Tales from Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
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language: English
country: USA
year: 1998-2001
form: short fiction
genre(s): fantasy
series: Earthsea
dates read: 23.12.23-10.1.24
finished Tales from Earthsea; I was mainly a bit underwhelmed. some of the stories were good — I loved “The Bones of the Earth” and, in a different way, “On the High Marsh”. but the other three felt kind of…pointless?
- “The Finder” is about the establishment of the School on Roke; parts of it were quite good, but it didn’t go anywhere — it simply raised the specter of sexism and, inevitably, since we know that as of the main series the School doesn’t accept women, took it as fait accompli.
- “Darkrose and Diamond” is about a young man torn between a gift for wizardry and a gift for music. apparently he can’t do both, for reasons that are not made clear in the story.
- “The Bones of the Earth” is really THE highlight — it’s about Ogion in his youth, helping his teacher stop an earthquake on Gont (something we hear vaguely about in the main series). I liked it mainly because it’s mostly not about Ogion but rather his teacher, and because, you know, I love chthonic powers, ancient esoteric knowledge, and heroic last stands.
- “On the High Marsh” is about a man fleeing his past and finding his way into some kind of new life, with magic. Irioth and Ged seem gay at the end and I love that for them.
- “Dragonfly”, about a young woman who comes to the School to learn who she is, is actually good in its own right, but having read The Other Wind it felt unnecessary. we already got this story — this was unnecessary information, and in fact in some ways more frustrating than having only the summary of it in The Other Wind would have been, because it again points to misogyny as a point of tension within Earthsea and within the School but offers no resolution whatsoever (inevitably, because it’s setting up The Other Wind — “Dragonfly” was published in 1997).
everything just felt inconclusive, but not in a good way — more in a…not sure where this is going way. disappointing finish to the series (finish in the sense that I still haven’t read “The Word of Unbinding” or “The Rule of Names”).
moods: reflective
webring >:-]
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