings in the story—

Arcamand and the city of Etra in times of peace and siege, the farm at Vente, Cuga’s cave, the camp of the Forest Brothers and Heart of the Forest, and the villages of the Marshes

. They are almost like characters themselves.
I highly recommend all 3 books of the Annals of the Western Shore. While they are sometimes listed as YA, I found them engaging and thought-provoking.

mitziatratum's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

trinathebard's review against another edition

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5.0

Beautiful as usual. The end made me cry

sandstar's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

doseogwan's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was so incredibly beautiful to read. My favourite part of this series. Such deepness and compassion, a marvel.

magdie's review against another edition

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informative mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

erasmios's review against another edition

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4.0

The last and longest book of the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy tells the story of a slave boy and his journey into manhood. Although all three books share same or similar themes (literature, religion, slavery), Powers was in my opinion by far the heaviest to read and offered the most profound view of those themes. I can only guess, but I feel like that might have been Le Guin's intention, to gradually lessen the fantasy elements (e.g. magical powers) or shifting the focus away from them, while deepening the real-world ones (like slavery) over the course of the three books. In any case Powers is definitely the darkest book of the trilogy. Everything I wrote about Gifts and Voices holds true here as well. Powers is an incredible journey every fantasy reader should experience and learn from.

zober's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this coming-of-age fantasy story. It follows Gavir's life through various phases/settings, which I won't list in order to avoid spoilers. It's fairly slow, and thought-provoking. Definitely a departure from the plot-focused fantasy best sellers of the current era, but I welcomed it.

Quotes I enjoyed:

Sometimes, they told me, a boy, refusing his second initiation, chose to return to the women's village and live there as a woman the rest of his life.

yesss Ursula with a trans-friendly culture, somewhat implied to be indigenous in nature

I thought of her beautiful sister, and wondered if Melle too would be beautiful. I found myself thinking, "Let her be spared that!"

reminiscent of Daisy hoping her daughter will be a "beautiful little fool" in Great Gatsby, except... a different take on the fact that society only values women for their beauty

coleycole's review against another edition

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1.0

Could... not... finish... too... slow... read... two... thirds... of... it... and... was... bored... really... wanted... to... enjoy... but... too... slooooooooow

moss_and_the_void's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

The book took a pace from page one that made it easy to continue reading. The world building was thorough and very good. Depictions of the Marsh people felt thinly veiled in illusion to Indigenous communities and at times felt a bit condescending (this thought is colored by the knowledge that the author's father was an anthropologist who studied west coast Indigenous communities). I am also still unsure of what to make of the depiction of slavery. I actually think the ambiguity of these two depictions is part of what made this book interesting - it constantly left me thinking and wanting to be back in the story. the character and plot moved and grew and had the correct amount of tension imo.

Content Warnings

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