The Other Wind (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 6) (Hardcover)

by Ursula K. Le Guin (Author) "SAILS LONG AND WHITE as swan's wings carried the ship Farflyer through summer air down the bay from the Armed Cliffs toward Gont Port..." (more)
Key Phrases: dragon people, other wind, Old Speech, High King, Orm Irian (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The greatest fantasies of the 20th century are J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle. Regrettably, the Earthsea Cycle has not received the fame and sales of Tolkien's trilogy. Fortunately, new Earthsea books have appeared in the 21st century, and they are as powerful, beautiful, and imaginative as the first four novels. The fifth novel and sixth book of the Earthsea Cycle is The Other Wind.

The sorcerer Alder has the power of mending, but it may have become the power of destruction: every night he dreams of the wall between the land of the living and the land of the dead, and the wall is being dismantled. If the wall is breached, the dead will invade Earthsea. Ged, once Archmage of Earthsea, sends Alder to King Lebannen. Now Alder and the king must join with a burned woman, a wizard of forbidden lore, and a being who is woman and dragon both, in an impossible quest to save Earthsea.

Ursula K. Le Guin has received the National Book Award, five Nebula and five Hugo Awards, and the Newbery Award, among many other honors. The Other Wind lives up to expectations for one of the greatest fantasy cycles. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly
What a year it's been for Le Guin. First, there was The Telling, the widely praised new novel in her Hainish sequence, followed by Tales from Earthsea, a collection of recent short fiction in her other major series. Now she returns with a superb novel-length addition to the Earthsea universe, one that, once again, turns that entire series on its head. Alder, the man who unwittingly initiates the transformation of Earthsea, is a humble sorcerer who specializes in fixing broken pots and repairing fence lines, but when his beloved wife, Lily, dies, he is inconsolable. He begins to dream of the land of the dead and sees both Lily and other shades reaching out to him across the low stone wall that separates them from the land of the living. Soon, more general signs and portents begin to disturb Earthsea. The dragons break their long-standing truce and begin to move east. The new ruler of the Kargad Lands sends his daughter west in an attempt to wed her to King Lebannen. Even Ged, the former archmage, now living in peaceful, self-imposed exile on Gont, starts to have disturbing dreams. In Tehanu (1990), the fourth book in the series, Le Guin rethought the traditional connection between gender and magic that she had assumed in the original Earthsea trilogy. In her new novel, however, she reconsiders the relationship between magic and something even more basic: life and death itself. This is not what 70-year-old writers of genre fantasy are supposed to do, but then, there aren't many writers around like Le Guin. (Oct. 1)has won a National Book Award, the Kafka Award and a Pushcart Prize.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (September 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151006849
• ISBN-13: 978-0151006847
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #673,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 6 in The Earthsea Cycle Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Farther West Than West, Beyond The Land..., August 31, 2001

By	Greta Rudolph (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews

Le Guin's latest addition to the Earthsea Cycle is truly a triumph. In the third book in this series, The Farthest Shore, Ged the Archmage sets out on a quest that ends in the restoration of the balance between life and death, the living and the dead... or so it seems. In the Other Wind, Le Guin portrays an unrestful land, where the dead start reaching over the wall that seperates them from the living. We are able to meet the characters from the other Earthsea books again, who have all matured and changed. In fact, Ged and Tenar are leading restful, almost ordinary lives at home. Some readers may find it unsettling to find their hero's lives so changed, and the land of Earthsea quivering on its foundations, but the conclusion of the novel brings together everything good about the books. With this final novel, Earthsea seems to be bound together again, unshakingly, although not without a few seperations... The song of the woman of Kemay presides, hauntingly, over the plotline of the book.

Farther west than west,
Beyond the land,
My people are dancing
On the other wind.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wondrous Adventure, September 10, 2001

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

Have you ever read a book that was so well crafted that at the end of a chapter, instead of charging into the next one, you paused and reflected on what you have read? Have you ever read a book where you were at the edge of laughter and tears on the same page? You can.

Le Guin has taken the loose ends of her four earlier Earthsea novels and her recent collection of Earthsea short stories, combined those loose ends and your favorite characters from them with some serious thinking on the life and death, and created the finest Earthsea story to date.

Alder is a "mender," a repairer of broken pots, a mere sorcerer, one who should never see the low wall that only wizards know, the wall that separates the living from the dead. Yet the wall and the dead torment his sleep. The dead call to him, asking to be set free and, most shockingly of all, his dead wife has kissed him across the wall of stones, something unknown in the history of Earthsea. The Patterner, one of the eight great wizards of Roke, the wizard's isle, has sent Alder to Ged. And while Ged may have lost his power of wizardry and be done with doing, his heart goes out to the tormented young man. He counsels him, finds him a temporary solution to his nightmares, and sends him to Havnor, to the King Lebannen. For Ged thinks that Alder may herald a change for Earthsea, one even greater than those Ged wrought.

Alder meets other characters in his quest. Some are old friends of the reader: Tenar, from "The Tombs of Atuan" and "Tehanu;" Tehanu herself, who is somehow the daughter of Kalessin, the eldest dragon; Lebannen, the young king from "The Farthest Shore." Some are acquaintances from "Tales from Earthsea," most notably Irian, now Orm Irian. Others are new but no less wonderful: the young princess of the Kargish lands and, of course, Alder himself.

Le Guin takes these characters, let's them grow and age, shows us time's marks upon them, and brings them into Alder's life and Alder's quest. And as Alder's quest grows beyond himself, to involve the living and the dead, indeed all the souls of Earthsea, so does the book's sense of wonder. Until, like Ged, in the moment just before the climax of the story, we will smile a little because like him we like that pause, "that fearful pause, the moment before things change."

This is a masterly work, not just because of the clever use of characters or the wonderful plotting, but also because of the depth of the thinking that lies beyond and inside the story. It's about even more than life or death; it's also about the things we assume and take for granted because they have always been so, without ever asking if they are truly right. Alder's love for his dead wife has the power to change the world. What's no less wonderful is Le Guin's power to move the reader, to challenge and provoke us.

Read and savor this book. It's the best Earthsea story to date. It might even be the best Le Guin to date.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fitting closure to the Earthsea Cycle, September 14, 2001

By	Michael S. Goldfarb "doctorstrange" (Verplanck, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Let me get this out of the way first: the original Earthsea Trilogy is one LeGuin's great achievements, entirely on par with her best books for "mature" readers from throughout her long career.
However, I was extremely disappointed in "Tehanu", in which I felt LeGuin had lost her feel for Earthsea. The short stories in "Tales of Earthsea" represented a fine return to form, and the new novel continues in that vein. As others have said, it's a treat to again meet characters from the previous books, especially Ged/Sparrowhawk as an old man whose Gontish neighbors call him Hawk. I couldn't put this book down: it should delight any Earthsea fan.
But I still don't think it's up to the level of the first three books, and it's not essential reading, as they definitely are. It's very good, and hardcore Earthsea fans will surely enjoy it... but I wouldn't recommend it unconditionally for EVERYONE, as I do "A Wizard of Earthsea".
Well done, Ursula!