Review – Novel – Tales from Earthsea

Image credit: Cropped from 2012 paperback edition

A few months back, I put up a large review of the five main books from Ursula le Guin's Earthsea series. I've now completed my reading of this essential fantasy epic with Tales from Earthsea, a compilation of short stories scattered across the history of the Archipelago from its ancient past to a point between the events of Tehanu and The Other Wind.

The advantage and disadvantage with an anthology like this is that the stories can vary wildly in type and style, and also in tone. "The Finder" is a mythic and tragic tale of the founding of Roke. "Darkrose and Diamond", originally from 1999, is a fairly light tale of love under impossible circumstances. The Bones of the Earth tells of an old mage of Gont and his initially unwanted taciturn apprentice. "On the High Marsh" follows an unbalanced stranger who takes shelter in a mild farm. The final story "Dragonfly", originally published in 1998 as a "postscript" to Tehanu, shows the life and fate of Irian, a fiery young woman who confronts a rot within Roke's Nine Mages.

On the whole, these stories are enjoyable and can be read on their own, but there was much rich detail to be gleaned from additional knowledge of the other Earthsea books. Ursula le Guin's writing remains as scintillating as ever, showing her maturity through the years, and she even includes a short essay on the culture and languages of Earthsea. It also shows a pointed reevaluation of the traditionally patriarchal world of Earthsea as established to this point, showing the not insignificant but deliberately downplayed role of women in its history and culture.

If you liked the rest of the series, you will LOVE this book. And now I've finally completed it, I feel a little hollow and might want to read something else. Oh wait, almost forgot the score...

9/10