Typically when I read a book series, I try to break things up by alternating with books from outside of the series. I’ve found that if I read too many books from one author in a row, I get burned out and have to take a break from that author for a while. However, in Ursula K. LeGuin’s Earthsea Cycle, I may have found the exception to that rule. I read the first two books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan a few years ago and loved them, but got distracted by life and other books. When I decided to revisit the series this year, I found myself desperate to stay in this gorgeous world, and I read one book after another until there was nothing left to read.
Note: spoilers ahead for The Earthsea Cycle books 3-6.
The Farthest Shore
The Farthest Shore is the 3rd installment in the Earthsea Cycle. The book follows Ged, the young protagonist of the first book, now the middle-aged Archmage of Roke, as he seeks the source of a great malaise affecting the world. Magic has stopped working, and people are just generally bummed out. Accompanied by the young prince Arren, Ged sails from island to island across Earthsea on a quest to restore balance to the land. This is a cerebral, slow-moving fantasy novel, light on plot and heavy on philosophizing. There are no epic battles or pyrotechnics here, just a gorgeous meditation on the nature of mortality and the necessity of death (okay, there are also a few dragons and a little bit of swashbuckling). Despite its dark themes, this is a profoundly hopeful book that displays a belief in humanity’s potential for good and a reverence for the fragile preciousness of life.
Tehanu
Tehanu shifts away from Ged’s perspective and focuses on Tenar, the protagonist of the second book, The Tombs of Atuan. After escaping her former life as high priestess of a death-cult, she has spent the last few decades on Ged’s home island of Gont, where she married, raised children, and lived a quiet, domestic life. Now a middle-aged widow, her peace is interrupted by two events. First, she adopts Therru, a young girl with a disfigured face and a past full of trauma and abuse. Second, she is reunited with her old friend Ged, who has lost his magic after the events of The Farthest Shore. Tenar must find a way to protect and nurture Therru, while also navigating changes in her relationship with Ged.
Tehanu was written about 20 years after the first three Earthsea books, and it shows. Le Guin’s writing here feels more grounded and nuanced than in the other books. While the first three books all had teenage protagonists (Ged, Tenar, and Arren, respectively), Tehanu‘s use of a middle-aged woman as viewpoint character provides a refreshing change of pace. Tenar’s story is less expansive than The Farthest Shore, and more intimate, but the stakes feel just as high. Le Guin also uses Tenar’s perspective to interrogate some of the ideas that were presented as fact in the earlier Earthsea books, exploring the world’s gender imbalances in really interesting ways. It is an engaging, thought-provoking read with a compelling female protagonist.
Tales from Earthsea
When Tehanu was first published, Le Guin intended it to be the final book in the Earthsea series. It was even originally subtitled “The Last Book of Earthsea.” But Le Guin ended up returning to the world again in the short story collection, Tales from Earthsea. The collection features stories from all across the Earthsea timeline, from “The Finder,” which chronicles the founding of the school of magic on Roke Island, to “Dragonfly,” which takes place shortly after the events of Tehanu. Tales from Earthsea also features a lengthy appendix detailing the history, cultures, languages, and magic system of the world.
From a story perspective, nothing in Tales of Earthsea really grabbed my attention. I feel like you could easily skip it and still say that you had read the entire series. I think its main value is the insight it provides into Le Guin’s creative process. She seems to use it as a tool to dig deep into the questions she first raised in Tehanu: why can’t women train as sorcerers? Are the differences between “men’s magic” and “women’s magic” innate or systemic? Why are there no sorcerers in the Kargish lands? What’s the deal with dragons? I felt pretty lukewarm about this one as a narrative, but it was fun to kind of get a peek into the writer’s brain as she wrestled with these questions.
The Other Wind
Ugh, I am really regretting combining all of these reviews into one megareview, but it’s too late to turn back now, so let’s carry on. The Other Wind is the actual last book in the Earthsea cycle. It’s also the only one of the novels (not counting Tales from Earthsea) to have more than one viewpoint character. Alder is a young sorcerer haunted by troubling dreams of the dead. He seeks advice from the wizards at Roke, Ged, and finally the king himself. King Lebannen (formerly known as Prince Arren) is dealing with an incursion of dragons, and also trying to avoid getting married. Tenar is around as well, accompanying her daughter, Tehanu (formerly known as Therru), and giving everyone really solid motherly advice.
I felt like this was a pretty solid closing for the Earthsea cycle. The story deals with themes of death, fear, mortality, similar to The Farthest Shore, and while this one lacks some of that novel’s poetry, it comes to a more satisfying conclusion. We get to check in with beloved characters from previous books (even Ged makes a small cameo), and most of the loose ends from the previous books are tied up neatly by the end. It’s a very well-written conclusion to the series, even if I prefer the ambiguity of Tehanu’s ending. This is probably my least favorite Earthsea book, but that’s like saying that Hershey’s is my least favorite chocolate. Are there other kinds I prefer? Sure, but at the end of the day, chocolate is chocolate. And an Earthsea novel is still an Earthsea novel: warm, comforting, and life-affirming.