POWERS

Reared in slavery, Gavir knows and understands his place in the world. He has confidence that his family’s older son will continue the benign rule that has allowed free and slave children to associate freely and that has encouraged the education of slaves. But with war comes chaos, and when the brutal younger son rapes and kills his beloved older sister, Gav’s beliefs are rocked off their foundation and he escapes to find a more just society. Le Guin tells her story in languid fashion, accreting detail upon detail as Gav tells his tale. His powers are twofold: He can “remember” the future, although he cannot change it, and he can memorize instantly what he reads and hears. It is the latter power that sustains him, as he grows to understand the critical importance of storytelling in the lives of humans. Billed as a “companion” to Gifts (2004) and Voices (2006), in its musing on this power of story, it complements them beautifully, though readers hoping to reacquaint themselves with characters met in the first two novels will find themselves disappointed until the very end. (Fiction. YA)