In a possibly controversial opinion, the final novel of the Earthsea cycle just might be my favorite. To get here, we’ve had two great adventures, an exploration of a foreign ritualistic spirituality, and a pointed take on the value of women in a world of male-dominated power, both political and magical. In this last book, all of those elements come together, and the story looks back to the origins of magic, just as it looks forward and asks where the people of Earthsea truly stand in the […]
A book that proposes a meaning of life
The Farthest Shore is possibly the most complex book so far of the Earthsea cycle, and probably the most challenging. The first two books examined the search for the truth within oneself: Ged embraces his darkness, Tenar her light. Both had to forgive themselves and find their absolution while dark worldly powers sought to use their fears against them. For a change of pace, The Farthest Shore sees its protagonists more or less at peace with themselves, but the world around them is collapsing because […]
Better, but still not quite there.
I liked this better than the first one, especially at the end. This was bound to happen since I’m spending so much time with these characters, and Abraham is a consistent, talented writer. The first half continued a lot of the issues I had with the first book, though, so I can’t really give this four stars. Maybe the third book will earn it? It’s been a little over a year since the start of the series. Geder Palliako has gone from social pariah to […]
Amazing potential, disappointing execution.
I didn’t go in to this book expecting to be disappointed (quite the opposite, in fact). It just worked out that way. Firstly, The Dragon’s Path is the first in a five book epic fantasy series. It’s a multiple POV novel, in the style of GRRM, although with only four POV characters instead of who knows how many at this point. The four characters are Dawson Kalliam (a noble who gets embroiled in political intrigue of the court), Cithrin Belsarcour (a young orphan raised as a ward […]
A Dance with Dullness
Wow. And I thought A Clash of Kings was rough going. This… was a slog. (Warning: there will be spoilers for books 1-4, or roughly seasons 1-4 of the show, but none for this particular book.) I could write, here, a plot summary, itself a thousand pages long, of how we ended up here and some of the precise things that happened in A Dance with Dragons, but when I really sit back to think, “What happened?” in this book, I am frankly not sure. […]
Welcome to the next installment of WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ. Pull up a chair, and have a seat.
So before we get to the explication of weirdness, a couple of things of note that might lend context to this review: 1. With the exception of 2013, I’ve read one of these books a year. I can’t handle more than one in a 365 day period. I think I skipped last year because I ran out of time and also I didn’t care. 2. I spent all of last weekend finally watching season one of Legend of the Seeker, the TV show made by Rob […]