Rating: 
Summary: Slightly better than previous Earthsea books
Review: Tehanu, while not a great read, is better than the previous three Earthsea reads. It has some action..it has moral choices to be made regarding Therru..it has a dramatic ending...and it shows the gradual relationship blooming between Ged and Goha. I could really sense how much Le Guin has grown in the 18 years separating the two Earthsea books. She's aged and learned more about life, which helped her characters immensely.
Rating: 
Summary: A Loss of Fantasy
Review: The Earthsea Trilogy was and is one of the greatest works in genre. Nothing I have to say should be thought to dispute that. But having said that, if Tehanu had been the first book in the series, I would never have finished it, let alone gone on to read the other three books. Others have praised Le Guin on Tehanu, saying how it was so much different than the previous trilogy (which is to be expected since it was written some 20 years later). And that is the rub: it was very different in all the ways a book can be different while retaining the same characters. To guys out there, let me warn you now: DO NOT read this book. Save yourself the pain, the disgruntlement, the disappointment, and the barbed harshness of this book. It is a blatantly feminist manifesto written in the ill-fitting clothing of a fantasy. Take a great hero, strip him of his power , and rub his face in the dirt and you will get a *glimpse* of what Le Guin has done...and in a prolonged, wearying fashion, too. The first three books were about humility, character, responsibility, and sacrifice. This book seemed only concerned with oppression and dull, dreary, and decidedly mundane activities of a woman and a little girl. This is not to say that women's issues are not important, but that this was not the place to air them in the fashion Le Guin chose to do it. High Fantasy involves, among other things, such aspects as 'recovery', 'escape', and 'consolation'. It leaves you feeling refreshed and inspired. It takes you into a wonderful place. It helps you feel a sort of hope and joy. I found NONE of these elements in Tehanu; just the opposite, in fact. For feminists (overt or covert), this book is maybe not so bad. But for those of us who read the first three books and were expecting something in a similar vein: we feel betrayed.
Rating:
Summary: Weak Link
Review: Yes this book is the weak link in the Earthsea books. As others have pointed out, it is more mature, more philosophical etc etc. However it is also deeply disappointing. The characters are not as bold as they once seemed and basically i see this book as a feminist manifesto mixed in with a bleak kitchen sink drama with some complex social iossues thrown in. It isn't the deep and complex fantasy that the other books were. This book is best known for being the one where Tenar and Ged finally get it on.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book - wise, sad, caring and mature
Review: I came across "A Wizard of Earthsea" by chance about 10 years ago - I was completely entranced by it and couldn't rest till I got the other books in the trilogy as well as anythong else by Le Guin. The Earthsea Trilogy was fascinating - but Tehanu transcends the others. It's wonderfully mature and full of a wiser enchantment.It's all about courage and compassion and carrying on - I think this is the best book that I've ever in this genre. After reading this I even felt that Tolkien's works were rather silly by comparision,
Rating:
Summary: A book for children ? You must be joking !
Review: It is only today that I learnt, reading the other reviews, that the Earthsea trilogy is a book for kids. Up until now such a possibility had not even crossed my mind ! Of course I understand that the story of Ged makes a beautiful fairy tale, perfect for our children. However, the poetic language, the flowing prose, the allegories, the moral issues that make this trilogy such excellent reading, all need a more mature eye, an experienced reader to appreciate them... I think. I do hope that my daughter will prefer reading the Earthsea trilogy than playing NINTENDO, but somehow I doubt it. I think I will have to wait until she becomes at least a teenager, so that she can dive into this masterpiece and re-surface a changed person, just as it happened to me. For my part, I would like to thank Mrs LeGuin for writing so beautifully, so elegantly, so poetically that she really touched my heart. Oh, and by the way ... You cannot compare these books with Tolkien. He may be the undisputable father of fantasy, and the Lord of the Rings a masterpiece beyond compare, but the Earthsea trilogy is something different, written with obvious care and tenderness, in a completely different style. Lord of the Rings is an epic, Earthsea is not. Would you compare Homer's Iliad with Sapfo's poems ?
Rating:
Summary: This book deserves a Negative rating.
Review: The single worst book of Fantasy, ever. The depths of how bad this book are can hardly be expressed. It is in no way shape or form Fantasy, that it is marketed as such is a travesty of misinformation. Do yourself a favor, don't make your mind suffer in pain from reading this. If only the trees that went to print this novel in all editions could be brought back . . .
Rating: 
Summary: Out of place
Review: I suppose Tehanu is a decent book in its own right, but I don't know what inspired LeGuin to try to add it to the Earthsea trilogy instead of just making it a completely different story. She removed almost everything which made the first three books so great.
Rating:
Summary: Did not fit in with the series
Review: a great series, i really loved the farthest shore, and really wanted to read the fourth book, as soon as i started, i was really dissapointed, i had wanted an explosive ending, one with Ged being the main character, with Tenar and Arren being there traveling with him, but in this book, there is hardly any travel, barely as much action, not as much magic, it was more of a life story, about Tenar's life and stuggles, which is why there is 3 stars, it was just so different compared to the other books
Rating:
Summary: A disapointment
Review: The first three books of the Earthsea trilogy we magnificent works of art. The were real fantasy with adventure and danger and a real foe to fight. Tehanau was nothing like them. The characters hardly travel. All the magic that capitivated readers seems to have faded. This seemed to deal more with a woman's place and where it should be. I think that what LeGuin is trying to say is true, woman should have equal rights. But when writing a series you have a duty to the readers to make the series flow, to give them what they want. Tehanu did not do that. Perhaps this series should have ended with The Farthest Shore. I wish LeGuin would write more stories of Earthsea in the flavor and style of the first three.
Rating:
Summary: Not for juveniles
Review: I was beside myself with joy throughout this fourth book. I loved the first three when I read them as a juvenile, even though as a girl I found little to identify with. (In the early world of Earthsea, I would have been washing dishes someplace out of sight. Adventure fiction is only fun when you can imagine it happening to YOU. This book is not any more political than the others; it just balances the power. If that strikes you as feminist, then you're too used to male-oriented fantasy.) But having since aged and had many amazing real-life adventures of my own, the themes of the first three books seem awfully simplistic to me now - for beginners on the journey. LeGuin herself matured and the fourth book has much deeper and subtler dimensions that a young reader probably can't even recognize. People who think middle-aged women don't descend to the depths of the underworld, face danger heroically, fight evil, recognize power in the most unlikely places and wield it masterfully behind the scenes are too young to understand this book. Real life is a lot more challenging, adventurous, terrifying, mysterious, magical and difficult to master than you can begin to imagine until you've lived it as long as LeGuin (and I) have, and the better you get, the harder it gets. Tehanu is not for beginners. Come back and read this book after you've advanced several levels.
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