"I Do Not Mistake You for Any Finished Thing..."

books:


	• The Farthest Shore (Fantastic Audio Series) Ursula K. Le Guin Audio Literature, Fantastic Audio, 2003 average customer review:based on 63 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not Free SF Reader

A little more interesting than The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore is a story of the older Ged. He is now an archmage, and has come to the realisation that magic is slowly disappearing, and that to ordinary people, this does not matter a whole lot.

Ged ends up on what to him is a quixotic quest, along with a young prince, to see what is going on.

Awesome

I loved the first two but this is really great too! I cant decide which is my favorite The Farthest Shore or the Tombs of Atuan. Ged is the best. i would recommend this highly.

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"I Do Not Mistake You for Any Finished Thing..."

The third book in what is known as the "Earthsea Cycle," this installment takes place a number of years after "A Wizard of Earthsea" (in which the character Ged was a boy) and "The Tombs of Atuan" (in which he was a grown man). Now he is edging into late middle-age as the Archmage of the Wizards, and a much younger man has come to the island of Roke, seeking his aid.

Arren is a young prince of the isle of Enlad, eager to serve and awe-struck at the great wizard Ged, but he comes with sobering news. Magic is leaking out of the world, leaving imbalance and chaos in its wake, news that matches reports that the wizards have been receiving from all over Earthsea. A wizard council is held, and Ged announces that he will go forth to find the cause of the magical entropy, and stop it if he can. The untried Arren pledges himself to Ged and his mission, and - despite the trepidation of the other wizards - the two set out to find the symptoms, effect and cause of the plague upon Earthsea.

What they find is sobering. Without magic (defined in this fantasy world as knowledge of "True Names" for people, places and objects) all meaning and purpose is draining from the world. Wizards are going mad for want of their true identities and spells of all kinds are being forgotten by those who have used them for countless years. People are suffering from a lack of interest in living; and as the mage and prince gather clues to the mystery, Ged decides that the problem must be centred on an individual with an unnatural desire for immortality. But where to find such a man? The two must travel to the Farthest Shore - into death itself to defeat their foe and restore the balance to the world.

"The Farthest Shore" is generally considered the best of the "Earthsea Cycle" (although le Guin continues to surprise her readers by churning out another novel set in this fantasy-world just when we think she's done), an accumulation of all the themes and plot-points established in the first two installments. Her established mythology concerning both the history of the islands and the workings of magic are used to excellent effect, and elements that were left upon in the previous books (the empty throne in Havnor, Ogion's prophecy, Ged's relationship with the dragons) are all brought to their logical conclusions.

Le Guin's language is beautiful, effortlessly evoking the cultures of each island, life on the open water and the dull dreariness of the realm of the dead, where "those who had died for love passed each other in the streets." Likewise, her imagination seems to know no limits; my particular favourite was her depiction of "the children of the sea", a community that lives entirely on floating rafts, coming ashore only once a year to replenish their wood supply.

Ged is now beginning to show his age; no longer being the prideful and impetuous youth he was in "A Wizard of Earthsea", his hair is greying and his physique weakening. But with age comes wisdom, and in many ways we are seeing Ged in his prime, especially when compared to the impatience and inexperience of Arren. I cannot bring to mind any other fantasy series that follows our protagonist from youth to old age (the great percentage stop when the hero reaches maturity, leaving the aging process as part of the "happily ever after") and it is for that reason I find the "Earthsea" cycle so unique. This is a person's entire lifetime we are experiencing, not just their youth; making it a much richer and deeper reading experience.

Anyone who considers themselves a fantasy connoisseur should pick up "The Farthest Shore", as well as "A Wizard of Earthsea" and "The Tombs of Atuan". Though not my favourite of all the fantasy series ever written, it is refreshingly unique and beautifully told.

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"Agni, Lebannen!"

While not as detailed or as ornate as THE LORD OF THE RINGS, LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle is considered among the finest of the Sword and Sorcery classics. THE FARTHEST SHORE is the third book in the Cycle.

THE FARTHEST SHORE is the most ambitious of the first three books in the Cycle. Another quest novel, it touches on themes of life, death, power, authority, youth and maturation.

In THE FARTHEST SHORE, Ged (now Archmage) and Lebannen, the young uncrowned King of Earthsea, are pitted against the wizard Cob, who has discovered the key to eternal life, really a kind of joyless undeath that saps the world of everything meaningful. In undoing Cob's evil, Ged loses his power, while Lebannen comes into his own.

Somewhat too heavily laced with symbolism, THE FARTHEST SHORE is still the most powerful of the early Earthsea novels. LeGuin's dragons, in particular, are amazing creatures unlike any other in Sword and Sorcery literature: "Dragons are dreams..."

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Farthest Shore is the third book in the renowned Earthsea trilogy. The young prince, Arren, brings harsh news. There is no longer true magic in Enlad; the mages have forgotten their spells so the springs of wizardry are running dry. Accompanied by Arren, Ged sets out to meet unknown dangers, to confront his own past, and to test the ancient prophecies, taking with him on his journey all the hopes of Earthsea, moving into doom or into a new age. The Farthest Shore rounds out the promise of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. Author Ursula Le Guin has won numerous awards including the National Book Award, five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, the Kafka Award, and a Pushcart Prize.

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