Book Review: TALES FROM EARTHSEA (The Earthsea Cycle # 5) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Fragments. Remmants!"
"Beginnings."

It took me quite some time to get over the emotional scarring from the previous, fourth Earthsea book (TEHANU... simultaneously the best and most terrible in the series, for me). But now that I've moved on and finished this fifth Earthsea novel, I'm glad.

If TEHANU was a brilliant, all-consuming flame, TALES is the welcoming fire at the hearth. It is a gentle homecoming to a world Le Guin revisited after eleven years.

TALES FROM EARTHSEA is made up of five stories, all taking place in different time periods, some before, and some in the middle of the previous Earthsea novels.

(By the way, there is a Studio Ghibli film with this same title. I've seen it, and it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in common with the book, apart from the same name.)

I think the reader needs to have read the previous novels in order to fully appreciate the homecoming of sorts, for there's nothing like seeing the backstory of familiar friends fleshed out, or witnessing how another literary companion meets their end. Threads of previous tales, woven tighter, making the overall pattern more brilliant.

"I am lost among wonders."

I am struck anew with Le Guin's uniquely gritty approach to fantasy. It is a world with dragons and magic, yes, but it feels REAL because the humans in her books act like humans in reality. The pettiness and shallow pride, the self-sacrifice and casual cruelty... none of it is glossed over. I cannot recommend this book for any child younger than high school, because there are sentences that hint of unspeakable evils, hinted at and easily missed if one were to merely skim the pages. But for more mature readers, this fifth book is as rich as the previous ones. To live in Earthsea is to be reminded that the salvation of the world is a never-ending burden, that the hard work is never finished. To be in Earthsea is to value the magic of names and language, to be wary of liars for "their lie, spoken, may change the world." This is Fantasy that rings of the deep truths of myths, classic and immortal.

It is not finished yet. The final book awaits. To think that only one book remains fills me with incredible sadness, made sweeter with the promise of re-reading them in some other, kinder time.

"And if not a happy ending, that was a true joy, which may be enough to ask for, after all."

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