The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3)

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Ursula K. Le Guin: The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3) (Paperback, Bantam Doubleday Dell)

Paperback

Published by Bantam Doubleday Dell.

ISBN:
978-0-553-10131-7
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When one door is closed many more are open

A lovely third instalment of the Earthsea series, and a good handoff from it being all Ged's story to broadening out. A few off notes though:

  • I found the emphasis on restoring the King to bring back order off-putting and at odds with the gentle daoism infusing everything else about these books.
  • Arren seems to go awfully quickly from doubting naif to ready to be crowned. I liked how much Ged's ascendancy was about time, effort and learning from his own mistakes, and Arren's feels rushed by comparison.
  • This may be the most extreme of the Earthsea books so far for just lacking female characters.

I gather that the later books were in part a deliberate effort by an older Le Guin to fix some of the deficiencies of the first 3, especially around gender (even in Tombs of Atuan, I found Tenar more …

reviewed The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea Cycle, #3)

Review of 'The Farthest Shore (Earthsea Cycle, #3)' on 'Goodreads'

I liked this one less than the first two. Like them, it's a coming-of-age story, but it has elements of the prophesied chosen one pattern that I dislike in fantasy novels.