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The Gift
A story within a story, The Gift is a story of innocence betrayed and magic rejected. Tim is robbed of his childhood, and Simon is tormented by hearing made too acute. Both are victims of The Usher of the Night, once a boy like them, now pathetically twisted by his own ambition and by Tomen, a malevolent creature of magic. Together Simon and Tim must rid their land of the magic that has been misused by Tomen and The Usher.
286 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 1997
About the author
Patrick O'Leary
13 books21 followersPatrick O'Leary (Saginaw, Michigan, September 13, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author and ad copy writer.
O'Leary's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series. He wrote the poem "Nobody Knows It But Me" which was used in the popular 2002 advertising campaign for the Chevrolet Tahoe and read in the commercial by James Garner.
Works: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?P...
O'Leary's literary works have been recognized and highlighted at Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series. He wrote the poem "Nobody Knows It But Me" which was used in the popular 2002 advertising campaign for the Chevrolet Tahoe and read in the commercial by James Garner.
Works: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?P...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
February 27, 2008
I just read this book for the third time. It is one of those books that I will return to over the years. It is a fantasy story about stories. It is very feminist and I think everyone should read this book because it is one of those that leaves the reader with a powerful experience.
May 2, 2020
Patrick O'Leary defines his theme and his audience in the opening lines: "This is a story about monsters. The real ones. Not the ones we tell children about."
This is a fantasy -- in the tradition of Tolkien and of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy, and of Greek mythology -- but written in a style that is not meant for children. There's lots of story here, but the ways the story is told are often more important than the story itself. With stories inside stories inside stories, The Gift is too complex for children to follow. (I wouldn't read this aloud to my son, Tim, even though the main character here is named Tim). Rather this is a tale that you savor yourself, alone, and then retell pieces and read isolated passages to your children.
As in Tolkien, the fantasy world has undergone an evolution. There was a previous age, when dragons and powerful magic were common. The "great race who fell from the sky" were powerful wizards. They were deathless, but also without physical embodiment. They traded their immortality for human form, that they might feel fully, as humans do. Hence they died out. But one of the gifts which they left for man was the ability to tell stories.
"Everything must have a gift and a price. We wizards once were spirit. But we long to be human. What was the price we paid?"
"Death, the Watermen replied.
"And the gift we gave?"
"Magic." (p. 15)
That prehistory gives the tale a remarkable depth of reality -- shadows and mysteries and secrets to be revealed that interweave from page to page. This is not just the tale of a handful of individuals. This is sacred book credibly explaining the fantastical true nature of an entire new world. And the psychology and revelations keep resonating in unexpected ways with human psychology and the meaning of life in general.
O'Leary shows great respect for words, and great mastery in their use. He luxuriates in them, as he luxuriates in story for the sake of story, with all the paraphenalia of myth and fairy tale. He creates his characters and their fantastical natures with loving care, and respects their unique psychology, building story from their nature, rather than moving them about willy-nilly as mere markers in a story more important than themselves.
For O'Leary telling is a way of knowing, and naming (as for Adam and Eve in Eden) is a way of controlling nature. He seems to delight in the complex and unexpected interrelationship of words and things, frequently concocting wild and beautifully poetic images that enrich the story.
"'What are thoughts but a type of music,' he had wondered. 'Music unplayed in the air. Perhaps his Majesty has become an instrument. Perhaps someday we will have such instruments that will retrieve such invisible music.'" (pp. 73-74)
Stories have magic, mythic power to characters within the stories.
"Do you see what happened to the King?" the Teller asked. "he got a bad story in him. ... I see you do not understand. Listen, then. There are stories that hide themselves inside of us like bats inside a cave." ( p. 156)
The world is alive and what today passes as inanimate nature truly has personality and purpose (as in the days of nymphs and dyads).
"The winds left abruptly without a good-bye, for winds, though they are never purposely rude, have no sense of manners." (p. 153)
"Eventually, through the days of this fever-dream, as Marty and Simon watched over him, he learned in silence and despair that a person was capable of containing anything -- any horror, any grief, any hideous notion that battered his skull. He discovered that the body has extra places reserved for these new and awful things, as if there were rooms within, like the unused forms of a great castle, rooms that could hold and honor and sustain infinite levels of wonder and pain. (p. 206)
His assemblage of "remarkable facts, survival tactics, reliable opinions, and gossip" (p. 126) is truly beautiful, with brief phrases conjuring entire new ways of looking at the world, and one such miracle following another and another.
"He learned the names of the southern winds who were more dangerous because they were more awake, the names of every tree along the timberline, the way to know a storm is coming when you cannot see it, to pass through an evil cloud with your eyes closed, the most intelligent birds and how to address them. Avoid flying after dark for the wind has nightmares, beware of bats: they are mindless; drink no water on the plain: it has gone bad; never trust a talking blue jay; always trust a magpie: they have the gift of human speech because they are the best listeners; sparrows are the most loyal but also the stupidest birds; gold finches are splendid messengers, so long as they fly toward the sun; all hawks are mercenary and unreliable; butterlflies are sacred children: do not disturb them; never fly in one day longer than you can walk in twenty, for it is possible to forget how to walk; beware of the the tallest trees to the south: they have a magic too old to fool with; gosis love a shadow; eat only the fruit from green trees." (p. 126)
He makes the abstract concrete and memorable ("the wind has nightmares"), and a phrase that in someone else's book would be a mere metaphor, here is a revelation of unexpected, inner truth ("never trust a talking blue jay").
Superficially, O'Leary's first two published novels are very different. Door Number Three is science fiction, and The Gift is fantasy. But both are explorations of alternative modes of understanding and of being. In both bases, the starting point is the fact that human understanding is limited, though in Door the world in which the story unfolds resembles today's world, and in Gift the world resembles the world of folk tale and myth.
O'Leary appears to be a ruminator -- one who ponders his work for years, and lets his characters come to life in his mind, and lets his stories tell themselves over and over again in his mind before they take finished form on the page. And these two stories both grew in his mind simultaneously, until they were ready to be born.
Both are excellent, but The Gift has the greater richness of language and story, gives you more reason to return and read it again, makes you wish that the story were indeed simple enough to tell to children, so you'd have a good excuse to read it aloud time and again.
This is a fantasy -- in the tradition of Tolkien and of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy, and of Greek mythology -- but written in a style that is not meant for children. There's lots of story here, but the ways the story is told are often more important than the story itself. With stories inside stories inside stories, The Gift is too complex for children to follow. (I wouldn't read this aloud to my son, Tim, even though the main character here is named Tim). Rather this is a tale that you savor yourself, alone, and then retell pieces and read isolated passages to your children.
As in Tolkien, the fantasy world has undergone an evolution. There was a previous age, when dragons and powerful magic were common. The "great race who fell from the sky" were powerful wizards. They were deathless, but also without physical embodiment. They traded their immortality for human form, that they might feel fully, as humans do. Hence they died out. But one of the gifts which they left for man was the ability to tell stories.
"Everything must have a gift and a price. We wizards once were spirit. But we long to be human. What was the price we paid?"
"Death, the Watermen replied.
"And the gift we gave?"
"Magic." (p. 15)
That prehistory gives the tale a remarkable depth of reality -- shadows and mysteries and secrets to be revealed that interweave from page to page. This is not just the tale of a handful of individuals. This is sacred book credibly explaining the fantastical true nature of an entire new world. And the psychology and revelations keep resonating in unexpected ways with human psychology and the meaning of life in general.
O'Leary shows great respect for words, and great mastery in their use. He luxuriates in them, as he luxuriates in story for the sake of story, with all the paraphenalia of myth and fairy tale. He creates his characters and their fantastical natures with loving care, and respects their unique psychology, building story from their nature, rather than moving them about willy-nilly as mere markers in a story more important than themselves.
For O'Leary telling is a way of knowing, and naming (as for Adam and Eve in Eden) is a way of controlling nature. He seems to delight in the complex and unexpected interrelationship of words and things, frequently concocting wild and beautifully poetic images that enrich the story.
"'What are thoughts but a type of music,' he had wondered. 'Music unplayed in the air. Perhaps his Majesty has become an instrument. Perhaps someday we will have such instruments that will retrieve such invisible music.'" (pp. 73-74)
Stories have magic, mythic power to characters within the stories.
"Do you see what happened to the King?" the Teller asked. "he got a bad story in him. ... I see you do not understand. Listen, then. There are stories that hide themselves inside of us like bats inside a cave." ( p. 156)
The world is alive and what today passes as inanimate nature truly has personality and purpose (as in the days of nymphs and dyads).
"The winds left abruptly without a good-bye, for winds, though they are never purposely rude, have no sense of manners." (p. 153)
"Eventually, through the days of this fever-dream, as Marty and Simon watched over him, he learned in silence and despair that a person was capable of containing anything -- any horror, any grief, any hideous notion that battered his skull. He discovered that the body has extra places reserved for these new and awful things, as if there were rooms within, like the unused forms of a great castle, rooms that could hold and honor and sustain infinite levels of wonder and pain. (p. 206)
His assemblage of "remarkable facts, survival tactics, reliable opinions, and gossip" (p. 126) is truly beautiful, with brief phrases conjuring entire new ways of looking at the world, and one such miracle following another and another.
"He learned the names of the southern winds who were more dangerous because they were more awake, the names of every tree along the timberline, the way to know a storm is coming when you cannot see it, to pass through an evil cloud with your eyes closed, the most intelligent birds and how to address them. Avoid flying after dark for the wind has nightmares, beware of bats: they are mindless; drink no water on the plain: it has gone bad; never trust a talking blue jay; always trust a magpie: they have the gift of human speech because they are the best listeners; sparrows are the most loyal but also the stupidest birds; gold finches are splendid messengers, so long as they fly toward the sun; all hawks are mercenary and unreliable; butterlflies are sacred children: do not disturb them; never fly in one day longer than you can walk in twenty, for it is possible to forget how to walk; beware of the the tallest trees to the south: they have a magic too old to fool with; gosis love a shadow; eat only the fruit from green trees." (p. 126)
He makes the abstract concrete and memorable ("the wind has nightmares"), and a phrase that in someone else's book would be a mere metaphor, here is a revelation of unexpected, inner truth ("never trust a talking blue jay").
Superficially, O'Leary's first two published novels are very different. Door Number Three is science fiction, and The Gift is fantasy. But both are explorations of alternative modes of understanding and of being. In both bases, the starting point is the fact that human understanding is limited, though in Door the world in which the story unfolds resembles today's world, and in Gift the world resembles the world of folk tale and myth.
O'Leary appears to be a ruminator -- one who ponders his work for years, and lets his characters come to life in his mind, and lets his stories tell themselves over and over again in his mind before they take finished form on the page. And these two stories both grew in his mind simultaneously, until they were ready to be born.
Both are excellent, but The Gift has the greater richness of language and story, gives you more reason to return and read it again, makes you wish that the story were indeed simple enough to tell to children, so you'd have a good excuse to read it aloud time and again.
November 1, 2014
What a frustrating book this has been to read. I loved it and hated it in equal measure. It's a beautiful book from the cover design by Bonni Leon (it's not clear if she's the artist as well as the designer) to the flowing prose which is, in itself, a character - as in characterises the novel. I loved it for its sumptuous use of language and I hated it for all its side-trips and dead ends which didn't seem to be leading anywhere. I would have loved it more if the storyteller didn't ramble on so...
Yes, this is a book about stories and the telling of them and the central conceit is that on a sea voyage a storyteller enthralls (literally) the crew after a mysterious naked woman has been hauled up, drowned, out of the sea and thrown back in again. The storyteller begins, and for every story that he tells that seems to lead you somewhere there are many stories that don't seem to have any point at all. It's not even clear whether his stories are about the same world that the ship and the crew inhabit. Yet eventually, after much waffle, everything ties together and his told story comes to a conclusion – and then the bookend story also comes to a conclusion and neatly ties in with the told story, and then the novel also comes to a conclusion. Yes, you do eventually learn the secret of the drowned woman, but she's only a byproduct of the main story.
There were times when I almost lost the will to live and I was screaming silently 'Get on with it!' and other times when I was captivated by the imagination of Mr. O'Leary. By and large I'm glad I read 'The Gift', but I wouldn't ever want to have to read it again. It's a book I can admire from the outside without ever getting drawn in completely.
Yes, this is a book about stories and the telling of them and the central conceit is that on a sea voyage a storyteller enthralls (literally) the crew after a mysterious naked woman has been hauled up, drowned, out of the sea and thrown back in again. The storyteller begins, and for every story that he tells that seems to lead you somewhere there are many stories that don't seem to have any point at all. It's not even clear whether his stories are about the same world that the ship and the crew inhabit. Yet eventually, after much waffle, everything ties together and his told story comes to a conclusion – and then the bookend story also comes to a conclusion and neatly ties in with the told story, and then the novel also comes to a conclusion. Yes, you do eventually learn the secret of the drowned woman, but she's only a byproduct of the main story.
There were times when I almost lost the will to live and I was screaming silently 'Get on with it!' and other times when I was captivated by the imagination of Mr. O'Leary. By and large I'm glad I read 'The Gift', but I wouldn't ever want to have to read it again. It's a book I can admire from the outside without ever getting drawn in completely.
May 17, 2007
The most pretentious fantasy book I’ve read. O’Leary has plenty to say about how great it is to be a storyteller, but apparently very little idea of how to tell an interesting story.
May 26, 2010
COLD AND CONFUSING.
Publishers Weekly described this book as "a heartwearming, enchanting story" but I think whoever wrote that had never read it. The story comes across as pessimistic, and the dark side of magic is emphasized throughout. Letting good guys succeed here and there doesn't really make up for all the repetition of the evils in, above, and below the world. I found myself doubting the existence of goodness within the world of the story. So, no, definitely not heartwarming.
Aside from the themes, the style itself was problematic for me. It is a mystery to me why the sailors on the boat would be mesmerized by "the Teller." I was about 3/8 into the book before I cared about the characters or had a clue where the story was going. There were stories told within stories told within stories, and there were just too many characters to develop affection for any of them, and too many tales for me to know what to pay attention to and what to dismiss as fluff (I'm sure the author would look down his nose and tell me that none of it is fluff---or maybe he'd laugh and tell me that all of it is fluff; I don't know). Until at least page 100, I was generally confused, and to be honest, there was plenty of confusion to be had during the rest of the novel. Only my tendency to like closure got me through the first half.
If you love parables and fables, then you might---just might---like this story. Part fantasy, part pedantry, plus a little sci-fi (apparently it's important to the author to throw in something so appalling that we will all naturally become pro-choice overnight), this novel is very novel but just not my style.
Publishers Weekly described this book as "a heartwearming, enchanting story" but I think whoever wrote that had never read it. The story comes across as pessimistic, and the dark side of magic is emphasized throughout. Letting good guys succeed here and there doesn't really make up for all the repetition of the evils in, above, and below the world. I found myself doubting the existence of goodness within the world of the story. So, no, definitely not heartwarming.
Aside from the themes, the style itself was problematic for me. It is a mystery to me why the sailors on the boat would be mesmerized by "the Teller." I was about 3/8 into the book before I cared about the characters or had a clue where the story was going. There were stories told within stories told within stories, and there were just too many characters to develop affection for any of them, and too many tales for me to know what to pay attention to and what to dismiss as fluff (I'm sure the author would look down his nose and tell me that none of it is fluff---or maybe he'd laugh and tell me that all of it is fluff; I don't know). Until at least page 100, I was generally confused, and to be honest, there was plenty of confusion to be had during the rest of the novel. Only my tendency to like closure got me through the first half.
If you love parables and fables, then you might---just might---like this story. Part fantasy, part pedantry, plus a little sci-fi (apparently it's important to the author to throw in something so appalling that we will all naturally become pro-choice overnight), this novel is very novel but just not my style.
May 11, 2022
I've reread this a lot. While looking up some info from the author, I read that this fantasy book is set on an Earth visited by aliens
And now the many sci-fi-ish aspects that I've glossed over in my many previous reads of this book make a bit more sense. And I'm like 🤦♀️ Duh.
Anyway. It's a Matryoshka doll of a book, stories nested within stories, and this time I made a bunch more connections than I ever have before. And also one story could have been straight out of The Handmaid's Tale.
It's sadder than I remember, too. The Listener and the Winds really got me this time.
I really like it, have ever since I was a kid (teen?). It gets richer each time.
And now the many sci-fi-ish aspects that I've glossed over in my many previous reads of this book make a bit more sense. And I'm like 🤦♀️ Duh.
Anyway. It's a Matryoshka doll of a book, stories nested within stories, and this time I made a bunch more connections than I ever have before. And also one story could have been straight out of The Handmaid's Tale.
It's sadder than I remember, too. The Listener and the Winds really got me this time.
I really like it, have ever since I was a kid (teen?). It gets richer each time.
February 8, 2021
Jumps around a lot - story unfolds in an erratic fashion. Reminds reader that we are all mortal and should use our time wisely not worrying so much what others may think but what we believe. Encourages me to tell others what I feel and not worry about their reaction. I have only one "go around" and should make best use of it. The author choose and use wording that impacted me emotionally - not something that happens often. It is a book that takes time to read but is worth doing so. It is one I will reread. This was recommended by someone who has read it several times. I trust her book suggestions and this is the best one yet. It touched me that someone understood the impact it would have!
February 23, 2017
Exceptionally original novel. I had such an ominous feeling while reading this late at night that I would often leave a light on in the adjacent room just in case. In case of what? Not sure. Probably in case the Usher showed up. Unique blend of magic, dark fantasy and a few scientific overtones to the mix. Mostly the novel is about storytelling, imho, and how we learn this gift as we discover how to make sense of the world we live in. What gets in the way? Fear. Fear has the great power and possibility to fuck everything up and in this sense The Gift is quite timely even though it was originally published back in the late 90's.
February 9, 2021
I first read this book as a teenager, and it has echoed around in my brain ever since.
January 6, 2020
Short review: Don't bother wasting your time!
There's very few books I can say that about unequivocally, but this is one of them. I am a firm believer that all stories have merit but this one didn't connect with me at all. I nearly put it down twice, and in the end I should have - I wanted my time back.
This book has been on my radar for years, due to the striking cover art by Bonnie Leon (for a long time, I thought it was by Thomas Canty as it is very much in his style) and the comparisons to one of my all-time favourite authors, Patricia A. McKillip.
The glowing Locus review quoted on the inside front cover specially compares this to three books: Gene Wolfe's Peace (which I haven't read, and so cannot comment on), McKillip's The Book of Atrix Wolfe (one of my faves by her) and Ursula K. Le Guin's Tehanu (part of her Earthsea series). Besides the theme of wizards, the only connection I can see is a certain narrative style that Le Guin's Earthsea and McKillip's early Riddle-Master trilogy share: a flat, concrete, sparse and emotionless tone. But that works against this book, not for it.
This is a puzzle book: a story-within-a-story, where all the stories are the same story in disguise. I really thought it might be going somewhere, and eventually it did come together, but the journey wasn't worth following and the destination wasn't worth reaching.
Starting with the body of a recently pregnant woman hauled up in the nets of a fishing ship (shown on the cover) and a mysterious story Teller relating a convoluted, very long and confusing tale of magic to the crew. The first two sentences from the Prologue do warn us:
"This is a story about monsters.
The real ones. Not the ones we tell children about."
For all the magic here, there is no wonder.
We follow a corrupt wizard named Nemot, who gets raised from the dead as a giant talking rook (crow) named Tomen (and yet no one can make the connection!) and sets about wreaking destruction until a cursed half-mad king, an orphaned boy, and a magically sentient frog try to stop him. The real message: for all the magic in the world, the real monsters are men. But this travesty of a coming-of-age-tale renders this message trite and simplistic, and it has no emotional resonance. Not a single character here is likeable, or worth rooting for. And the ending - a forced romantic set-up to make the now much older orphaned boy "into a man" - is eye-rollingly awful.
I'd recommend skipping this one.
There's very few books I can say that about unequivocally, but this is one of them. I am a firm believer that all stories have merit but this one didn't connect with me at all. I nearly put it down twice, and in the end I should have - I wanted my time back.
This book has been on my radar for years, due to the striking cover art by Bonnie Leon (for a long time, I thought it was by Thomas Canty as it is very much in his style) and the comparisons to one of my all-time favourite authors, Patricia A. McKillip.
The glowing Locus review quoted on the inside front cover specially compares this to three books: Gene Wolfe's Peace (which I haven't read, and so cannot comment on), McKillip's The Book of Atrix Wolfe (one of my faves by her) and Ursula K. Le Guin's Tehanu (part of her Earthsea series). Besides the theme of wizards, the only connection I can see is a certain narrative style that Le Guin's Earthsea and McKillip's early Riddle-Master trilogy share: a flat, concrete, sparse and emotionless tone. But that works against this book, not for it.
This is a puzzle book: a story-within-a-story, where all the stories are the same story in disguise. I really thought it might be going somewhere, and eventually it did come together, but the journey wasn't worth following and the destination wasn't worth reaching.
Starting with the body of a recently pregnant woman hauled up in the nets of a fishing ship (shown on the cover) and a mysterious story Teller relating a convoluted, very long and confusing tale of magic to the crew. The first two sentences from the Prologue do warn us:
"This is a story about monsters.
The real ones. Not the ones we tell children about."
For all the magic here, there is no wonder.
We follow a corrupt wizard named Nemot, who gets raised from the dead as a giant talking rook (crow) named Tomen (and yet no one can make the connection!) and sets about wreaking destruction until a cursed half-mad king, an orphaned boy, and a magically sentient frog try to stop him. The real message: for all the magic in the world, the real monsters are men. But this travesty of a coming-of-age-tale renders this message trite and simplistic, and it has no emotional resonance. Not a single character here is likeable, or worth rooting for. And the ending - a forced romantic set-up to make the now much older orphaned boy "into a man" - is eye-rollingly awful.
I'd recommend skipping this one.
June 25, 2017
I recently rediscovered this book in my mom's basement. It was a favorite of mine from when I was a kid, and it was even better than I remembered. On second read as an adult, I can see how this book owes a lot to Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea series. The world building and character development was impressive, as were the plot twists — I could barely put this book down! I definitely recommend this as a great high fantasy the young adult book.
September 10, 2018
This was a very interesting tale... The story was the telling of a story itself. A rather interesting way of going about things. It was interesting to pick up on how the story being told related to the teller and the audience. Enjoyable, but not as light of a read for the situation I found myself reading it in. I might have enjoyed it more if I could have tuned out other things a bit more to be enveloped in the story and its mysteries.
May 28, 2017
Yes it's dark, yes it's serious (and there are several rape mentions, though no graphic descriptions) but I was hugely satisfied by this book.
As someone who is definitely a slave and an addict to stories, this book resonated with me on a deep level. I will definitely be reading it again and again.
As someone who is definitely a slave and an addict to stories, this book resonated with me on a deep level. I will definitely be reading it again and again.
November 11, 2017
I really enjoyed the read, although at times a little pretentious, it had just enough mystery to keep me wondering, and more than enough high fantasy to make it gripping. I will definitely be looking for other books by this author!
October 26, 2017
Not a usual fan of fantasy, this was unlike anything I've ever read before. Full of stories within stories and insightful gems.
May 19, 2021
Brilliant fairytale about stories and magic. Smart, sad, and beautiful.
I enjoyed this a great deal. It is quick to read and worth rereading.
I enjoyed this a great deal. It is quick to read and worth rereading.
July 1, 2023
Well-written, and misogynistic. I knew I was in for it when he listed Gene Wolfe as an influence. Did not finish.
November 17, 2016
I remember reading this book as a young adult and I loved it.
June 8, 2022
This book was easy to follow despite being stories within stories. It filled me with a sense of childlike wonder while being just the perfect blend of dark and uplifting.
The Gift is titled so as reverence to the art of storytelling and this story lives up to it’s name!
The Gift is titled so as reverence to the art of storytelling and this story lives up to it’s name!
Shelved as 'sorted-out'
February 20, 2017Es ist mal wieder an der Zeit, einige Bücher auszusortieren, die ich doch nicht lesen möchte - dieses gehört dazu.
January 11, 2016
I was absorbed when reading this,I enjoyed it most of the time but at others it was a scary book telling about all the nightmares that could become of you. Like when Tim experiences all the ways he could become a monster himself by experiencing it through others. That's not a happy ending for him, he has to watch as horrible people do terrible things to others. The story I thought was from male pov's but it was all about women and how guys interact and think of them.
August 29, 2015
This is was a very interesting read! It’s my sister’s all-time favorite so I was obliged to read it.
It started off, and indeed remains on the surface, as a reasonably generic coming-of-age fantasy. That quickly developed into a ‘here’s some chosen kids whom we give super powers’ kind of thing which I’ve build up an allergy for. The thing that kept me going was the storytelling which was quite fresh. Very verbal and oral in its use as the whole story is really a tale told by a storyteller.
Many of the stories have stories within them, which sometimes even go as far as having stories within those. That combined with the sometimes unnatural, other times surprisingly moving prose get things interesting. The stories on alone were good, don’t get me wrong. But at times they seemed to go nowhere.
In any case. This upper layer of storytelling starts to reveal layers of meaning and story-lines in-between. An though I really didn’t like the one-dimensional child character ‘Tim’, it all takes a turn around the halfway point when things start to come together.
And even at the end, where a lot of the things hinted at are revealed, there still are many of the undercurrents and themes which get no explicit mention, yet are a definite part of the plot.
Frustrating at times and not the most memorable of main characters, but a very interesting and beautiful story nonetheless!
It started off, and indeed remains on the surface, as a reasonably generic coming-of-age fantasy. That quickly developed into a ‘here’s some chosen kids whom we give super powers’ kind of thing which I’ve build up an allergy for. The thing that kept me going was the storytelling which was quite fresh. Very verbal and oral in its use as the whole story is really a tale told by a storyteller.
Many of the stories have stories within them, which sometimes even go as far as having stories within those. That combined with the sometimes unnatural, other times surprisingly moving prose get things interesting. The stories on alone were good, don’t get me wrong. But at times they seemed to go nowhere.
In any case. This upper layer of storytelling starts to reveal layers of meaning and story-lines in-between. An though I really didn’t like the one-dimensional child character ‘Tim’, it all takes a turn around the halfway point when things start to come together.
And even at the end, where a lot of the things hinted at are revealed, there still are many of the undercurrents and themes which get no explicit mention, yet are a definite part of the plot.
Frustrating at times and not the most memorable of main characters, but a very interesting and beautiful story nonetheless!
January 25, 2016
I was required to read this book for my English class, and I'm so grateful for that. This book was amazing.
Alright, first off I have to say that the writing and framing of the story was the reason that I did not give this book five stars. It can be quite confusing at times as to what is going on and in which time period or location you are in. Other than that, I had no problems with this book.
This book is an amazing example of the typical fantasy book. It has the reluctant hero, the complete quest sequence, magic and magical creatures, and a couple of villains. So, if that is what you're looking for in a book, this is a good choice.
I loved the way the characters were written, and the way that Patrick O'Leary can make the reader be moved to pity for even one of the villains after reading his back story.
Lastly the plot twists/surprises were well written, and had my prof not already spoiled them for me ahead of time, I would not have been able to guess them.
Alright, first off I have to say that the writing and framing of the story was the reason that I did not give this book five stars. It can be quite confusing at times as to what is going on and in which time period or location you are in. Other than that, I had no problems with this book.
This book is an amazing example of the typical fantasy book. It has the reluctant hero, the complete quest sequence, magic and magical creatures, and a couple of villains. So, if that is what you're looking for in a book, this is a good choice.
I loved the way the characters were written, and the way that Patrick O'Leary can make the reader be moved to pity for even one of the villains after reading his back story.
Lastly the plot twists/surprises were well written, and had my prof not already spoiled them for me ahead of time, I would not have been able to guess them.
April 4, 2008
"The Gift is an exploration of the art of storytelling, a coming-of-age tale in a place and time when magic is not the ring to be grabbed but the poison to be shunned."
And it is exactly that.
It is written in a style that is less than linear, and in a voice that is more akin to archaic forms of storytelling, the kinds that you'd hear around a fire on a cold winter's night rather than we styles commonly read. It's a story that unfolds in small pieces, which begs the reader to be patient, and to pay attention to what and how each individual element is presented. For me, it was magical. Others in the book club, however, found it to be slow and hard to get into.
Give it a try. It's well worth the effort.
And it is exactly that.
It is written in a style that is less than linear, and in a voice that is more akin to archaic forms of storytelling, the kinds that you'd hear around a fire on a cold winter's night rather than we styles commonly read. It's a story that unfolds in small pieces, which begs the reader to be patient, and to pay attention to what and how each individual element is presented. For me, it was magical. Others in the book club, however, found it to be slow and hard to get into.
Give it a try. It's well worth the effort.
February 28, 2013
While enjoyable, The Gift can be disconcerting in its style. It draws strongly on oral storytelling which is unexpected in a written format. I found it hard to follow at times and it lacks the detail of explanation or a system of magic with particular rules. Very little is fully explained, which I found frustrating. Though I enjoyed the reveal at the end of the book, I was not a huge fan of the ending. The book was okay, but I wasn't overly impressed.
March 27, 2008
It's mostly well-written, with occasional descents into pure drivel, like this:
"Every bird who looked upon the grey eagle thought the same thing: He better have a good answer. He did."
Also, there's a line near the end which is inexplicably plagiarized from the Princess Bride. I'm actually quite curious why the author did this.
Other than that, the book was good.
"Every bird who looked upon the grey eagle thought the same thing: He better have a good answer. He did."
Also, there's a line near the end which is inexplicably plagiarized from the Princess Bride. I'm actually quite curious why the author did this.
Other than that, the book was good.
February 29, 2008
read this quite a while ago, but have consistently re-read it every couple of years. a fantasy book that's well written and goes beyond mere fantasy and touches on the deeper meanings to be foundin life.
January 4, 2022
Je dois dire que j'ai eu un peu de mal à rentrer dedans et même un fois entré, de ne pas en sortir! L'abord est difficile avec un énorme besoin d'abstraction pour trouver derrière l'histoire le fil conducteur, l'âme cachée du récit. Un livre ardu qui réclame certainement une deuxième lecture ...
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April 27, 2014This is good fantasy. It's a stories-within-stories-about-stories type of story, and also plays along the border of magic and technology. Rather male-centric, I'm afraid, but I wouldn't say chauvinistic.
July 15, 2015
Intriguing.
There are books that we read for their storylines and there are books that we read for the writer's beautiful prose. Here, The Gift is a book that's liked for both its unique storyline and O'Leary's skills in weaving words together.
There are books that we read for their storylines and there are books that we read for the writer's beautiful prose. Here, The Gift is a book that's liked for both its unique storyline and O'Leary's skills in weaving words together.
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