audio cassette
English language
Published April 3, 2003 by Fantastic Audio.
A young prince joins forces with a master wizard on a journey to discover a cause and remedy for the loss of magic in Earthsea. Darkness Threatens to overtake Earthsea. As the world and its wizards are losing their magic, Ged -- powerful Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord -- embarks on a sailing journey with highborn young prince, Arren. They travel far beyond the realm of death to discover the cause of these evil disturbances and to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.
Great story, and particularly liked the ending.
The third in the series returns to focus more on Sparrowhawk but focalized through a young nobleman rather than Sparrowhawk himself. As such, it is interesting to see yet another perspective on Sparrowhawk. More dedicated, more driven, and yet bigger stakes makes The Farthest Shore a surreal experience at times. The force of the novel comes in the way we finally learn more about the dragons of Earthsea. As always, Le Guin's tale is one of ambition driven too far.
I have a confession to make: I've never been able to get into Le Guin's books. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea trilogy, and there's something to the voice that I find dry and intolerable, like an anthropologist clinically describing observed events. Under this voice, even the most exciting scene is relayed in the monotonous drone of a professor lecturing ungrateful freshman. The Farthest Shore has the additional problem of the apparent main character, Arren, having little-to-no agency for 95% of the book, the plot being driven by Ged and the Other.
Which is a shame, because, otherwise, these books are amazing.
Outside of Doctor Who, it's difficult to find stories where violence does not solve all of your problems. I just reviewed Wolves of the Calla, solution: gunslinger violence. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, solution: violence against androids, then feel bad about …
I have a confession to make: I've never been able to get into Le Guin's books. I've read The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea trilogy, and there's something to the voice that I find dry and intolerable, like an anthropologist clinically describing observed events. Under this voice, even the most exciting scene is relayed in the monotonous drone of a professor lecturing ungrateful freshman. The Farthest Shore has the additional problem of the apparent main character, Arren, having little-to-no agency for 95% of the book, the plot being driven by Ged and the Other.
Which is a shame, because, otherwise, these books are amazing.
Outside of Doctor Who, it's difficult to find stories where violence does not solve all of your problems. I just reviewed Wolves of the Calla, solution: gunslinger violence. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, solution: violence against androids, then feel bad about it. The Slow Regard of Silent Things, solution: make soap (this might be one of the reasons why I liked this book as well). Cloud Atlas, solution: violence of every genre. Star Wars, solution: lightsaber violence.
You get the picture.
In The Farthest Shore, violence is never the ultimate the solution. Sacrifice, life, balance, mercy, wisdom, these are the answers. Some quick violence in the service of protection may be necessary, but never as punishment or revenge, and always as a small piece of a greater solution. When I think of books I want my daughter to read as she grows up, Le Guin's sit far ahead of King's, or even Sanderson's (who's been my favorite author for a long while now). I just wish I could get into them myself.
One might argue that, ultimately, in Return of the Jedi the solution was mercy, given that Luke won by showing mercy to Vader, but one would be forgetting that this mercy was not the final solution; Vader throwing the Emperor down a conveniently placed reactor shaft holds that honor. And Lando blowing up the Death Star. And Han blowing up the shield generator. And Admiral Akbar fighting off the Imperial navy. And, ultimately, you have to consider the Endor holocaust. My point is, the solution was violence on a massive scale, likely killing billions living on the Death Star alone.
But it isn’t wrong to want to live?’
‘No. But when we crave power over life – endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality – then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.’
Ged and Arren/Lebannen go on a long quest to find out what is taking the magic out of Earthsea. One can read the story as a story which meanders in adventures between the isles of Earthsea until they reach the end of the world or the titular farthest shore to find the culprit.
‘And this is one man’s doing – the one the dragon spoke of? It seems not possible.’ ‘Why not? If there were a King of the Isles, he would be one man. And he would rule. One man may as easily destroy, as govern; …
But it isn’t wrong to want to live?’
‘No. But when we crave power over life – endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality – then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.’
Ged and Arren/Lebannen go on a long quest to find out what is taking the magic out of Earthsea. One can read the story as a story which meanders in adventures between the isles of Earthsea until they reach the end of the world or the titular farthest shore to find the culprit.
‘And this is one man’s doing – the one the dragon spoke of? It seems not possible.’ ‘Why not? If there were a King of the Isles, he would be one man. And he would rule. One man may as easily destroy, as govern; be King, or Anti-King.’
After reading Le Guin's essay on literature and genre (Genre: A Word Only a Frenchman Could Love) from book [b: Words are my matter|29363335|Words Are My Matter Writings About Life and Books, 2000–2016, with A Journal of a Writer's Week|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470694965s/29363335.jpg|49608748] the story reads different fro me. Deeper and more like a parable. Though a parable of what I can't quite say or put into quite such eloquent words as Le Guin did.
This was first published in 1972. Neither the language nor the story has suffered from being 46 years old (at the time of writing this) and it is still highly relevant today.
I stand in daylight facing my own death . And I know that there is only one power worth having . And that is the power , not to take , but to accept . Not to have , but to give . ’
I read this when I was 10 and it's sacred. :)
