Rating: 
Summary: A woman's book
Review: Pesonally, I liked the earthsea trilogy, but I didn't think it was as good as Le Guin's other books, and I was dissapointed that she did so little with the fascinating character Tenar. But this book, in my opinion is the best of the series. It passionatly tells of love and grief and fear- it runs the spectrum of primal human emotion. I noticed some very bad reviews for this, some people just hated it, and !surprise!- they're all men! Maybe they didn't like how emotionally honest it was, men like to bottle all that up, don't they? Or maybe they didn't like that it was from the woman's perspective, and she wasn't all wrong or what men like to think women are (see Ally McBeal or Friends the perfect female stereotype) but is strong, and yet weak, they are finally forced to see how it feels to be female, the dangers of it (which men are always denying) and that men can be bad guys for thinking the sort of things that go through every frustrated or wronged man's mind. I could be wrong about the reasons, but this book tends to make men angry, especially your smarter ones, who get what the book is saying. Still because Tehanu cuts so deep, I think everyone should read it, love it or hate it. I loved it, it made me cry, and it stayed with me, I think any book that can arouse such a broad spectrum of powerful emotions can be called great.
Rating:
Summary: What are you expecting for?
Review: For most of those people who had read the Earthsea Cycle, and expect to read the same kind of story as the former three, this book will certainly disappoint them, unless they could manage this new sort of narrative that Le Guin uses. Yes, you'll find magic and power, and even myth, but not as a mere fantasy tale; Tehanu bets for a moral, feministic and even ordinary story, for it is within an ordinary environment, as life itself. However, don't you think Tehanu is kind of boring, for it's exactly the opposite: it makes you think about the order of certain things, about prejudices we take as truth. Conclusion? If you want to read a different novel, within the environment of Earthsea, then you will like Tehanu.
Rating:
Summary: How this book influences me.
Review: Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy was one of the most profound influences on my development as a fantasy fiction writer (re: Dragonlance novels - Conundrum, The Thieves' Guild, The Rose and the Skull). When I was younger, I disliked Tehanu. The first three books of Earthsea are grand dark adventures, and Tehanu just seemed so limited. But I have just finished rereading this book, and I find now that I like it just as much as the original series. Maybe it requires a more mature and experienced world-view - I don't know. But I would rate this book as one of the best I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Le Guin reflects and develops - can you?
Review: Split down the middle, the reviews there are of this book veer between "this is a shameless feminist manifesto - a betrayal of fantasy!" and "this is a fitting, moving development of the gripping trilogy". I would like to explain why I favour the second point of view. Studying a great poet like Dante Alighieri has made me realise that the seeds of genius are always present in the work of a great artist, but they take time to mature. Dante's masterwork, the Divine Comedy, was the product of years of undeveloped thought -on love, philosophy and politics. It was only by the time he wrote and later revised the Divine Comedy, that these thoughts could finally crystallise, around an epic yet utterly humane vision. In many ways Dante had renounced some of his earlier beliefs, but this did not make all his works jarring, or inconsistent, it just showed that he had come to master himself and his beliefs. The original Earthsea trilogy was an engaging enterprise that nonetheless set itself largely within a tradition of "fantasy". 'The Wizard of Earthsea' was a typical 'bildungsroman' i.e. the story of a young man on a quest. But within this set of conventions - the pride, the error, the journey, the temptress, the old master - lurked something deeper. Le Guin posited ideas of how one really understands the nature of power, by using the allegory of magic. To be honest, whether this was 'Taoist' or not, as has been alleged, is immaterial to me. It is immaterial because Le Guin then went on to forge her own philosophy, which was and continues to be compelling. Tenar in 'The Tombs of Atuan' faces her own challenge; a different yet parallel fate to Ged's awaits her. In 'The Farthest Shore' Ged has his own apprentice to educate, yet the mission and conclusion are different: a King is sought to rule, not a Mage, and magic is ultimately subordinated to this new hope. It was an end, of sorts. But clearly Le Guin then felt it necessary to understand, as a person herself, what she felt over 10 years later about her creations, and what she thought still needed to be said about the radical conclusions she had already drawn within the conventions of Earthsea. In subjecting the trilogy to a new, more objective analysis in 'Tehanu', I do not believe that she has broken the 'rules' of fantasy. Instead within her Earthsea - still a world of power, of men and women, of great deeds set against the fragility of the human spirit - we now learn of loss and acceptance, of the power of love set against that of magic, and of the fate of men and women. It is a powerful message which, while it does reflect a change in Le Guin's perception of her old trilogy, is nonetheless a change that I think should take her audience along with her. To understand 'Tehanu' is not to understand it as a 4th part of the trilogy, but as the inspiring result of a critical self-examination, and one that ultimately makes the whole Earthsea output all the more rich and intruiging.
Rating: 
Summary: Small scope and scant plot render Tehanu superfluous
Review: Picking up right where The Farthest Shore left off, Tehanu shows us the life Tenar chose to lead after The Tombs of Atuan, and her encounter with Ged when he returns to Gont following The Farthest Shore. Unfortunately, the book doesn't really have a story to tell (though it's full of portents and stories of goings-on elsewhere in Earthsea). It is, effectively, the story of two souls on a remote island who are no longer part of the larger tapestry. Which would be fine, except why bother writing a novel set in Earthsea about such people? The charm of the trilogy was that it was Ged's odyssey through a pivotal time in the history of a remarkable world and how he contributed to it. Tehanu shows us nothing new about Le Guin's magical world, and has little interesting to say. It's at its worst when the musings about "mens' work" vs. "womens' work" and "men's power" vs. "womens' power" comes out; Le Guin has nothing provocative or excitings to say here, and no conclusions - satisfying or otherwise - are reached. It's as if Le Guin felt self-conscious that the trilogy was so male-centric and wanted to rectify that. But it comes at the expense of the wonder that made the trilogy great fantasy. It's a small book about small people. Worst of all, the book falls completely apart at its climax, as the narrative becomes muddy and rushed, with a finale which has little meaning in the context of the rest of the book. Tehanu shows that you can't go home again; the trilogy was 20 years in her past when she wrote this, and Tehanu neither extends nor expands on it. If you loved the trilogy and want to read more like it, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: pointless piece of garbage
Review: The Earthsea trilogy is quite good classic fantasy. This travesty of a book should have been left in the garbage heap where someone obviously found it. The book tends to ramble and never really seems to go anywhere! One is left with a profound feeling of pointlessness! If you liked the previous 3, do yourself a favor and don't read this one, it'll only spoil your enjoyment of the rest.
Rating: 
Summary: Feminism 101
Review: This is the 4th and last book in the Earthsea quartret.
After using up all his power to heal the tear in the fabric of reality, Ged returns to Gont, his first home, to learn and cope with life without magic. Alongside Ged's story, we are told the story of Tenar whom he rescued from the Tombs of Atuan in the 2nd book.
Unlike the first three books, this book has almost no plot. This is in fact not a bad thing. It means Tenahu is more of a "character's novel", which is fine, with the two main characters being Ged and Tenar. The book slowly unfolds and reveals their lives and their relationship.
In my opinion Le-Guin botched up an opportunity at a really great novel here - there aren't many character-based works of fantasy out there. This is a rare book. The theme of losing one's power and learning to cope with it is also powerful and capable of moving, if used correctly. However, Le-Guin has turned Tenahu into a feminist manifesto. I'm all for feminism, but it has been shown in countless cases that art recruited to prove a point is at most average art. This is exactly the case with this book - in her attempt to show the value of women, Le Guin forgot about her characters and the whole coherency of the book. I think the only reason this book has survived so far is because it has the earlier 3 books to carry its weight.
I felt I had to write these things down, although I don't think these comments will deter any earthsea fan from purchasing this book, and, after all, aren't we all Earthsea fans here, having reached the 4th book at all?
Rating:
Summary: a bit disapointing, but you know you'll buy it anyway...
Review: This is the last book in the Earthsea series, and my least favourite, but if you have read and enjoyed the other three you will still like it.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible!
Review: I'm a great lover of the Earthsea Trilogy, but I will never count this book as a part of it. It was a complete rip-off of Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre, a book I know LeGuin admired since it quotes her positive reveiw on the back cover. It has no where near the charm as the original three (the first being the best, in my opinion- it goes downhill from there).
Rating:
Summary: Book 4 in the Eathsea "trilogy"...MUST READ
Review: This series of books is phenomenal. Much like the popular Harry Potter books, they're written at a young-adult level. The difference, though, is that the plot, characters, and magic is much more dark and mature. I recommend the Earthsea books to everyone I can; you won't regret reading them. I think one or more also won the Nebula Award. Go get it!
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