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A review by savaging
The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.0
What a wild ride with Le Guin and the dragons. Some very brief thoughts on these 6 books:
1: A Wizard of Earthsea -- A simple fantasy fable. A little dull when listing off the islands they pass by, but also charming.
2: The Tombs of Atuan -- Maybe my favorite of all. Creepy and full and complex, even though it's entirely focused on one small place.
3: The Farthest Shore -- Oh no, there's a Rightful King who must ascend to the Throne? Why is it all fantasy writers are obsessed with Rightful Kings ascending their Thrones? Apart from that, the story has some fun to it.
4: Tehanu -- a few decades later, Le Guin tries to reshape the world she created to better fit her politics. Some of this is beautiful -- Tehanu as a character is compelling, and I love that we get to think a little more deeply about patriarchy and dragons. But sometimes it feels clumsy. In the end, the feminism championed also feels dated and gender-essentialist.
5: The Tales from Earthsea -- Some of these are really compelling short stories.
6: The Other Wind -- Le Guin tries to finally wipe out what is fundamentally wrong with the world she created. A lot of this book is characters speaking exposition to each other. I'm not sure if it works as a novel. All the same, there are obviously going to be lovely elements in it. A cat, for instance.
I appreciate being able to read these all in one book, though by this point it's very overdue from the library. But the art in this book is sort of ... bad? Really a shame how dumb these dragons look.
1: A Wizard of Earthsea -- A simple fantasy fable. A little dull when listing off the islands they pass by, but also charming.
2: The Tombs of Atuan -- Maybe my favorite of all. Creepy and full and complex, even though it's entirely focused on one small place.
3: The Farthest Shore -- Oh no, there's a Rightful King who must ascend to the Throne? Why is it all fantasy writers are obsessed with Rightful Kings ascending their Thrones? Apart from that, the story has some fun to it.
4: Tehanu -- a few decades later, Le Guin tries to reshape the world she created to better fit her politics. Some of this is beautiful -- Tehanu as a character is compelling, and I love that we get to think a little more deeply about patriarchy and dragons. But sometimes it feels clumsy. In the end, the feminism championed also feels dated and gender-essentialist.
5: The Tales from Earthsea -- Some of these are really compelling short stories.
6: The Other Wind -- Le Guin tries to finally wipe out what is fundamentally wrong with the world she created. A lot of this book is characters speaking exposition to each other. I'm not sure if it works as a novel. All the same, there are obviously going to be lovely elements in it. A cat, for instance.
I appreciate being able to read these all in one book, though by this point it's very overdue from the library. But the art in this book is sort of ... bad? Really a shame how dumb these dragons look.