The Farthest Shore [Hardcover]

Ursula LeGuin (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689300549
• ISBN-13: 978-0689300547
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,513,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 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 Consider this a review of the entire trilogy., May 22, 2000

By 

Matt C. Stedman "matt" (Sedona, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

This is one of the best fantasy trilogies out there because it is one of the most unique. It is often compared to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings but I find it hard to compare them because they are so different. Lord of the Rings is one very long story of a quest filled with battles and monsters while Earthsea is made up of three very seperate stories centering around the adventures of one character. Lord of the Rings is a straight-forward story that can be taken as just a good story if you don't want to ruin the fun with a bunch of thematic analyzation, although you can find heaps of stuff to analyze if you want. In Earthsea you cannot avoid the philosophies that LeGuin is trying to convey. But that does not get in the way of the stories. A Wizard of Earthsea is the first and best in my opinion, it has the most fascinating storyline and the most satisfying and beautifully realized conclusion when Ged finally confronts the creature he unleashed upon Earthsea. The Tombs of Atuan is the least of the three but still entertaining. The Farthest Shore is filled with scenes of Ged teaching Arren of the philosophy of balance and the power that fear has over people which are themes as relevent to our world as they are to Earthsea. Towards the end it is filled with dragons. Earthsea's dragons are the most interesting dragons I've read about in fantasy, not really good, but not really bad either although very wise. All three books are filled with vivid and beautiful atomosphere, and in all books it is love and courage that deafeat the evil forces of hate and fear. This is fantasy that is guaranteed to make you think.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The 3rd Book of Earthsea, February 17, 2000

By 

Mage (Pepper Pike OHIO) - See all my reviews

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

The Farthest Shore is a story of a young prince name Arren who comes to Ged, the archmage at Roke to tell him of a magic drain in Earthsea. Roke is a magical island in which magic flows fluently and apprentices learn magery. They set out on the Lookfar, a sailing ship, to Hort Town, Lorbannery, and Dragon Run, 3 cities in Earthsea in search of the source of the magical drain. At dragon run they find dragons dying because they have lost their speech and they have become savages. A dragon named Orm Embar leads them to an island where they believe that there is a hole in Earthsea. They meet an evil wizard and are forced to battle him. The new character of Earthsea is named Arren. He is a prince, and a descendent of Morred, a famous king in Earthsea. He has no magical powers unlike his father who is a king. He has a magical sword, which throughout the story seems to be just a sword, but helps Arren out greatly in the end to destroy his enemies and protect Ged. He is very unsure of himself and his concept of betrayal trips him up. He helps Ged to solve the mystery and is a fun twist to the story of Earthsea. I would recommend this book with extreme prejudice because I personally am a fan of knights and magic and dragons. This book really is the best of all of the four Earthsea books.