Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin

 I think I know, now, why I quit reading Ursula Le Guin in the late 80s. This was the last book by her that I purchased, and it was and is so tedious and only a fantasy novel by virtue of occurring in the realm of Earthsea, that I think I just gave up - on Ged and his companions, and on Le Guin, until I happened upon The Other Wind recently and was motivated to re-read the series.

The story begins almost simultaneously with the end of the quest in The Farthest Shore, when Ged and King Lebannen have defeated the sorcerer, Cob, on the other side of death. A farmer's widow, Goha, whom we once knew as Tenar, from The Tombs of Atuan, finds out that the mage, Ogion, is ill, probably dying and rushes to be with him in his final hours. When the city life overwhelmed her after she returned with the ring of Erreth Akbe, accompanying the archmage, Sparrowhawk, she was sent to stay with Ogion for a while as his ward, before she moved out and became a farmer's wife and a mother. She has taken on a ward of her own, a girl who was thrown in a fire and burned horribly, left for dead, whom she calls Therru. Therru has recovered somewhat physically from her ordeal, but not emotionally, and she is easily frightened, and does not socialize easily.

After Ogion's passing, a dragon visits the Isle of Gont, delivering Ged, who is nearly dead, and who has lost all the powers of mage craft he once had. A great deal of the book seems to deal with Ged, dealing with his identity crisis now that he is no longer a mage. The rest of the book seems to be about Goha's identity crisis, worrying about who she is now that she's no longer a farmer's wife and mother, since her children are both gone, and trying to reconcile her self image with how others see her. The nobility of Gont, such as it is, seems to dismiss her as a mere peasant woman whose opinion is of no matter, while the villagers respect her a bit more from knowing how much Ogion loved her, and when Lebannen arrives, she finds his automatic respect for her, as the one who brought peace to the kingdom, and the regard of his courtiers, a bit daunting, as well.

What I'm saying is there's just far too much soul-searching and angst, and not nearly enough action and adventure. I think Le Guin got to the point where she was trying to gain acclaim as a mainstream author, rather than a purveyor of young adult fantasy, and lost that special something that made her early readers love her.

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

 So, we get to see Ged right away in this book, but the tale is not narrated from his point of view, but from the perspective of a young nobleman, Arren, who has come to the Isle of Roke to beg the mages for help with a problem afflicting his land. It seems that the wizards and the singers who sing the traditional songs have lost their ability to remember the words of their spells and songs, and things are going awry. The mages have heard rumors of such things in other lands, as well, but dismissed them as merely gossip until now. After meeting with the rest of the Masters to discuss the problem, Ged determines that he needs to set off to investigate this on his own, taking along with him only the young man, Arren, in whom he sees perhaps more potential than others do.

So, they travel together to some of the Reaches and discover that wizards everywhere seem to be giving up their magic in order to chase after the willow-the-wisp of eternal life, drawn by the dream voice of a shadowy figure. Even the luck of the Archmage himself seems to run dry, as Arren is kidnapped by slavers, they take on a madman for a guide, and they nearly die of thirst and exposure on the endless seas, trying to find the place where a mysterious wizard has opened the doors between life and death.

This books really has a dark, depressing, and Tolkien-like feel, reminiscent of the seemingly endless pages of The Return of the King, where Frodo and Sam plod their way slowly through the land of Mordor, trying to get to Mount Doom to cast the ring in the fire. It's difficult to keep hope alive and to press on with your quest when all is dark and seems lost. It doesn't exactly have a "happy" ending, but at least there's a few pages when one can breath a sigh of relief, and think that maybe brighter days are yet ahead.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

 Long ago, when I first read this book, I was horribly disappointed. I bought it to enjoy the further adventures of Sparrowhawk, and what I got for a hundred pages or so was absolutely no mention of Sparrowhawk, nor any other characters who appeared in A Wizard of Earthsea. Eventually, he did enter the story, and I finished it mildly mollified. This time, however, I knew what to expect upon my re-reading, and was more capable of simply enjoying the tale's beginning as seen from the POV of Tenar, aka Arha, the Eaten One, High Priestess of the nameless ones at the Tombs of Atuan.

It is believed, in the Kargish lands (though it may be more fair to say that orthodox theology states that, since I have a suspicion that the high priestess of the God King may have a more cynical view of the situation), that Arha is the perpetually reincarnated spirit of the eternal priestess of the Old Ones, born at the same hour that the previous holder of the office died, and she has merely to be reminded of the things she once knew. She was taken from her birth mother at age five, to be raised in the temple, taught her duties, and locked into a life only mildly better than that of her eunuch slave, Manan. She has even forgotten her true name since becoming Arha.

Like many teen aged girls, even those in religious institutions, she takes her pleasures where she can sneak them, indulging in minor curfew violations and wandering past the borders set her. She is taught the ways of the Undertomb, a vast catacomb of natural caverns and man-made passages where, in the portion called the Labyrinth, where only she can pass, many ancient treasures are stored. One of the legendary treasures kept there is one half of the broken Ring of Erreth-Akbe, a powerful magical relic, and probably the only reason any mage worth his salt would bother to make the journey to Atuan, hoping to regain the ring and once again unite the lands of the Archipelago in peace and harmony under a King.

And there, at last, we find Sparrowhawk, sneaking about in the dark, trying to find Erreth-Akbe's legacy, since he was given the other half of the ring on a desert island by an old woman (who turns out to have been Kargish royalty) while he was questing after his shadow. A little older, a little wiser, and yet curiously subdued and not nearly as powerful as we imagine he should be after his earlier successes - but there's a good reason for this, we learn eventually. Arha discovers Sparrowhawk and traps him in the maze, waiting until he has nearly died of thirst and starvation before spelunking on down and having Manan cart him off to a stony prison, where she does a reverse-Scheherazade, forcing him to tell her tales of lands far away, and prove that his magic exists.

If you've already read all the books in the series, you know that Tenar is crucial to the whole story, and marries Ged in the end, but for the rest of you, I'll just let you enjoy it as she finds her way to destiny. Like love is rumored to be, The Tombs of Atuan is much better the 2nd (or 22nd) time around.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

 So, you had to know it was going to happen. Once I read the latest Earthsea book, I simply couldn't resist going back to the beginning and reading them through all over again. A Wizard of Earthsea is the first book, most commonly thought of as a young adult fantasy novel, and in relation to most fantasy today, it is definitely G-rated - no sex and minimal violence.

Wizard begins with the tale of a young boy named Cluny who lives in a village on the isle of Gont, working in his father's smithy. Cluny really doesn't care about the smith trade all that much, and he's always off and about playing in the meadows and forests when he can get away with it. Cluny's aunt, a hedge-witch of sorts, discovers that Cluny has some hidden mage talents, and begins to teach him some of the sorcerous arts. When his village is invaded by barbarians of Karego-At one day, Cluny manages to weave together the natural fog of the island with some illusions and lure the invaders away from his village, for the most part, coincidentally nearly killing himself in the process, for the enormous energy the spell required came from the boy, himself.

A master mage, Ogion, hears about the boy and comes to awaken him from his coma, then, when he is old enough, returns to name the boy Ged and take him on as apprentice. But Ged is impatient with Ogion's slow, cautious magery, and longs to soar free, learning all there is to learn about magic - right away. So Ogion sends him off to the isle of Roke, where the Archmage and eight other Masters have an academy for training young wizards.

Before too very long, Ged's foolish pride gets him in trouble, and attempting a spell far too advanced (and a little on the dark side of the Force) ends with him horribly disfigured by some sort of dark spirit he has unwittingly loosed upon the world. He is allowed to return to his studies and complete his apprenticeship on Roke. When he finally ventures back out into the world, he finds that he cannot run from his nemesis, but that it hunts him down and finds him wherever he flees.

Le Guin weaves a wonderful beginning to a saga in this one, written 45 years ago, which stands the test of time, remaining a classic in the genre.

The Other Wind by Ursula K. Leguin

How in the world did I miss this book? It came out in 2001, and of course I was busy raising a family, holding down a job, and all that, but still! I have been a huge LeGuin and Earthsea fan ever since the books first came out, and have eagerly read and re-read them all...except this one. Just wow!

It's just like visiting the old neighborhood when a man debarks from a ship in the harbor of Gont and asks the way to Re Albi, where the Archmage Sparrowhawk has gone to retire, and the entire book simply has that feel of visiting with old friends and family for me.

A minor wizard, Alder, who specializes in mending, has recently begun to dream of his deceased wife calling to him across the wall between the land of the living and that of the dead, the Dry Land, and she has been joined by other spirits entreating him to set them free. He fears to sleep, and has traveled far to take counsel with the former mage, who is one of the only men living to have crossed the Dry Land, emerging on the other side. Sparrowhawk's time of doing has passed, but he sends Alder onwards to visit the young king, Lebannen, in Havnor, where his wife, Tenar, and adopted daughter, Tehanu, are visiting.

Lebannen has been trying to make peace with the warlike Kargs, and has been trapped by their proposed solution, marry their high princess to unite the kingdoms. It wouldn't be as interesting a story if he didn't fight the proposal tooth and nail, so you can bet on the outcome, if you like. And recently, the Archipelago has been undergoing a plague of dragon attacks on property, for which he is trying to determine a cause.

All of these plot threads are woven nicely together into a gripping story which kept me up far later than I should have been. The origins of the conflict between the two races of men and the race of dragons is finally brought to light, as well as the source of the wizards' power. Truly worth the wait, though I wish I'd read it sooner.