Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Tehanu

This book was so good, I wrote a final paper on it completely unprompted. Tehanu is definitely one of my favorites in the Earthsea series, and maybe out of all books.

I love how Le Guin presents and examines identity in Earthsea, and Tehanu makes that its central concern. In a world where power, gender, and identity are so closely entwined, the distinctions between them and their lived impacts on people permeate through every layer of society-- social biases, especially sexist ones, root themselves in the minds of even the most well-meaning people. Tenar is a wonderful character through whom to explore these themes. Even though she herself is intimately familiar with the variance of identity (as the text reminds us, quite cleverly, by switching between the names Goha and Ar-ha and Tenar), she still internalizes biases against women and projects them onto those around her. Ged does much the same in this novel. Tehanu is Tenar’s journey to deconstructing those biases and embracing her identities as a woman.

How Le Guin communicates that journey, through a slow-paced narrative with an often cleverly quotidian yet hunted tone, is phenomenal. For me, this was the most immersive book of Earthsea because of Tenar’s inner monologue (and the moments where it breaks from that were all the more interesting for it.) The plot felt grounded in the reality of its world, whereas previous books like A Wizard of Earthsea felt to me more like a recounting of an epic. Which is also amazing! One of my favorite things about the first book is how much it feels like an epic legend, and the same holds up for The Farthest Shore and even The Tombs of Atuan, to an extent. But Tehanu feels different, in an equally amazing way.

I annotated this book while reading it for recurring images, and what I found was extremely satisfying: there are a lot of opposite motifs, like heat and cold, fire and water, light and dark. I absolutely loved the emphasis on these opposites. The Tombs of Atuan obviously had a lot of light and dark imagery (Ged’s speech to Tenar about being “made to hold light” is one of my favorite pieces of writing ever), and so seeing it echoed in Tehanu was so fitting for Tenar’s character-- and seeing how it applied to Therru’s character was genuinely fascinating to me.

Therru

herself is a contradiction in Earthsea’s society. She occupies opposing roles. She’s a victim of violent assault, a curious youth, Tenar’s daughter, a force of immense power, born of dragons, a girl: in the power structure of Earthsea’s society, these things cannot be true at once. She opposes herself, breaks the rules, forces the people around her to confront the dissonance in their worldviews… just like the repeated opposing images. When she’s given her true name at the end, Tehanu, Tenar realizes the coalescence of her daughter’s identity, finally understanding that she is multifaceted rather than contradictory. And so is every woman, and man, and person, and dragon in Earthsea.

It’s a powerful, meaningful sentiment, and Le Guin communicates it much more beautifully than I just did. Please read this book.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Le Guin is unparalleled. Tehanu is phenomenal, almost mythological in its implications, and I truly think it’s one of the best in the series. I love it.

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directorpurry's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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bottleofink's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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queenkath32's review against another edition

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adventurous

4.0

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blueteacup's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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nerdkitten's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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shazzy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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neni's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This was amazing. The tone and themes of the book really surprised me, in a most positive way. You can definitely tell Ursula wrote this some time after the first 3 books, because the vibe is completely different (darker, more mature and reflective) while somehow still maintaining the “spririt” of the previous stories.

Let me just start by saying that I was NOT expecting this to be such a feminist view on gender roles, especially women’s roles, in society, but I was deeply impressed by how the author managed to have such meaningful reflections and thoughts about these subjects, while weaving them into and maintaining an engaging and believable (more on that later) plot and storyline with the characters.

I loved having Tenar as the main character again. She is fierce and brave and intelligent as fuck, and I aspire to reach her levels of awesomeness to be honest. Tombs of Atuan is arguably my favorite of the first 3 books, and this felt like a continuation of that vibe but somehow evolved and better. Upgraded Tenar vibes lol

It was great to see a middle aged woman as a main character instead of the habitual twenty something heroine (nothing wrong with young female protagonists, but it does tend to be the norm, especially in the fantasy genre). And particularly, one so expertly written was a joy to read.
Ursula is a master of characterization (and just writing in general really), and this work really showcases that. Tenar feels so real, so complex, her inner toughts and her often conflicting emotions are incredibly well refined, in a way that just allows the reader to deeply connect with her and care about her life and her relationships. It’s honestly incredible to experience.

One of the things that impresses me the most as well, is the way she manages to built tension within a plot that is objectively not that fancy or complicated. The setting is very simple and pastoral, not that much happens really, at least in terms of like “normal fantasy” tropes. So, no big exciting battles or mysteries happen. But still, the story feels incredibly compelling and important, and you care about the characters because they feel real and deeply complex, even though there’s arguably not that much time alloted to character development in a typical sense. I genuinely can’t explain what makes this so fascinating to me, but there’s a definitive unique quality to Ursula’s writing and storytelling that I don’t really get anywhere else.

About the writing style, I have nothing to say but praise. She has a distinctive style with a certain “magical” rhythm to the phrasing, that gives the prose an almost hypnotic quality, even though it’s, once again, not the flashiest or most elaborate in objective terms. One of her (many) strongsuits is description, especially the use of metaphors, which she performs masterfully to build beautiful imagery and ambience.

Coming back to the themes, there were plenty of interesting (and often painful) discussions on women’s identities and roles in society. How older women are often seen as useless and not worthy of love or respect, even by those who are closest to them (children, spouses). Also, how in many cases, older women (or women in general really) aren’t even truly seen, in a way. Not allowed space to exist, to thrive, outside of the boxes, roles and norms that restrain them. It’s remarkable how this is a fantasy story, and a great one at that, but also so much more.

In terms on how I felt reading it, I love Tenar, as I’ve said. It was heartbreaking but also inspiring and hopeful in a way to see Ged again, and his healing process after all the trauma he’s been through. The meaningful insights into gender roles weren’t exclusively about women. I think Ged’s plotline and struggle after losing his magic exemplified a ton of issues and problems men also face in society. The reflections on motherhood were fantastic as well.

Overall, this was just a great book that more people should read, regardless of if they even like fantasy or not. Because, even though there’s the ocasional awesome dragon appearance, it’s mostly about humans. And I think that’s beautiful.

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