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Starred review from September 1, 2007
Gr 7 Up-Gavir, a 14-year-old slave in a noble household in Etra, one of the city-states in Le Guin's vividly imagined country, the Western Shore, is troubled by visions that may or may not foretell future events. Kidnapped in early childhood from the northern Marshes, set apart by his darker skin and hooked nose, endowed with a prodigious memory, Gavir is educated to become the scholar who will teach the family's children and their slaves. Protected by his elder sister, Gavir accepts his lot, unable to imagine any other life. Trusting his masters implicitly, he is blind to the danger that enslavement poses to his beautiful sister. When she is raped and killed by the second son of the household, Gavir walks away from the city, crazed with grief. He continues to walk for three years, passing through a wild forest into the Marshlands where he was born. He meets a variety of people along the way, some protective, some threatening, each one contributing to his quest to discover who he is and where he belongs. Hunted by an old enemy from Etra, Gavir returns to the forest to rescue a small girl he met there. In a thrilling escape sequence, he carries her to freedom. He finds a home with Orrec, Gry, and Memer, heroes of "Gifts" (2004) and "Voices" (2006, both Harcourt). Le Guin uses her own prodigious power as a writer to craft lyrical, precise sentences, evoking a palpable sense of place and believable characters. This distinguished novel belongs with its predecessors in all young adult collections."Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams"

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2007
Le Guin returns to "the Western Shore" to explore issues of liberty, loyalty, and self-realization from yet another point of view. In Gifts (rev. 9/04), Orrec told how he and Gry renounced their inherited destructive powers; in Voices (rev. 9/06), Orrec's true gift, eloquence, propelled a desperately needed revolution. Now Gavir records his path from educated but unquestioning slave in one of the central city-states to sanctuary in Orrec and Gry's northern home, where he also finds Memer, narrator of Voices. Along the way, Gav at first accepts the status quo in each of several societies before tragedy reveals their profound faults -- the ruthless power of even benign-seeming masters, rigorous conformity, the denigration of women. Eventually he comes to value the healing power of true knowledge and the power of story. Le Guin's own storytelling and analytical prowess continue to enchant readers: while Gav's arduous adventures lead him to his true self, she explores a rich complexity of hypothetical cultures that elicit new insights into our own.

(Copyright 2007 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from October 1, 2007
With compelling themes about the soul-crushing effects of slavery, and a journey plotline that showcases Le Guins gift for creating a convincing array of cultures, this follow-up to Gifts (2004) and Voices (2006) may be the series best installment. Like M. T. Andersons Octavian Nothing, young slave Gavir, stolen as a baby from the Marsh tribes, has been educated by his masters. Gav responds with deep loyalty, but after a horrific betrayal, he flees, repudiating every aspect of his past and seeking to reconnect with his native people. Tension provided by a slavecatchers pursuit cinches to thriller intensity, but Le Guins storytelling mastery shows clearest in the ways Gavs perambulations express human relationships, and push the unformed teen to carve a future that doesnt deny his pastespecially the poems and tales that once gave him joy. Told with shimmering lyricism, this coming-of-age saga will leave readers as transformed by the power of words as is Gav himself, who ultimately finds a lifeline that tugs him toward a spiritual homecoming. Based on the strength of the first three books in the Annals of the Western Shore, Le Guins fans have ample reason to hope that the author may be building toward a fantasy cycle as ambitious in scope as her beloved chronicles of Earthsea.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)