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The Farthest Shore : The Earthsea Cycle

The Farthest Shore : The Earthsea Cycle

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An incredible and unforgettable trip to friendship and death
Review: The combination of a master magician and a young brave prince starts the story. A story wich will discover the power of friendship and the hard choice of Ged: raise the prince as the Gatherer of All Earthsea and restore the magic to Earthsea, but pay the price: lost his wonderful magical power forever or get for him and the prince eternal life (and leave the doors between life and death wide open, so all Earthsea gain inmortality). The book put on me many feelings: I was astonished, scared and driven to tears. This is the best book in the trilogy (after, a 4-logy with "Tehanu"), and it gets value by it self and can be read alone.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not bad- however it bogs down
Review: The Earth-Sea is one of my favorite fantasy series; probably my third favorite or so. I liked the first two books. This isn't a trilogy in any real sense, but just 3 novels with the same main character.

The Tombs of Atuan (the second book) was my favorite. This and the first book were quiet, speculative novels that though earthy, had their own sense of wonder. The main problem with these books is that the universe isn't very well fleshed out. You get a few glimpses of an old world, maybe decaying. But there is no sense that the whole universe or even a small part of the world is involved, one of the best parts of fantasy. The stories might as well be Ged's personal adventures.

With the Farthest Shore, Ursula K LeGuin attempts (presumably) to make up for this loss. There is something wrong with the world; its up to Ged to find out what. The problem is a very well thought of one, yet rather enigmatic (if anything, LeGuin is certainly orginal, even fifty years after her works her style is unique.) The best parts of the book were the depictions of the search for immortality.

Nonetheless, although the idea is certainly thought-provoking, this book lacks a lot. The conversations, although philosophical perhaps, grow increasingly inscrutable (not necessarily a good thing, all you arcane-scholar types out there). Her imagery is also confusing; it was never a strong point in the series. Several sequences in the book really were not well written, or were very confusingly written- Hort Town, and the meeting at night; the sea-people; and the long interminable boat rides that seem to fill both this and the first book. An exception is her depictions of that barren dead-world with the great chasm, quite a good bit of imagery.

All in all this book does not live up to the first two books. Each book is too self-contained, also, as Tenar disappears as well. This book had much more promise, but a confusing style makes its ideas very hard to grasp. Its not hard to understand because of the complexity of the ideas; its hard to understand because its not well written.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Very Best
Review: The Earthsea series, of which this book is the third part, is a majestic work of fantasy fiction. The flowing beauty of the world, the clear simplicity of the storytelling, and the depth and wisdom of some of the passages makes these books a pleasure to read and reread. Along with J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth and C.S. Lewis' Narnia, Ursela Le Guin's world of Earthsea is one of the most wonderful places to visit in the genre of fantasy.


Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The 3rd Book of Earthsea
Review: The Farthest Shore is a story of a young prince name Arren who comes to Ged, the archmage at Roke to tell him of a magic drain in Earthsea. Roke is a magical island in which magic flows fluently and apprentices learn magery. They set out on the Lookfar, a sailing ship, to Hort Town, Lorbannery, and Dragon Run, 3 cities in Earthsea in search of the source of the magical drain. At dragon run they find dragons dying because they have lost their speech and they have become savages. A dragon named Orm Embar leads them to an island where they believe that there is a hole in Earthsea. They meet an evil wizard and are forced to battle him. The new character of Earthsea is named Arren. He is a prince, and a descendent of Morred, a famous king in Earthsea. He has no magical powers unlike his father who is a king. He has a magical sword, which throughout the story seems to be just a sword, but helps Arren out greatly in the end to destroy his enemies and protect Ged. He is very unsure of himself and his concept of betrayal trips him up. He helps Ged to solve the mystery and is a fun twist to the story of Earthsea. I would recommend this book with extreme prejudice because I personally am a fan of knights and magic and dragons. This book really is the best of all of the four Earthsea books.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A supreme ending to the Earthsea Trilogy
Review: The Farthest Shore is a sublime ending to a memorable trilogy. The only thing I didn't like about the book is that Tenar's disappeared from the scene, so we don't know how she fared in her new life.

My favorite thing about this book is that the hero doesn't wind up being the hero, at least not in the traditional sense. He's not the one who gets to stand proud at the end so that the masses may worship him in all his glory, so to speak. Ged's triumph is much more subtle, and that seems to make it that much more. Arren's victory was also fascinating, but I won't spoil it by telling you what it was.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Unsatisfying
Review: the promise in this book is never fully realized. As usual, we only get half-glimpses of Earthsea, images of decay, of a human civilization in the throes of strange forces. This is present even more so than usual as there is a mysterious problem with the world that Ged must right.

The setting throughout the book can really tire the reader. This is the second time in the series we have long, long sea voyages and its slightly more compelling, but can leave the impression that Earthsea should be just called... Sea. When the mind has to follow the story over long stretches of empty sea, followed by long stretches of dry, dusty land, it can overwhelm. In fact those are the main things I remember without this book if I don't think.

The story itself is mysterious as usual, and well written. The best parts of the book are in fact the beginning of the book, the madman who aids Ged and Arren, mental convulsions of Ged's companion, Arren, and the ending of the book, which is slightly anticlimatic but absorbing nonetheless.

LeGuin's fantasy is so different from nearly any other fantasy I have read that it requires a certain appreciation for elegant writing and terse power to like. Anyone looking for action, of course, would never have gotten to this point; but this book continues in the style of the previous Earthsea books, perhaps even more so.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good ending to the trillogy
Review: This book is a fitting ending to the brilliant Earthsea Trillogy. In my view the weakest of the three books (not counting the forth...) yet that isn't saying much as the entire trilliogy is classic. I have read Tolkien and found the Earthsea trillogy to be much more satifying, perhaps not in imagination, but in plot, chracter development and pacing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: regarding the first chapter.
Review: This book is just as good as the rest of the series, but "The Farthest Shore" stands out for one reason: the first chapter is probably the most beautiful piece of literature ever written. EVER. It should be hanging in a museum. It is pure magic. Preview it here on Amazon to see what I mean!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fartherst Shore Review
Review: This book is typical of LeGuin's work, it combines thought provoking ideas in a simple style and a use of language which frequently reminds me of poetry. I have often seen her books shown as "childrens books". They are not. They are for any age that can understand a deep sense of poetry in language and an interest in the interactions of people in different environments.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Blah
Review: This book was, in my opinion, a low point in the Earthsea Trilogy. Arren made for a poor companion to Sparrowhawk, and his character was far too underdeveloped to add any interest to the book. There was an underlying sense of dourness throughout the whole of the material, and I just kept wanting to get it over with. If you want to enjoy the Earthsea Cycle to it's fullest, skip straight to "Tehanu".


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