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| Voices (Annals of the Western Shore) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy New: $1.98
You Save: $15.02 (88%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 346470
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0152056785
EAN: 9780152056780
ASIN: 0152056785
Publication Date: September 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: CAN'T SHIP TO APO, FPO, ALASKA, HAWAII, CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS. FAST DELIVERY.
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Product Description
Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools, and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death. And they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. But to seventeen-year-old Memer, the house is a refuge, a place of family and learning, ritual and memory--the only place where she feels truly safe. Then an Uplands poet named Orrec and his wife, Gry, arrive, and everything in Memer's life begins to change. Will she and the people of Ansul at last be brave enough to rebel against their oppressors? A haunting and gripping coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of violence, intolerance, and magic, Voices is a novel that readers will not soon forget.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Entertaining story, engaging characters September 23, 2006
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a YA novel set in the same world as Le Guin's earlier Gifts, and Orrec and Gry, from the previous book, do figure in the story. The story is completely separate, though, and it's not necessary to have read that one in order to read this.
Memer is a young girl growing up in a city under occupation. Ansul was previously a city of learning and culture; the conquerors have looted the university and destroyed all the books in the city. Writing is demonic, because it takes words, the breath of Atth, the Alds' god, and traps it. Memer's household, Galvamand, was one of the leading households of the city before the Alds arrived, one of the most learned households, and a bit more than that, as we and Memer gradually learn. The house has a secret room, where some of Ansul's books have been preserved, and the head of the household, Sulter Galva, teaches Memer to read. It's the one bright spot in a hard and impoverished life, and for everyone's safety they keep it secret even from the rest of their own household.
Two things upset this precarious stability. One day when she's out doing the marketing, trying to avoid the notice of the Ald soldiers who can be capriciously violent, Memer witnesses the arrival of a Maker, a storyteller--Orrec, with Gry, and a pet lion they've acquired. Because of the Alds' ban on books, and because both Alds and the citizens of Ansul greatly admire storytellers, Orrec's arrival would have been a major event even if the lion hadn't panicked one of the soldiers' horses. Memer, with great presence of mind and a sense that the god of luck has taken charge of her for the day, manages to get control of the horse before it runs anyone down. In the aftermath of this, Orrec and Gry are invited to stay at Galvamand while they're in Ansul. Since Orrec has been invited to perform for the Gand Ioratth, the Ald commander, this brings Memer into closer contact with the occupiers than she has ever experienced.
The second disruptive force is that some of the other formerly-prominent citizens of Ansul are plotting a rebellion against the Alds, and they're consulting Sulter Galva, even though he won't commit to taking part and isn't convinced it's wise to make the attempt.
Orrec and Gry offer to take Memer with them for Orrec's performances for the Gand, and despite her own reluctance, Sulter encourages this, both so she'll hear his best material, and so she'll learn more about the Alds. Memer becomes one of the few people in the city with contacts on both sides. Almost against her will she starts to learn both more about the Alds, and more about the history of her own city. When word arrives that the Alds' Gand of Gands has died, and political changes are coming that could have major repercussions for Ansul, even while the plans for rebellion are coming to a head, Memer is forced into a critical role in the crisis.
Very enjoyable.
 Courtesy of Teens Read Too January 13, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
A companion novel to Le Guin's Gifts (Annals of the Western Shore), VOICES looks in on the life of a teen growing up in a city controlled by an enemy people. Memer has never known a life when hostile soldiers didn't patrol the streets and the possession of a book was not a crime punishable by death. The invading army believes that written words are evil, and that the city of Ansul is full of demons. But Memer knows that the Waylord, the man who raised her after her mother's death, has a hidden library in his house. There, he teaches her to read, and then, to use her understanding to help the city face its greatest crisis.
For a novel that has a lot to do with story-telling and reading, VOICES has more action and excitement than readers might expect. The arrival of Orrec, a great storyteller (and the narrator of GIFTS), rekindles the courage of Ansul's people, and they attempt to rebel against their oppressors. Memer finds herself caught in the middle, torn between her loyalty to the Waylord, who wishes to find a peaceful solution, and her hatred for the soldiers who destroyed so many things that she treasured. With many twists and turns along the way, VOICES delivers a conclusion that is both satisfying and unpredictable.
Perhaps the strongest element of the novel, however, is the way it moves from black and white to shades of gray. Orrec believes that all people have some good in them, and as Memer is forced to get to know the invaders she despises, she realizes that they are not all terrible and cruel. Some of them are simply different, and unable to understand her way of life. The message seems to be that it is far better to reach an understanding with others, even if you dislike them, than to take revenge. In a time when cultural and religious clashes make news almost every day, this should hit home with many readers.
VOICES is not a perfect book. It slows down a little more than I'd have liked before reaching its conclusion, and Memer was not as active in those events as I expect from a main character. But those flaws are minor compared to everything else about the novel: the distinctive setting and culture, the vivid language and personalities, and a voice that suggests, softly, without preaching, that there is more than one way to win a war.
Reviewed by: Lynn Crow
Another good peice of writing for a master story teller. October 5, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Much more fast paced than I am used to for LeGuin's novels. As always though, the writing is amazing, she really does show her family's background in anthropology when she creates these new peoples. They are so realistic. I had the feeling while reading this that it is very much inspired by some contemporary events. It deals with the effects of war--and not just war but an occupied people (in a city) and how the cultures of the occupied and occupier clash due to willful misunderstanding and ignorance.
Memer is the narrator and hero(ine) (though that depends on what outfit she is wearing). Right away you are pulled into her world and the suffering it has been through having to hear only second or third hand of the glory her city once knew.
Not only does the book touch on contemporary issues but it also is very much about the power of the written word and oral communication. (Memer might not realise the power of the oral herself being very biased towards written, but the story has several points where it stressed how the two can work together).
The book has some mature themes though no truly explicit scenes (it does acknowledge the existance of sex and rape however). I enjoyed it and finished it in a couple of hours.
It was only when i was part way through it that I realised it was actually the second book set in that world, and the store didn't have the first. So I can say for a fact that not having read the first one doesn't lessen one's enjoyment or understanding of the second (though there werre probably a few things I missed or didn't pick up on due to that literary hole.)
Less dark than Gifts, complex, gripping, exciting, what next? November 4, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Voices is the second novel set in a new world, unconnected to the Earthsea and Hainish backgrounds of many earlier LeGuin stories. The first book, Gifts, is set in an isolated upland community of families defined by hereditary "supernatural" abilities, some benign, but most leading their possesors to control by threat and terror. The effect of these hereditary anomalies on the development of those empowered/afflicted creates the ground of the narrative. Coming to understand and care about these people lead me to think in unfamiliar patterns about my own reality.
Voices follows two of the gifted into a lowland world of tyranny and hidden resistance, with the forbidden printed word and the rhetoric of belief in conflict and confusion. Both books are full of absorbing action and adventure, both are challenging, but not heavy handed. Both sing with LeGuin's mastery of story telling.
Strong characterization and fast-paced story line. October 8, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Ursula K. LeGuin's VOICES will reach the same age group with a fantasy set in a world where a once-peaceful city of scholars has been captured by desert Alds, its residents forbidden to read or write. Teen Memer finds her life changed with poet Orrec and his wife arrive - and finds that as she explores her skills and talents, forbidden in the new world, she may prove her people's last hope. This is the second book of the Annals of the Western Shore - but it stands alone well and needs no prior introduction to prove compelling, with its strong characterization and fast-paced story line.
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