Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea (Puffin Books) [Paperback]

The original 'Earthsea Trilogy' is a children's/young peoples series (although I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it as an adult!). Tehanu is not a book I would give to a child! It is a good story, and makes a good 'final part', but some of the things in the book are rather harrowing.

As with all Le Guin novels, beautifully written. Continues the story of Sparrowhawk from the earlier Earthsea books, but is less of an adventure story and more reflective. You can tell that Le Guin has thought deeply about the implications of various of her Earthsea world which were not previously considered - for example, the ruling that only men could become mages. If this sounds a bit dull however, do not be put off - there are plenty of dragons in this book, and though it will make you think, its worth the mental exercise.

A while ago, I was in the cinema to watch the re-release of "The Jungle Book." Sitting next to me was a small girl, who sat through the whole film completely enraptured as Mowgli talks to animals, floats down the river on Baloo, falls asleep enfolded in leaves, etc ... until the final "Father's hunting in the forest" number, where the little girl comes down from the village with a water jar. Whereupon, the child's mother leaned over and hissed importantly in her ear, "I'd forgotten how sexist this film was." The emotion I felt, on hearing this demented harridan shatter forever her daughter's illusion that she actually *was* Mowgli, is the identical emotion which I felt on first reading Tehanu some twenty years ago.

I suppose the original Earthsea trilogy was such a perfect conception that we all thought we knew how it ended - with Ged flying away on dragonback to Gont, free of Roke, free even of the restrictions of his own former power, transcendentally free, like Frodo going off to the Grey Havens. We certainly didn't envisage him going off to have a mid-life crisis and get off with Tenar, or at any rate I didn't.

However; as Ursula Guin herself has said, nothing ever ends, now becomes then. Life goes on. So I suppose, if we're to accept her as our guide to Earthsea, then we have to follow on wherever she leads us next. On re-reading Tehanu, now, and without the initial total indignation at the feminist makeover, I can at least appreciate the writing, which is as fine as ever. The airy gulfs of light above Gont Port, the names, the slow-turning seasons, the Greek-peasant simplicity of the food on the table, everything is beautifully evoked. The large-scale map of Gont on the flyfleaf sets the scene. This story is not (by and large) the stuff of epic songs, but acts of heroism on a tiny, daily scale, endlessly repeated; a child is healed not by a gesture and a word of power, but over the course of long months, through love, patience, ceaseless encouragement.

I can see this. I can see that both Tenar and Ged are in their way, as much as most people ever are, heroes. Still - this book does not have for me, and I don't think it ever will have, the epic resonance of, say, "The Tombs of Atuan." And (where it appears) I still can't quite get my head round the mythology. This business of people being dragons, dragons being people, it's beautifully described, but it feels like a clever poem that doesn't work. It feels added on. Is Tehanu half a dragon because she was half burnt, or was she half burnt because she was half a dragon? And her calling Kalessin "Segoy", the creator, at the end, what the heck was all *that* about? And Aspen, the wizard of Re Albi, I just found his misanthropy completely unconvincing as villainies go - I mean, really, what is the point of it?

Possibly in another twenty years I'll come to appreciate this more, just as I appreciate Ogion more than I did as a teenager, when I just found him really boring and could totally understand why Ged left. Maybe you need to grow in wisdom to understand "Tehanu," as well. However, for the time being, and though one is always grateful to have another Earthsea book, and no-one can do Earthsea like Ursula le Guin, this isn't the book that the first three books had led us to hope for.