Tales from Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 5)
by Ursula K. LeGuin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ursula K. LeGuinEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-10-28
ISBN: 0441011241
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Ace
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780441011247
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Tales from Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 5)
Book Review: Excellent short story/novella collection
Summary: 5 Stars
"Tales from Earthsea" verifies why Ursula K. LeGuin is one of the best writers around -- of fantasy, science fiction, or any genre.
Simply put, it has wonderful stories that ring true, yet have mythical elements -- the people are fully real, with faults, and make mistakes, yet do remarkable, visionary things in various ways -- from the quotidian to the sublime.
This book has three new stories and two reprints; the reprints ("Darkrose and Diamond" and "Dragonfly") are very good stories, and I enjoyed re-reading them very much. The first is a romance; even people who've never read an Earthsea novel will understand it. The second is about gifts denied, and powers lost -- along with love, redeemed in a rather unusual way. (Love in Ms. LeGuin's books or stories is almost always understated. The overt romance of "Darkrose and Diamond" is rare, but very welcome.) I'm not sure the latter story will be much understood without reading the first three books of the Earthsea trilogy, but you don't necessarily need to read "Tehanu" (the fourth book of Earthsea, inaccurately titled "The Last Book of Earthsea," as Ms. LeGuin wryly points out in her preface to this book), although you will enjoy that book as well if you enjoyed either of these two stories.
The remaining three stories ("The Finder," "The Bones of the Earth," "On the High Marsh") are all about the redeeming power of the human spirit. Finding friendship when it's not expected -- Otter, the hero of "The Finder," finds a true friend while he's temporarily enslaved (she helps get him out and away), Dulse, the wizard of Re Albi, finds a friend in his apprentice-wizard, Ogion (the later first teacher of Ged/Sparrowhawk, Archmage of Roke during the latter two books of the Earthsea trilogy) when wizards rarely get along (especially in such close proximity), and Irioth the wizard finds love and healing with the cheesemaker Gift (wizards also rarely, if ever, love women and don't seem to ever profess physical love for men, either; they believe being celibate helps their powers, which is something Irian in "Dragonfly" is challenging; wizards, for the most part, do not believe that women's magic is a strong as men's, which is of course ridiculous) after he'd left Roke due to extreme mental and physical torment (some brought on by his own doing, some not).
Ms. LeGuin's work is a triumph because of how human these people are. They have to make powerful, difficult choices; Diamond has to leave his father (who wants him to be a mage, rather than a musician) and only see his mother rarely because he must follow his heart and love Darkrose (while performing his music). Irian is hot-tempered, irritable, difficult, and extremely talented; her question, "Why can't women be mages?" goes to the heart of the hypocrisy of Roke, something the mages there for the most part would rather not confront. (The status quo is always easier to defend than the unknown, even when the status quo is wrong.) Dulse's dilemma is more poignant; save himself, or save his island with his friend Ogion's help? (Many would choose to save themselves and later rationalize it. Dulse isn't made that way.) Irioth's problem is more fundamental; he believes he's harmed himself by the use of magic, and that he's harmed others, and that he must make amends. (Finding love along the way with an extraordinary woman was never in his plans. And Gift doesn't think herself remarkable; that, too, is one of Ms. LeGuin's strengths, how she shows that "ordinary" people are anything but.) And Otter, in "The Finder," finds a friend at his time of greatest need, but can't keep her as she's dying; how he memorializes her through living his life is extraordinarily powerful, yet quietly drawn.
To put it bluntly, there isn't a better writer on the planet when she's on than Ms. LeGuin. There just isn't.
Everyone should read this book. Every single last one.
Five-stars plus, with the highest recommendation possible.
Barb Caffrey
Summary of Tales from Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 5)
Five stories of Ursula K. Le Guin's world-renowned realm of Earthsea are collected in one volume. Featuring two classic stories, two original tales, and a brand-new novella, as well as new maps and a special essay on Earthsea's history, languages, literature, and magic.Winner of five Nebula and five Hugo Awards, the National Book Award, the Newbery, and many other awards, Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest authors ever to write science fiction and fantasy. Her greatest creation may be the powerful, beautifully written, and deeply imagined Earthsea Cycle, which inhabits the rarified air at the pinnacle of modern fantasy with J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and Jane Yolen's Chronicles of Great Alta. The books of the Earthsea Cycle are A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan (1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), the Nebula-winning Tehanu (1990), and now, Tales of Earthsea (2001).
If you have never read an Earthsea book, this collection isn't the place to start, as the author points out in her thoughtful foreword; begin with A Wizard of Earthsea. If you insist on starting with Tales of Earthsea, read the foreword and the appended "Description of Earthsea" before proceeding to the five stories (three of which are original to this book).
The opening story, "The Finder," occupies a third of the volume and has the strength and insight of a novel. This novella describes the youth of Otter, a powerful but half-trained sorcerer, and reveals how Otter came to an isle that cannot be found, and played a role in the founding of the great Roke School. "Darkrose and Diamond" tells of two lovers who would turn their backs on magic. In "The Bones of the Earth," an aging wizard and his distant pupil must somehow join forces to oppose an earthquake. Ged, the Archmage of Earthsea, appears in "On the High Marsh" to find the mad and dangerous mage he had driven from Roke Island. And in "Dragonfly," the closing story, a mysterious woman comes to the Roke School to challenge the rule that only men may be mages. "Dragonfly" takes place a few years after Tehanu and is the bridge between that novel and the next novel, The Other Wind (fall 2001). --Cynthia Ward
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