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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
I didn't like this book as much as A Wizard of Earthsea or The Tombs of Atuan. Since it is the third in the series, I suppose it makes sense - a little darker, a bit less satisfying. I just found Arren mostly uninteresting and the journey too long and weary.
BUT! I dog-eared more pages than I did the other two because there were so many striking passages (see two below). I'm still enchanted by the description of the Children of the Open Sea. This story is quite esoteric and I liked elements of that, but overall I don't feel the need to read it again.
● ● ●
"Can it be a kind of pestilence, a plague, that drifts from land to land, blighting the crops and the flocks and men's spirits?"
"A pestilence is a motion of the great balance, of the Equilibrium itself; this is different. There is the stink of evil in it. We may suffer for it when the balance of things rights itself, but we do not lose hope, and forego art, and forget the words of the Making. Nature is not unnatural. This is not a righting of the balance, but an upsetting of it. There is only one creature who can do that."
"A man?" Arren said, tentative.
"We men."
"How?"
"By an unmeasured desire for life."
"For life? But it isn't wrong to want to live?"
"No. But when we crave power over life - endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality - then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale."
● ● ●
"If I love life shall I not have the end of it?"
"Life without end," the mage said. "Life without death. Immortality. Every soul desires it, and its health is the strength of its desire. But be careful, Arren. You are the one who might achieve your desire."
"And then?"
"And then - this. This blight upon the lands. The arts of man forgotten. The singer tongueless. The eye blind. And then? A false king ruling. Ruling forever. And over the same subjects forever. No births; no new lives. No children. Only what is mortal bears life, Arren. Only in death is there rebirth. The Balance is not a stillness. It is a movement - an eternal becoming."
BUT! I dog-eared more pages than I did the other two because there were so many striking passages (see two below). I'm still enchanted by the description of the Children of the Open Sea. This story is quite esoteric and I liked elements of that, but overall I don't feel the need to read it again.
● ● ●
"Can it be a kind of pestilence, a plague, that drifts from land to land, blighting the crops and the flocks and men's spirits?"
"A pestilence is a motion of the great balance, of the Equilibrium itself; this is different. There is the stink of evil in it. We may suffer for it when the balance of things rights itself, but we do not lose hope, and forego art, and forget the words of the Making. Nature is not unnatural. This is not a righting of the balance, but an upsetting of it. There is only one creature who can do that."
"A man?" Arren said, tentative.
"We men."
"How?"
"By an unmeasured desire for life."
"For life? But it isn't wrong to want to live?"
"No. But when we crave power over life - endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality - then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale."
● ● ●
"If I love life shall I not have the end of it?"
"Life without end," the mage said. "Life without death. Immortality. Every soul desires it, and its health is the strength of its desire. But be careful, Arren. You are the one who might achieve your desire."
"And then?"
"And then - this. This blight upon the lands. The arts of man forgotten. The singer tongueless. The eye blind. And then? A false king ruling. Ruling forever. And over the same subjects forever. No births; no new lives. No children. Only what is mortal bears life, Arren. Only in death is there rebirth. The Balance is not a stillness. It is a movement - an eternal becoming."
Having read a lot of YA fantasy I'm a little disappointed with this trilogy. It reads SO simplistically. To me, it felt like a novel for very young children. I also felt that the triumphant morals were extremely obvious and blatant. A simple story is fine, but the meaning should come to you with being explicitly stated. In fact, in the second book I believe she actually stated the moral. "And so Tenar learned the value of freedom..." etc.
Le guin writes really good characters. Sometimes her plot can get a bit muddled and hard to follow, particularly with thus installment. But it’s still enjoyable and I want to keep immersing myself in the world of Earthsea.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
doesn't hang together quite as well as the previous two, has some exceptional elements but on the whole not as satisfying
adventurous
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No