I first read The Earthsea Trilogy when I was in my early twenties and absolutely loved it. The books are meant to be read in the order they were written: A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan(1971), and The Farthest Shore (1972). My wife (who it is more than likely discovered them in the first place!) and I have often recommended them to friends, we certainly sent our son Tom off in their direction once he was old enough to enjoy them. It was in fact he who first realised that Le Guin had written a fourth book, Tehanu (1990), and I have been meaning to catch up with it for some years. My son recently prompted me to get on and re-read the books by giving me a lovely surprise gift of The Earthsea Quartet a few weeks back. I don’t think he was actually aware, I certainly wasn’t, that Le Guin has, since the publication of Tehanu, added another two volumes under the Earthsea banner, Tales from Earthsea (2001), and finally (the last, perhaps?) The Other Wind (2001). Although I don’t think they’re available in one book as The Earthsea Sextet. Tee hee hee! (Don’t quite know why I think that’s funny!). Anyway, Goodreads sensibly refers to them as The Earthsea Cycle - books 1 - 6.
As for reading the first three books again over thirty years after my first outing to Earthsea, the experience was quite simply better than I’d imagined. I was both entranced and delighted by the books, not only by the clarity and drive of Le Guin’s narrative but also by the richness and depth of her always economic prose. I love The Lord of the Rings for its wealth and genius as an epic narrative, however, as a piece of fantasy writing, the world and people created by Le Guin in her Earthsea books have a depth and sense of reality with which Tolkien, in my opinion, never managed to imbue his land of Middle Earth or its characters - and she can cover in fifty pages what JRR would need most of a book to say. This was the first series I ever read that was about a school for the training of wizards, and whilst another school is almost certainly more popularly famous these days, if given the choice I’d definitely want my own wizard’s training to take place on Roke. The first three books were wonderful to read again, and the writing, perhaps not heeded by me then as much as now, was elegant and sublime.
This brings me to Tehanu , the final book in The Earthsea Quartet (as my volume, re-issued in 2012, is entitled). The writing is once again impeccable, however, this is not a tale of epic fantasy like the first three adventures. The main character of the first three books, Ged, is largely absent and the main focus of the narrative is Tenar who we first meet in The Tombs of Atuan. Tehanu has, unlike its predecessors a mainly domestic setting and is concerned (it seemed to me) with the process we all must go through of accepting and accommodating ourselves with life and to how our lives may ultimately fall out. Le Guin has a number of points she wishes to make about gender inequality and the differences between male and female power. I felt that she was (for Le Guin that is) a little heavy-handed at times in her treatment of these matters, and there were just a few moments when I wanted to declare: yes, I already got that. The Taoist philosophy of balance that so firmly binds together this world of Earthsea is never pointed-up or highlighted in such a deliberate way as these feminist issues are in Tehanu. However, Le Guin is a very fine writer and whatever her motives for writing Tehanu, perhaps she simply wished to redress the balance and tidy up the rather male-centric world she’d created in the first three books, and while I’m not wholly convinced that this book should ever have been marketed as the final part of a quartet (so as not to disappoint those anticipating something altogether different, perhaps it should have been presented as a separate story about Earthsea? Just a thought!) it is still a very good book indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
So, I find myself with two more Earthsea books left to go. Perhaps I’ve had enough, already? Certainly not. I shall definitely be looking forward to reading Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind in the not too distant future ... and who knows, with Christmas fast approaching, maybe Santa, or someone else perhaps, might well be reading this blog post?
As for reading the first three books again over thirty years after my first outing to Earthsea, the experience was quite simply better than I’d imagined. I was both entranced and delighted by the books, not only by the clarity and drive of Le Guin’s narrative but also by the richness and depth of her always economic prose. I love The Lord of the Rings for its wealth and genius as an epic narrative, however, as a piece of fantasy writing, the world and people created by Le Guin in her Earthsea books have a depth and sense of reality with which Tolkien, in my opinion, never managed to imbue his land of Middle Earth or its characters - and she can cover in fifty pages what JRR would need most of a book to say. This was the first series I ever read that was about a school for the training of wizards, and whilst another school is almost certainly more popularly famous these days, if given the choice I’d definitely want my own wizard’s training to take place on Roke. The first three books were wonderful to read again, and the writing, perhaps not heeded by me then as much as now, was elegant and sublime.
This brings me to Tehanu , the final book in The Earthsea Quartet (as my volume, re-issued in 2012, is entitled). The writing is once again impeccable, however, this is not a tale of epic fantasy like the first three adventures. The main character of the first three books, Ged, is largely absent and the main focus of the narrative is Tenar who we first meet in The Tombs of Atuan. Tehanu has, unlike its predecessors a mainly domestic setting and is concerned (it seemed to me) with the process we all must go through of accepting and accommodating ourselves with life and to how our lives may ultimately fall out. Le Guin has a number of points she wishes to make about gender inequality and the differences between male and female power. I felt that she was (for Le Guin that is) a little heavy-handed at times in her treatment of these matters, and there were just a few moments when I wanted to declare: yes, I already got that. The Taoist philosophy of balance that so firmly binds together this world of Earthsea is never pointed-up or highlighted in such a deliberate way as these feminist issues are in Tehanu. However, Le Guin is a very fine writer and whatever her motives for writing Tehanu, perhaps she simply wished to redress the balance and tidy up the rather male-centric world she’d created in the first three books, and while I’m not wholly convinced that this book should ever have been marketed as the final part of a quartet (so as not to disappoint those anticipating something altogether different, perhaps it should have been presented as a separate story about Earthsea? Just a thought!) it is still a very good book indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
So, I find myself with two more Earthsea books left to go. Perhaps I’ve had enough, already? Certainly not. I shall definitely be looking forward to reading Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind in the not too distant future ... and who knows, with Christmas fast approaching, maybe Santa, or someone else perhaps, might well be reading this blog post?
And now on to other matters:
Print versions of psychological thriller 'Roadrage' and horror/thriller 'Niedermayer & Hart' Over the past ten days I’ve happily been required to fulfil an increasing number of orders for hard copy versions of both my books. Perhaps people are ordering them as gifts for Christmas for their ‘rellies’ or chums? The books are trade paperback (airport) sized, and were beautifully produced to a high standard by the sadly no longer trading print firm of MPG Biddles. A librarian friend claims the books have remained in good physical condition even after multiple loans - so, both good-looking and durable, definitely a winning combination! Anyway, my personal thanks to those of you buying print versions of the books. I do of course appreciate that they are considerably more expensive, but they do make for lovely reading and they look great on a shelf too! If anyone ever wants a copy signed, I’m always happy to oblige, simply get in touch through the contact form on this site.
Finally, starting today, Kindle copies of my psychological thriller Roadrage are on a countdown deal. Once again, the best price comes at the beginning as it rises incrementally until returning to its normal retail price. I hope as many thriller readers as possible take advantage of this offer. Please take a peek at what people have said about Roadrage on the reviews page of this website, and if your appetite has been whetted - here’s the link to follow Amazon UK
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