The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Book Three of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle

Darkness threatens to overtake Earthsea: the world and its wizards are losing their magic. Despite being wearied with age, Ged Sparrowhawk -- Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord -- embarks on a daring, treacherous journey, accompanied by Enlad's young Prince Arren, to discover the reasons behind this devastating pattern of loss. Together they will sail to the farthest reaches of their world -- even beyond the realm of death -- as they seek to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.

With millions of copies sold worldwide, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere, alongside the works of such beloved authors as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.

From the Publisher

Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea cycle has become one of the best-loved fantasies of our time. The windswept world of Earthsea is one of the greatest creations in all fantasy literature, frequently compared with J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth or C.S. Lewis' Narnia. The magnificent saga begins with A Wizard Of Earthsea, continues in The Tombs Of Atuan and The Farthest Shore, and concludes with Tehanu --each book a treasure of wisdom, wonder, and literary wizardry. The magic had gone out of the world. All over Earthsea the mages had forgotten their spells, the springs of wizardry were running dry. Ged, Dragonlord and Archmage, set out with Arren, a highborn young prince, to seek the source of the darkness. This is the tale of their harrowing journey beyond the shores of death to heal a wounded land. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (November 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141650964X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416509646
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Becoming Whole, June 1, 2001

By	James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan" (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3) (Paperback)

LeGuin's third book in her Earthsea series is her most ambitious. Her thesis: you can only become whole by facing and accepting death, the darkest shadow. Lifted straight from Jungian psychology, this is the hardest and the important part of being whole. Sparrowhawk knows most of this truth already: remember the climax to Wizard of Earthsea. Arren, the young prince who accompanies Sparrowhawk on the epic voyages of this third book, has not yet learned this harsh lesson.

You don't need to know anything about Carl Jung to read and enjoy this book. At one level, this is a children's tale. But this book has many levels. Consider: the last king, Maharrion, had prophesied that there would be no king to succeed him until one appeared who had crossed the farthest shore. I'm not giving anything away by telling you that the farthest shore is physical - the western shore of the westernmost isle of Earthsea and metaphysical - death. And readers of earlier books know that for the wizards of Earthasea, there is a low stone fence that separates the living from the dead.

There is another wizard - humiliated by a younger Sparrowhawk - who has both great power and a terror of death. And he has worked a spell that will devastate the world, by denying and avoiding death. But by denying death, he has denied life, and magic, song, joy, reason and even life are draining out of the world. That spell must be undone before it is too late. And that task falls to Sparowhawk and Arren.

Arren must learn to understand and accept that death is necessary. Not just in the abstract but personally. He must cross that low stonewall with no hope of returning. He must cross the final shore.

This story has dragons, despair, joy, loss, discovery and marvelous surprises. Like all of the Earthsea books, it is sparely but beautifully told. The deepest of the first three books, it is an absolute joy. And for a thoughtful, reflecting reader, it might be even more. This is a book that can change a reader's life.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublime, October 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3) (Paperback)

I first read the Earthsea Trilogy at the age of 9. I re-read it at secondary school at 17, during a moody teenager phase. Now I read it to children to whom I teach English. I am struck every time by how many different layers of meaning dwell in le Guin's text. I think the technical word is polysemic. It appeals to children, teenagers and adults by offering something to each, though ultimately offering the same to all: drama, adventure, and a fearless assault on the big issues that confront every one of us. Birth, life, death. And always in original, often startling or beautiful ways. Le Guin's use of language is sublime too; she has an absolute mastery of how long a sentence should be, what the words in it should sound like and what 'rhythm' a sentence should have. Moving explorations of life's great questions, investigated with originality and sophistication, harnessed to a dramatic adventure story, conjuring up grand vistas of new and thrilling worlds, created through a command of language and imagery as fine as any I have ever come across and made alive through characters that a child can warm to and an adult love. What a book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earthsea is always great, November 27, 2008

By	Steven R. McEvoy "MCWPP" (Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I read most of the Earthsea Cycle as part of a children's literature course I did back in 1999. This is another book about Ged. But in this one he is the special educator to Lebanner/ Arren.

It is a book about the big questions, such as life and death, and the search for who we are. It is also about what we are to be and the idea of predestination. Ged says "to seek to be one's self is rare." It is also that we seek what we don't know in order to be found by our destiny.

In the book darkness is overtaking the world, singers are losing their songs, mages are forgetting their crafts. Men doubt and society is decaying, all because of fear or death. Men are giving up their true names to a lie. They are becoming slaves to a dead master.

Key Notes:
Ged is Master of Roke - Archmage
Lookfar (Ship is back again)
Isles of Myths