The Earthsea Quartet by
UrsulaKLeGuin [
ISBN 0140348034 (
amazon.com,
search)]
A trilogy in five parts (plus short stories).
- AWizardOfEarthsea introduces the lands of Earthsea and Ged (known as Sparrowhawk), a trainee Wizard.
- TheTombsOfAtuan? develops the character of Ged much further, we see him a older and wiser (but not that wise...)
- TheFarthestShore? sees him as an old wise man, and is somewhat darker in tone.
- Tehanu? - Tenar rescues a girl who is kin to the dragons.
- TalesFromEarthsea? (short stories + novella)
- TheOtherWind - the sorcerer Alder has nightmares about the wall between the living and the dead.
TalesFromEarthsea? includes the novella Dragonfly [which was also printed in the fantasy anthology Legends], which is the prequel to TheOtherWind, and very important to it.
I liked all the Earthsea books. They have a truly mythic quality combined with a gentle style that means that any element of preachyness is easy to take. -- TomAyerst
Trilogy in four parts? That would be a tetralogy....I have no idea about these books, but that phrase strikes me as odd... It reminds me a SciFi Book I read by LRonHubbard?, it was part of a dekalogy, and the countercover announced
"The best SciFi dekalogy ever!!!" or something like that. I suspect it is the only SciFi dekalogy...AstroNomer
- It's MissionEarth? -- tarquin
- Five parts, really, with TheOtherWind. That'd make it a pentalogy. -- wacko
It can really be considered as two connected trilogies, The Ged trilogy (AWizardOfEarthsea, TheTombsOfAtuan? and TheFarthestShore?) and the Tehanu/Irian? trilogy (Tehanu, The Dragonfly novella in TalesFromEarthsea? and TheOtherWind)
I was prompted to read this by the controversy caused by LeGuin
?'s complaints about the bowdlerisation of her stories by the television adaptation. I found that her stories influenced many stories that I had thought to be original. From Harry Potter to
NeilGaiman's Books of Magic LeGuin
?'s influence is widespread. However her stories seem one-dimensional, predictable and frankly boring. There are no great conflicts, no titanic enmities or mighty battles. It all flows from beginning to ending as if the plot is on rails. There is never a point when things might go in a different direction. Maybe I've been spoiled by reading the works of people like
RobertJordan but I expect a little more ambiguity in my good guys and a little more purpose in my villains. Everything here is as plot-driven and predictable as a shakesperean play you've seen too many times.
Having said that I found the final story in the quartet haunting and uncomfortable precisely because LeGuin? used it as a pulpit for her feminist ideas. That's not usually the sort of thing one finds in this genre and it was the first time in the entire quartet that I was surprised. Unfortunately I found the ending to be as disappointing and one-dimensional as the rest of LeGuin?'s work. I'd recommend buying Tehanu on its own and ignoring the rest.--AdewaleOshineye
A
BookOnTheBookshelf,
TheSeries depicting
VisionsOfWonder.
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