Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
2.5 stars, rounded up. Kind of a drag, and not up to usual Ursula benchmark. A heavy-handed, unimaginative conclusion to an otherwise excellent Earthsea series.
So the previous Earthsea books were meditative, nature-soaked high fantasy tales that out-Tolkiened Tolkien. They followed Ged, your usual talented but proud hero wizard, as he (in the first book) learned his wizarding ways and accidentally unleashed a hell-demon in his teens, (in the second book) freed a creepy girl-queen from her crypt kingdom in his ~20s (?), and (in the third book) made friends with an awesome noble prince and dealt with a widespread magickal problem in his ~50s (as Archmage, by then, even!).
So book 4 picks up days after book 3 - Ged is JUUUST back from his Hades excursion - and 25 years after book 2 - so the girl-queen is now an older lady. OLDER LADY. Do you hear me? OLDER WOMAN, THE PROTAGONIST OF THIS BOOK IS AN OLDER WOMAN DO YOU HEAR ME DAMMIT. Is that clear enough!?! Because Ursula Le Guin wants you to be damn sure that you are aware that THIS IS A FEMINIST BOOK WITH AN OLDER WOMAN PROTAGONIST DID YOU KNOW THAT "WOMEN'S WORK" IS UNPAID EVEN IN AGRARIAN SOCIETIES IT'S NOT JUST CAPITALISM THAT CREATES THE PATRIARCHY YOU KNOW --
Oh? Too overt for you? Yeah, me too.
I don't know why Le Guin wrote it like this - especially given how subtle and nuanced her handling of gender was in one of her masterpieces, The Left Hand of Darkness - but here it is sledgehammer obvious. While I started the book pleased and refreshed by Goha AKA Tenar AKA the girl-queen from Tombs of Atuan AKA AN OLDER WOMAN YOU DON'T SEE MANY OF THOSE AS PROTAGONISTS EH INDEED THEY ARE INVISIBLE DAMN YOU PATRIARCHY DAMN YOU. But, really, I was pleased, because Le Guin was making excellent points - through Tenar's thoughts - about how, indeed, invisible older women are in men's eyes, how being a mom both incredibly limits you in your freedoms but adds richness and how dudes are BLIND I TELL YOU BLIND re: picking up the damn dishes.
But then Le Guin's hand becomes quite heavy and Tenar - who already felt like an authorial stand-in - began to feel like a Mary Sue, what with Ged coming back all busted up and handsome with his handsome hair and handsome aquiline nose and HANDSOME I GET IT URSULA HE'S HOT - and wtf there are romantic feelings between Tenar and Ged?! I thought Tenar was a CHILD when Ged saved her from that crypt kingdom place?! Whaaat.
So yeah, basically this last book felt like indulgent fanfiction ABOUT the Earthsea universe. While the previous books featured ponderous, ominous villains in the style of Hayao Miyazaki villains - it's all gray! - this book featured two main villains, a rapist (!) and a mediocre mid-level wizard who - AND I AM NOT SHITTING YOU - puts a (literal) hex on Tenar because he just damn hates uppity women. What? WHAT?! This was all so absurd that I was like, really?
Oh yeah, that reminds me - there's another character: a young girl who was terribly victimized by her family and gets terribly burned. Tenar adopts her. It is implied she has magical powers too.
But mostly the book is Tenar thinking angry thoughts about how shitty the patriarchy is, and how none of these damn men do their dishes or realize that women live in fear etc etc. I was honestly bummed by how blunt - and even limited! - it all was. Ursula! This is not how you usually do your thing!
Indeed, her afterword immediately begins on the defensive - and she basically accuses the people who were disappointed by this book as being crypto-sexists that can't handle an old woman protagonist and so on. Which is a bummer cuz I (a) am a lady, (b) and thus am super on board with how the patriarchy sucks and yes, "women's work" has always been constricted to unpaid labor - LABOR - throughout the ages, but (c) indeed probably arising sometime around the agricultural revolution, but (d) I CAN STILL FIND THIS HEAVY-HANDED. Oof.
In other news, Ged was described with such loving affection - such a handsome man! - that I decided to cast David Strathairn as him in my head. You're welcome.
So the previous Earthsea books were meditative, nature-soaked high fantasy tales that out-Tolkiened Tolkien. They followed Ged, your usual talented but proud hero wizard, as he (in the first book) learned his wizarding ways and accidentally unleashed a hell-demon in his teens, (in the second book) freed a creepy girl-queen from her crypt kingdom in his ~20s (?), and (in the third book) made friends with an awesome noble prince and dealt with a widespread magickal problem in his ~50s (as Archmage, by then, even!).
So book 4 picks up days after book 3 - Ged is JUUUST back from his Hades excursion - and 25 years after book 2 - so the girl-queen is now an older lady. OLDER LADY. Do you hear me? OLDER WOMAN, THE PROTAGONIST OF THIS BOOK IS AN OLDER WOMAN DO YOU HEAR ME DAMMIT. Is that clear enough!?! Because Ursula Le Guin wants you to be damn sure that you are aware that THIS IS A FEMINIST BOOK WITH AN OLDER WOMAN PROTAGONIST DID YOU KNOW THAT "WOMEN'S WORK" IS UNPAID EVEN IN AGRARIAN SOCIETIES IT'S NOT JUST CAPITALISM THAT CREATES THE PATRIARCHY YOU KNOW --
Oh? Too overt for you? Yeah, me too.
I don't know why Le Guin wrote it like this - especially given how subtle and nuanced her handling of gender was in one of her masterpieces, The Left Hand of Darkness - but here it is sledgehammer obvious. While I started the book pleased and refreshed by Goha AKA Tenar AKA the girl-queen from Tombs of Atuan AKA AN OLDER WOMAN YOU DON'T SEE MANY OF THOSE AS PROTAGONISTS EH INDEED THEY ARE INVISIBLE DAMN YOU PATRIARCHY DAMN YOU. But, really, I was pleased, because Le Guin was making excellent points - through Tenar's thoughts - about how, indeed, invisible older women are in men's eyes, how being a mom both incredibly limits you in your freedoms but adds richness and how dudes are BLIND I TELL YOU BLIND re: picking up the damn dishes.
But then Le Guin's hand becomes quite heavy and Tenar - who already felt like an authorial stand-in - began to feel like a Mary Sue, what with Ged coming back all busted up and handsome with his handsome hair and handsome aquiline nose and HANDSOME I GET IT URSULA HE'S HOT - and wtf there are romantic feelings between Tenar and Ged?! I thought Tenar was a CHILD when Ged saved her from that crypt kingdom place?! Whaaat.
So yeah, basically this last book felt like indulgent fanfiction ABOUT the Earthsea universe. While the previous books featured ponderous, ominous villains in the style of Hayao Miyazaki villains - it's all gray! - this book featured two main villains, a rapist (!) and a mediocre mid-level wizard who - AND I AM NOT SHITTING YOU - puts a (literal) hex on Tenar because he just damn hates uppity women. What? WHAT?! This was all so absurd that I was like, really?
Oh yeah, that reminds me - there's another character: a young girl who was terribly victimized by her family and gets terribly burned. Tenar adopts her. It is implied she has magical powers too.
But mostly the book is Tenar thinking angry thoughts about how shitty the patriarchy is, and how none of these damn men do their dishes or realize that women live in fear etc etc. I was honestly bummed by how blunt - and even limited! - it all was. Ursula! This is not how you usually do your thing!
Indeed, her afterword immediately begins on the defensive - and she basically accuses the people who were disappointed by this book as being crypto-sexists that can't handle an old woman protagonist and so on. Which is a bummer cuz I (a) am a lady, (b) and thus am super on board with how the patriarchy sucks and yes, "women's work" has always been constricted to unpaid labor - LABOR - throughout the ages, but (c) indeed probably arising sometime around the agricultural revolution, but (d) I CAN STILL FIND THIS HEAVY-HANDED. Oof.
In other news, Ged was described with such loving affection - such a handsome man! - that I decided to cast David Strathairn as him in my head. You're welcome.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
medium-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
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
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:
Yes
An interesting addition to this series. This is a story of middle age, as Tenar and Ged are in their 40’s and both at crossroads in their lives. Le Guin deals with issues she often does - power, the importance of trust, and the dynamic nature of life.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-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
A quiet reflection on learning to live again after everything changes. I love the small scale, how healing can feel as important and epic as the actions of kings and wizards.
“Was that the new thing, the folded knowledge, the light seed, that she felt in herself, waking beneath the small window that looked west?”
YESSS FINALLY THE FEMINISM SHE’S BEEN BUILDING KICKED IN!!!!
I looooved how she wrote Tenar’s rage and delved into the sexism in Earthsea. I love that women, normal, simple women, were the focus of this book. It makes it a really anti-fantasy arc book, but I think that’s a good thing.
I also love that Ged and Tenar are so old in this story. It’s really rare that I see aging depicted as beautiful and a time of growth and change instead of stagnation and decay (see quote above). And for them to find each other in such a simple, gentle way was really touching. I love that Ursula writes romance as mundane and unvarnished, even as she simultaneously worships the mundane. OH it’s beautiful.
This also was such a wonderful way for Ged’s story to turn; he is not infallible, and really struggles to find himself again in this book. For Tenar to have to help him find himself the way he helped her find herself after Atuan—beautiful, Ursula, beautiful.
And the difference between wizard and witch powers SLAYED LIKE GIRL YOU TELL EM WTF
"Ours is only a little power, seems like, next to theirs," Moss said. "But it goes down deep. It's all roots. It's like an old blackberry thicket. And a wizard's power's like a fir tree, maybe, great and tall and grand, but it'll blow right down in a storm. Nothing kills a blackberry bramble."
MALE FRAGILITY AND UNFOUNDED CONFIDENCE V.S. FEMALE RAGE AND RESILIENCE HELLOOOO
Another slay from Ursula thank you girl I love you
YESSS FINALLY THE FEMINISM SHE’S BEEN BUILDING KICKED IN!!!!
I looooved how she wrote Tenar’s rage and delved into the sexism in Earthsea. I love that women, normal, simple women, were the focus of this book. It makes it a really anti-fantasy arc book, but I think that’s a good thing.
I also love that Ged and Tenar are so old in this story. It’s really rare that I see aging depicted as beautiful and a time of growth and change instead of stagnation and decay (see quote above). And for them to find each other in such a simple, gentle way was really touching. I love that Ursula writes romance as mundane and unvarnished, even as she simultaneously worships the mundane. OH it’s beautiful.
This also was such a wonderful way for Ged’s story to turn; he is not infallible, and really struggles to find himself again in this book. For Tenar to have to help him find himself the way he helped her find herself after Atuan—beautiful, Ursula, beautiful.
And the difference between wizard and witch powers SLAYED LIKE GIRL YOU TELL EM WTF
"Ours is only a little power, seems like, next to theirs," Moss said. "But it goes down deep. It's all roots. It's like an old blackberry thicket. And a wizard's power's like a fir tree, maybe, great and tall and grand, but it'll blow right down in a storm. Nothing kills a blackberry bramble."
MALE FRAGILITY AND UNFOUNDED CONFIDENCE V.S. FEMALE RAGE AND RESILIENCE HELLOOOO
Another slay from Ursula thank you girl I love you
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Beautiful. This was different and yet the same. It shows remarkable growth in the author over the years from when the first books are written. She does so much more with less... And the exploration of Truth in the world goes deeper than maybe any other fantasy I've read.
Though subtle and never contrived, This book asks some brutal questions about gender and sexuality. About power and oppression. About growth and change. About healthy relationships and what family means.
I wasn't ready for all of this going in, but I think being blindsided by all of it was the best way to experience it. It wouldn't have had the same impact were it not proceeded by three very different books that laid a foundation and built a world for this one to tell it's story upon.
Though subtle and never contrived, This book asks some brutal questions about gender and sexuality. About power and oppression. About growth and change. About healthy relationships and what family means.
I wasn't ready for all of this going in, but I think being blindsided by all of it was the best way to experience it. It wouldn't have had the same impact were it not proceeded by three very different books that laid a foundation and built a world for this one to tell it's story upon.