Gifts

The clans of the Uplands live on poor, desolate farms, and each family carries a gift. Some gifts are wondrous: calling animals with a glance, raising fire with a gesture, moving the land with a word. Others are fearsome, able to twist a limb, chain a mind or bring on a wasting illness.

Because any family might turn its gift on another, the Uplanders live in constant fear. Power here rests on cruelty and pride, and growing up means learning where one stands in that order.

Two young people, friends since childhood, choose not to use what they have inherited. The girl will not drive animals to their deaths in the hunt. The boy wears a blindfold so that his eyes and his anger cannot kill.

The first volume of the Annals of the Western Shore trilogy, followed by Voices and Powers, is a young adult fantasy with a harsh setting and a dark mood. The question it turns on is whether anyone can find a gift of light in a world like this.