Tales from Earthsea

from Wikipedia:

A common thread to all the stories is the effort to reinterpret the world of Earthsea. The books of the original trilogy presented Earthsea in general and the practice of magic in particular as strongly male-dominated. Women can only be witches, which is the lowest and most despised rank of the magical world, expressed in the proverb "Weak as women's magic, wicked as women's magic".

The stories collected in Tales from Earthsea make a huge effort to redress the balance. It is disclosed that Ogion, Ged's beloved tutor and mentor, had learned his magic from a master who himself learned from an "unauthorised" woman mage, and that the Roke school itself had been originally founded by women who were later excluded from it. Other stories feature strong and assertive women who in various ways challenge male dominance.

UPDATE: I'm aware that this is probably the crappiest review I've ever done, being composed of nothing more than a paste from Wikipedia. However, it's something I sure would have liked to know before reading the book as it kind of ruined it for me. Hence I will leave it up.

Tales from Earthsea is the perfect way to get back into the Earthsea world. I originally thought this was a new book about Ged and company, however, this book contains a collection of shorter stories not revolving directly around the same characters from the first books.

The first and last stories are longer than the others and my favorites of the bunch. Le Guin really excels at storytelling when she has the ability to flesh out her characters over a longer period of time. These two stories really add the most to the world of Earthsea and are relevant to the other Earthsea books. In fact, they flesh out and provide more detail about Roke Island and the school there.

The shorter stories in the middle tend to be the weaker of the bunch, and don't add a lot to the world of Earthsea, but still make for an enjoyable read. They are fun stories that take place in the Earthsea world, but don't necessarily have the complexity and depth of her other Earthsea books (and the other more fleshed out stories in this book). I really don't think that this makes for a terrible book (as some people here seem to be very disappointed) as they are still entertaining.

If you are a newcomer to the Earthsea books, I would not recommend this as an introduction. You should definitely begin with A Wizard of Earthsea (the first book of the series). In addition, if you plan to read all the Earthsea books, I recommend reading them in order. Don't skip to this one if you haven't read at least the first 4 books yet as there are a couple of spoiler-like moments in a couple of the stories.

To sum up, I would rate the first and last stories as 5 stars and the middle stories as 3 stars. If you are already familiar with the Earthsea books, I recommend this book as a way to enjoy a bit of light reading in the same world. Just be aware that some of the stories are not as rich and detailed as previous books in the series. However, the first and the last stories do add some nice details and answer some questions you may have had in the back of your mind about some of the events in the other books.

If there is a book I wish I could have written, it is A Wizard of Earthsea. Though the two "sequels"--the Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore--were both special in their own right, nothing quite captures the magic, loneliness, wisdom, and heartache of that first novel.

It is always risky to return to a work after a long stretch of time, and Le Guin here proves why. An author changes over time, both in terms of interests and also skill. The first three books (and two short stories) are heavily influenced by the period in which they were written--the dread of a dark, almost incomprehensible, nuclear annihilation, a sense that big social changes were occurring, and maybe even a bit of a yearning for lost purity and innocence.

So, while the more recent novels and short stories, are all "set" in the Earthsea universe, it is a different Earthsea than the original one.

This is not to say that Tehanu, the Other Wind, and this collection of short stories aren't good stories--because anything Le Guin writes is well worth reading. But they feel different that the first. Different enough that for some...for me...I had a difficult time with them.

This wasn't the Earthsea I loved; these aren't the characters I knew.

With one exception: the short story "Bones of the Earth", found in this collection, *feels* like it belongs with the first group.

It is beautiful.
Read it.

These tales focus on the sadness and responsibility that go with being a wizard on Earthsea, and as such they have more than a touch of melancholy about them. There is something hard to take about individuals not being able to practice what they excel in or being forced to do work that is against their natures. In the background is the fact that women are not allowed to become wizards or mages, and this lends a certain poignancy to the story "Darkrose and Diamond," for example. The anguish of the male character in this story competes with that of his lover -- she has (I think) the greater power but is not allowed to indulge it, while he is forced into wizardry against his inclinations, though he has the talent. There is an undercurrent in all these stories that women with magical powers must subjugate them or practice them in secret, sublimate their very natures to tradition and politics -- that is a main theme of this collection. Interestingly, Le Guin chooses a male perspective to make her point (except in the last story).
The best (and saddest) story to me is "On the High Marsh." There is something achingly sad about the main character; he is confused yet kind, a seeming innocent with great powers, a sweet, sad, lost-sheep kind of man. Ged appears in this story (I'm not sure he is necessary), and in the end I wept for this lost wizard. Truly an astonishing accomplishment.
Which is more than I can say for the final tale in this collection, Dragonfly. It is entirely engrossing and fascinating until the very end, where I think Le Guin cheats. It is the same kind of cheat she indulges in at the conclusion of "Tehanu." If either ending is fully explained, the explanation is unsatisfactory -- and remains so (though perhaps slightly less so) in "The Other Wind." In Dragonfly and "Tehanu," I feel like Le Guin simply ran out of ideas or simply grew tired, and opted for the speediest of speedy endings to bring her books to a swift close. I think this is the only blight on what is truly a magnificent collection.

I suppose there was a real symmetry to my feelings about these five stories: I enjoyed the middle three, and relished the first as much as I was disappointed by the last.

Spoilers.

The opening story, `The Finder', is set deep in Earthsea's past, and Le Guin does a great job of painting nobility amongst nightmare fear, corruption, and petty robber-Lords.

As with most of her romance plots, I found `Darkrose and Diamond' a bit twee, and with Darkrose I never quite get Diamond's insistence on sacrifice - why wizardry is seen to demand chastity and misogyny, even by seemingly wise, respectable characters who know women can do magic (Ged's own teacher Ogion, we find, for example, was taught magic by a man who's teacher was a woman). Le Guin does address this in the interesting afterword `Description of Earthsea', saying that, "The belief that a wizard must be celibate was unquestioned for so many centuries that it probably came to be a psychological fact." Moreover the central relationship breakup seems more like a silly misunderstanding, a spat, so I lost some of the sense of the grandeur of the reconciliation. Still, there are pleasures to be had in the way Le Guin ably sets up the characters and sets the scenes.

`The Bones of the Earth' and `On the High Marshes' are as good as anything else in the Earthsea mythos (and that means pretty damn) at setting apart her wizards as special - power isn't cheap, and it changes who you are, at best purifying you, setting you apart from the blind grasping of the every day. Probably there's a Ph.D. out there somewhere detailing Le Guin's presentation of the peasantry: I suspect for the most part they're nasty, bigoted and childish, with the occasional utter paragon thrown in.

`Dragonfly'. Ugh. And from Le Guin, of all people. It just feels so daydreamy - like a little boy, "And just when the bad guy was about to get me, I used my (inexplicable, ex-nihilo) super-special powers and punched him right over the street." Like any of those inferior fantasies where the hero with appalling predictability finds his amazing fighting/wizarding talent from nowhere just at the last possible minute. So on p. 261 the baddie says to our lone girl heroine (who until now has exhibited no powers, nothing to warrant her special treatment except a few wizards feeling there's something odd there), "Learn your place, woman." Booo. This is so in your face panto. And then two pages later - stone me if just at the critical moment she doesn't just turn out to be A DRAGON who incinerates uberbaddie in a heartbeat. Yaay! Phew, that was lucky. One of the greatest merits of Earthsea over many other fantasy worlds is the way she paints the cost of wizardry, so it's not just a nifty daydream trick, "Hey, look at me, I can fly - wheeee!" But then with the same abandon that, say, David Eddings throws immortality out to anyone, Le Guin just throws in some grrrl power to Tehanu and Irian - who just get to slip into `God' mode, bam. How do you admire that? Might as well admire someone for being tall or whatever. In our own world the story of how women reformers did carve out suffrage and greater respect and equality *without* miraculous superpowers is a world more impressive.

Where is the wisdom - that the power that some men crave and squabble over actually reduces them - and the trust and community that some women have is of greater value that some of these guys will never actually even comprehend. You haven't defeated misogyny by becoming a dragon, you've just become a bigger man. You haven't challenged the system, you've just confirmed it. What's the lesson here? You've moved from, 'Women are essentially contemptible,' to, 'Women are essentially contemptible. There are only maybe one or two exceptions in each generation - because they are not *merely* women, but also badass dragons.' Reminds me of the doublethink in more openly misogynist times that bizarrely threw up female monarchs, so Spensor's Faery Queen (cf. Elizabeth), or Victoria, are female *and* objects of worship, sure, but seen as a different species to the women you actually live with. It's very much in line with criticisms of Tolkien's women only being Goddesses (Eowyn aside), in an entirely different category to, say, Tolkien's own wife. Le Guin can be so insightful and counter-cultural, so maybe it hurts me all the more when she, of all people, is the opposite. As here and in the more dragony bits of The Other Wind. Thank goodness - from the reviews - I've never read Tehanu.

(No spoilers here!) It took me a little longer to complete this book in the Earthsea series because it isn't one continuous story, but rather, a collection of short stories. You can read one, put it down, and walk away to read somethine else, no problem. Well, maybe one problem- I was eager to move forward and learn what happened to the characters I had come to love and this installment forced me to practice a bit of patience. The majority of the stories in this book are directly related to important characters in the other Earthsea books and provide relevant history / understanding of the world you too have undoubtedly become intimately familiar with. If you've followed the series this far, TALES FROM EARTHSEA is the vital next step before proceeding to the conclusion.

Lots of folks have rightly praised and described the tales within and I just wish to add my voice to the chorus. Le Guin has returned to Earthsea, thanks to the first Legends anthology via "Dragonfly" which is a story that will break your heart from pain and hope and love.
If you have read any of the Earthsea novels, this is essential reading.

Earthsea is a good series for fans of the books like "Lord of the Rings" They were written before the Tolkien books and many believe they helped inspire them. I can see that.

I am preparing to read "Coyote's Song: The Teaching Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin" by re-reading some of her work, and decided to replace some worn-out copies.

This book arrived well before the expected date and was a great buy. I will be buying from them again.