Earthsea TrilogyFollow

Has anyone read these books? The first one is excellent, along with the second. Havn't finished the third yet ^^

I read them all, but it's been a while so I don't really remember what happened in them. I know I liked them, though.

I answered a similar inquir at another board recently so forgive my cut/paste:

The EartheSea novels are probably what Ursula Leguin, a legitimate legend in specualtive fiction is most famous for, and are worthy reads even though her masterpieces most agree are The Left Hand of Darkness and Dispossessed, the former considered a true ground breaking work.

Earthsea has 5 full length installments:

The Wizard of Earthsea.
The Tombs of Atuan.
The Farthest shore.
Tehanu.
The Other Wind

The first 3 are solid, and entertaining, yet generally standard fare epic fantasy. I enjoyed them, but admittedly they have lost there luster now that I am older, but someone more inclined to epic fantasy would no doubt still enjoy them. The last two present a more adult oriented themes and are written with the more social concious and sociel relevant themes that are attributed to her earlier wirks (mentioned above Left Hand of Darkness, and Disposesed), and are the two best books in the series IMHO because of this. Popular opinion may not completely agree with that statement, as the first 3 novels remain most accesible to fans of traditional fantasy, and some have complained about the thematic change and the changes in tone that are as I said defintely noticeable as Leguin seemed to to start writing for a slightly older audience.

it also should be noted that there is a collection entitled Tales of Earth Sea that has related stories and another collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters that has 2 more Earthsea related stories in the collection.

Recommened? Defintely, especially for fans of epic fantasy, but no nearly as good as her Left Hand of Darkness, which as I mentioend is nothing less than a all time classic of SF.

The first 3 as AinulindaleFBS said are solid. I first read them when I was in 4th grade. I liked them back then. I still like them now. They haven't lost their luster in my eyes.

The last two, however are vasly different to the first three. Actually, what I think of the books is:

1. A Wizard of Earthsea is really good. It tells the story, Stuff happens, not very profound. Good read if you don't mind reading something superficial.

2. The Tombs of Atuan is also very good. Deals with the Ancient Ones a lot. Deeper than the first one by all means.

3. The Farthest Shore is the turning point from books one and two to four and five. Theres plenty of action that LeGuin describes well but concisely. There is also a lot of meaning in this one. Immortality and whatnot. It is still good compared to the first two, but if you like your fantasy to have a deeper meaning.

4. Tehanu is strange. I read it. I found it boring the first time around. Dropped it midway. Second time I picked it up, same thing happened. I reread it a year or so ago and this time it wasn't as bad as I thought it was earlier. There is no more magic and stuff that was in the previous books. No dragonslaying. the guy is old and tired. But there is meaning in it and I guess that I just had to mature to read this and enjoy it.

4.5. There are two or so stories that the poster twice before me wrote of. I think there are more. Read those. I like short stories. They had action, and description of the world. LeGuin didn't really describe the world much in the 4 previous books.

5. The Other Wind: I've read it once, maybe a year or so ago. I remember I enjoyed it, but unlike the others, it did not give me a lasting image of itself. It did have a nice change of themes from te 4th one and start up on dragons and magic again. Maybe I have to read it again.

Anyway, as you see, I don't have a very good vocabulary to describe her works with, but by all means these are among my favorite books/series.

And I've yet to read the Dispossessed.