Customer Reviews

Tales from Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 5)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the 1970's, Ursula K. LeGuin took the fantasy and science fiction world by storm, bringing a genuinely literate voice and a deep knowledge of sociology and psychology to what was largely a man's genre. Her finest fantasy was "The Earthsea Trilogy," comprised of "A Wizard of Earthsea," "The Tombs of Atuan" and "The Farthest Shore." They are marvelous stories, and they hint at other, older stories and myths. In many ways, the world of Earthsea is as deeply conceived as any in fantasy.

In "Tehanu," a later book of Earthsea, she told us of some of the events that followed the events of "The Farthest Shore," and delved deeper into the mystery of dragons and the relationship between dragons and men. From the simple creatures fought by Sparrowhawk in "Wizard of Earthsea," they are revealed as increasingly complex and more interesting creatures by the end of "Tehanu."

In "Tales from Earthsea," LeGuin develops other themes and characters from the past and present of Earthsea. The tales are evocative, resonant and at once mythological and personal in tone. The reader will have an image of a LeGuin, with a larger volume in her lap, telling you the stories that catch her eye. You will sense there are many, many more stories to be told.

Readers new to Earthsea might do best by reading the books in order. While it's not required, you won't thoroughly understand the references to the Ring of Erreth-Akbe unless you have read the earlier books. The last short story, "Dragonfly," may bewilder you unless you have read "Tehanu."

At the end of the stories, there is a summary of the peoples, languages and history of Earthsea, modelled loosely on the famous Appendices to "The Lord of the Rings." I suppose the history consists of the stories that will never be told as novels or short stories, which is really too bad. The dry narrative of Erreth-Akbe, the greatest of Earthsea's heros, would have made a wonderful tale.

I was struck by LeGuin's subtle touches. The small cabin that was the summer home of Otter in the first tale, when the school of wizardry at Roke was founded, becomes the temporary home of Irian in the last story, which is set immediately following "The Farthest Shore." Roke Knoll, which always reveals things to be what they truly are, plays a role in the first and last tales, too.

In her delightful foreword, LeGuin warns us, "Authors and wizards are not always to be trusted: nobody can explain a dragon." Perhaps, but you can always trust LeGuin to entertain and enrich a thoughtful reader. And if anyone can satisfactorily explain a dragon, it will be LeGuin.

This book is a collection of five short stories that Ursula Le Guin wrote about her world, Earthsea. "The Finder" is the earliest set story, showing the founding of the wizard community on Roke. "Darkrose and Diamond" that could have happened just about anywhere during the Earthsea books, and it is a tale of the love of magic, and the magic of love. "The Bones of the Earth" tells how Ogion (Ged's master) stopped an earthquake. "On the High Marsh" tells of Ged and Irioth, who nearly overthrew the wizards of Roke. And finally, "Dragonfly" tells of Irian, who featured so large in The Other Wind, and her confrontation with Thorion, the Summoner who summoned himself back from death.

I really enjoyed these stories. As with so much of Ursula Le Guin's writings, they are enjoyable and yet compelling. In particular, though, I am sorry that I read this book after The Other Wind. The last two stories are actually referenced in that book, and it would have been nice to read them before that book. Therefore, let me recommend this book to you, and furthermore recommend that you read it *before* The Other Wind.

LeGuin revisits Earthsea in this collection of five stories, each of which occurs at a different time and place in the world of Earthsea. The reader thus becomes more acquainted with the geography of the place, and comes to learn about the history of this magical realm. The book also includes 30 pages of "A Description of Earthsea," including Peoples and Languages, History, and Magic.

The first story in this book, "The Finder," describes the conditions under which the school on Roke developed. Other stories reveal trials and journies of various sorcerers through Earthsea's history. Each of the five stories is about heroism and humanity in a world that is both different than and very like our own. The stories engaged my imagination from teh beginning, and I immediately loved (most of) the characters I met. LeGuin's ability to draw sympathetic characters in situations that the reader can relate to just gets better as the years go on.

I was excited to discover that the endpapers of the book display a map of Earthsea drawn by the author. I have wanted a map of the area for years, and I know that I will use this map when I re-read the earlier novels.

And this book reveals news that will be welcome to all lovers of Earthsea: yet another novel is due out this Fall!

"Tales from Earthsea" is an earthy, mature synthesis of "Tehanu" and the previous Earthsea books, with a hint of Tolkien's "Silmarillion" and a dash of Arthurian fantasy. Unfortunately, after turning the last page I was thoroughly underwhelmed. Gone is the wild freedom of vision, the vast, all-encompassing scope. LeGuin sets out to repopulate her world with sympathetic, influential women, but that world is a stifling, mundane place. Earthsea is no longer a mythical place close to heart, but a world in its own right: big, bleak, and routine. No longer does the reader associate him or herself with the mage hero - the stories in "Tales" take place in a world life-like enough to reduce the reader to a disembodied presence.

Intermittently I found myself staring at the page, wondering: where is the flowing prose? the masterful pacing? the lovely descriptions? The accessibility of the narrative has definitely taken a plunge.

In "Tales" LeGuin attempts to knit together her world's fractured past and present into a unified, continuous whole. She tries to accomplish this across five pieces of short story and novella length, some of them poetic, most not, generally middling quality as far as LeGuin goes. These tales are: "The Finder", about a finder mage called Otter who founded the school on Roke as a beacon of freedom in the dark time after the last king's death; "Darkrose and Diamond", about a merchant's son, who gives up his freedom in exchange for his inheritance and subdues his spirit, only to set it free in forbidden love; "Bones of the Earth", about Ogion the Silent, the fateful earthquake he calmed at Gont Port, and the one life it claimed; "On the High Marsh", in which the reader find out how abstract power can drive a man mad and how using that power to peaceful ends can restore him; "Dragonfly", about the masters of Roke divided against a wilful woman and how the men's language is not enough to name the fiery female spirit.

Of all the tales, only "Bones" and "Marsh" come anywhere close to the three original novels. Others meander and run overlong. Yet others are preachy. "Dragonfly" is a distillate of "Tehanu"; it also explains the direction LeGuin is taking her world in the upcoming novel (think back to "Tehanu's" enigmatic ending).

The addendum on Earthsea' history, culture, language, and magic is informative, but, again, offers little that a persistent reader will find worth knowing. All in all, "Tales" is even more out of place than the previous volume.

I've always enjoyed LeGuin's writing more for her language, which is beautiful and can invoke images of more than its surface suggests, than for her plot and characterization. However, the first three Earthsea books had both, and so did the most recent one, 'The Other Wind.' For that reason, I treasure those books.

'Tales from Earthsea' is a case where the stories, for me, had to stand or fall on prose style alone, and two of them didn't make it.

'Finder,' the first one, is a beautifully-written story. LeGuin includes images of quicksilver and a mining camp, which are rare enough in fantasy to be intriguing in their own right. The story of the founding of the School on Roke was also one I wanted to read. However, I found the plot to be meandering. It seems as though it was the story of a hero's journey to adulthood, but it wasn't quite long enough to do the job. Some scenes felt abbreviated, and I felt I was told more about the main character, Otter/Tern/Medra, than I was shown. Worth reading for the language and imagery, however.

'Darkrose and Diamond,' the second story and a love story, fell utterly flat for me. It's a tale of two separated lovers. The things that separate them, though, and the things that likewise reunite them, are not of their own doing. They drift along as passive characters in the current, and big misunderstandings that could be solved by three minutes of honest communication cause more trouble than they need to. I don't recall loving the language in this one, but it's probably still as good. I was just too irritated with the vagueness of the characters to care.

'The Bones of the Earth' likewise fell down. The earthquake that threatens Gont is coming, the consequences could be devastating...and then it's dealt with, by a character who's so briefly sketched out that I felt nothing about his fate. Once again, the prose doesn't help. Maybe it's just because this was close to an action story, and LeGuin really doesn't write that kind of thing; I don't really know. But the ending seemed too much like a deus ex machina to content me.

'On the High Marsh,' on the other hand, used the language to make me feel for the character described, Irioth. I cried, the only time I did so while reading the book. The ending is still somewhat abrupt, but so rich with promise that it satisfied me completely.

'Dragonfly' is reprinted from the 1997 LEGENDS. If you liked it then, you'll probably still like it now. Once again, the description is laced through the character, at least for me, and I found it compelling despite the ending somewhat repeating the ending of 'Tehanu' (the only Earthsea book I utterly detest). However, this is also a very borderline story for me. If you heard a plot summation without reading the story itself, it would sound, rightfully, about as thick as algae. It doesn't really work without its language, and that I do think is a shame, because LeGuin could do many other things with the idea it represents.

This is a book worth picking up for Earthsea fans, I think, or anyone who likes authors on their language alone (fans of Patricia McKillip might want to give it a try). However, I wasn't enthralled with all the stories, and the effect was very artificial: I never lost track of the fact that I was *reading,* rather than in the room with the characters. Take that into consideration before you buy.

Many authors are tempted to return to their early works in their later years. For most authors, this is a mistake. Not so with this set of five stories placed in the world of Le Guin's marvelous Earthsea. Each story provides a new illumination into what Earthsea is, its history, and the people that lived and loved within it.

The first story, "The Finder", is the longest, actually a novella, and for my money the best of the set. Here we find ourselves far back in the history of Earthsea, when wizard fought wizard as a matter of course, when magical knowledge was jealously guarded, when the average non-magical person lived in fear of what magic would visit them next. Otter, a half-trained wizard with a powerful skill for 'finding' whatever he looks for, falls on the receiving end of the worst of this mis-use of magic, forced to try and find mercury, the King of all materials, for a half-crazed older wizard. How he escapes from this imprisonment, and his search for a place where magic is taught freely, forms the bulk of this story, ending with his founding of the School of Wizards on Roke. In this story we find the same evocation of the magical, of balance between man and nature, of ambition tempered by internal morality, that so graced the original trilogy.

The second story, "Darkness and Diamond", has appeared elsewhere previously, but it deserves a second reading, being a beautifully told love story of a boy with conflicted desires between his wizardly talent and its concomitant requirement of chastity, and his love of music and a girl who shares his passions. A fine portrait of what is important in the business of living.

The third and fourth stories, "The Bones of the Earth" and "On the High Marsh", are comparatively minor stories, that never the less do a good job of filling in some of the history of Ged, showing his first teacher in his greatest wizardly act, and a mature Ged who can forgive and help heal a former Arch-mage.

The last story, "Dragonfly", has also appeared elsewhere, but it is a must read before tackling the latest Earthsea novel, The Other Wind. This is story that I think many fans of the series object to, as it details the heretical idea that women both can and should wield magical powers, that their power, based on the Old Powers, is just as valid as the complex hierarchy of talents embodied by the School of Wizards. Is this a change from the world of the first three novels? Certainly, but I think it is a change for the better, more fitting with the overall theme of balance that pervades the entire Earthsea universe. As Le Guin herself states in the forward, it has been a long time since the first books were written, and history and people move on, grow and develop, and this story exemplifies this very well.

For fans of the originals, this is a must book. For those who have never been charmed and captivated by Earthsea, now is the time to read the series in its glorious whole.

When I found Tales from Earthsea sitting on a bookstore shelf, I was thrilled. I had no idea it was coming out - and when I saw on the back cover that a fifth Earthsea novel was due out later in the year, I nearly did a dance for joy. Ursula LeGuin is a wonderful writer, and Earthsea is perhaps her greatest creation.

Needless to say, I came to this book with high expectations. I was not dissapointed. Every story is at least enjoyable. My personal favorites were "Darkrose and Diamond," a love story, and "Dragonfly," a story set after Ged's reign as Archmage - but I could easily imagine any of the five stories being someone's favorite. They're all wonderful, and althuogh they all deal with Earthsea, they're varied enough to appeal to different tastes.

Tales from Earthsea is the perfect way to get back into the Earthsea world. I originally thought this was a new book about Ged and company, however, this book contains a collection of shorter stories not revolving directly around the same characters from the first books.

The first and last stories are longer than the others and my favorites of the bunch. Le Guin really excels at storytelling when she has the ability to flesh out her characters over a longer period of time. These two stories really add the most to the world of Earthsea and are relevant to the other Earthsea books. In fact, they flesh out and provide more detail about Roke Island and the school there.

The shorter stories in the middle tend to be the weaker of the bunch, and don't add a lot to the world of Earthsea, but still make for an enjoyable read. They are fun stories that take place in the Earthsea world, but don't necessarily have the complexity and depth of her other Earthsea books (and the other more fleshed out stories in this book). I really don't think that this makes for a terrible book (as some people here seem to be very disappointed) as they are still entertaining.

If you are a newcomer to the Earthsea books, I would not recommend this as an introduction. You should definitely begin with A Wizard of Earthsea (the first book of the series). In addition, if you plan to read all the Earthsea books, I recommend reading them in order. Don't skip to this one if you haven't read at least the first 4 books yet as there are a couple of spoiler-like moments in a couple of the stories.

To sum up, I would rate the first and last stories as 5 stars and the middle stories as 3 stars. If you are already familiar with the Earthsea books, I recommend this book as a way to enjoy a bit of light reading in the same world. Just be aware that some of the stories are not as rich and detailed as previous books in the series. However, the first and the last stories do add some nice details and answer some questions you may have had in the back of your mind about some of the events in the other books.

I must admit to approaching this collection with a real sense of trepidation. I had found Tehanu so mundane and pedantic, so unfaithful to the original spirit of Earthsea, that I had resolved not to read any further additions to the cycle. This resolution did not arise from petulance or spite, but from a genuine fear that any further destruction of the Earthsea universe would bleed whatever delight remained to me out of the Earthsea that I had once loved. Such fears proved to be groundless and I am glad that I read this collection.

In this collection, Ursula Le Guin revives the magic with which she imbued her first three Earthsea books and that was so sadly sacrificed in the fourth. The result for the reader is like a homecoming.

She doesn't retreat from the feminist perspective espoused in that fourth book. Many of these stories look at the world through a woman's eyes. But unlike Tehanu, in this collection, she rediscovers the grace, dignity and evocative charm that were at the centre of the original trilogy. We can believe that we are visiting a different world: one where magic is a part of everyday life, where imagination takes flight and where dragons ride the winds. While some of the short stories may be about pain and loss, we are never in danger of mistaking the world of Earthsea for the plain old world of Earth.

The various stories explore themes of madness, power, sexism, vengeance and intransigence. These are more politically charged themes that make the stories less universal than those of the original trilogy, but unlike Tehanu, here they are handled with a sensitivity that largely redeems them. The polemic that destroyed Tehanu is not entirely dropped, but is sufficiently subdued that it no longer occupies centre of place. The emphasis shifts back to the dramatic. Characters have complex motivations and pursue complex agendas, and are not sacrificed to simply make a point.

While this collection doesn't achieve the majesty of the original trilogy, it is well worth your time. And if you were offended by the way the fourth book of the cycle brutalized the world of Earthsea, "Tales" heals not only much of the magic, but much also of the faith.

If any reader is familiar with Hayao Miyazaki (creator of such animated films as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle), you'll be excited to know that he, or more so his son, will be making an animated movie about Earthsea, which is coming out this summer for Japan. I'm hoping it will get over to the US soon since the trailers are exceptional. You can watch the Japanese trailes for Gedo Senki - "Tales of Earthsea" at www.youtube.com so check it out!