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 User 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 User.
"It is a mature, provocative, and exceptionally beautifully written fantasy, and O'Leary makes it resonate. There are books you read once, and cast aside forever, and then there are books that call you back again and again. The Gift is such a book."
Locus.
"The Gift turns out to be just as wonderful a reading experience as was the author's first novel."
Charles de Lint, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
