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Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Other Wind, Le Guin revisits some of the material for which she is most famous--the magical world of Earthsea, whose scattered islands are the home of an inventively conceived magic of checks and balances. Once before, in the fourth book Tehanu, with its hideously burned child who is part dragon, Le Guin reconsidered what she had already written, forcing her readers to abandon complacent enjoyment of the heroic in favour of something rather more straight-edge and critical.
Now, with hitherto friendly dragons burning humans out of their homes and the dead whispering ominously in a sorcerer's dreams, she questions her own premises even further. Ged, the burned-out magus of the first three books, and his wife Tenar are here, but peripheral; this is the tale of the tinker mage Alder and his dreams of his dead wife and how he finds himself caught up in the affairs of the great and good.
This is a calmer, more satisfying book than Tehanu; it is as if Le Guin is less angry with herself and her audience for the popularity of the first three books, more prepared to accept one sort of good and force us to move on from it to a more mature and ascetic vision. As always, she writes in a crisp, lyrical prose that approaches the sublime; this is a book about enlightenment that makes us believe it possible. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"...a thought-provoking continuation of the chronicle of Earthsea...a luminous, absorbing meditation upon life, death and man's relentless quest for immortality." (Booktrusted News )
"This absorbing philosophical debate can stand alone for Le Guin's new readers; for long-standing fans of the Earthsea saga, old friends are here." (TES, 31 May 02 )
"...a masterpiece of chilling narration" (Guardian, 27 Jul 02 )
"The characters and fantasy world are all vividly drawn and the fascinating issues raised by the story are important and profound." (Northern Echo, 12 Nov 02 )
"Le Guin's storytelling is remarkable...Without giving away the ending, it is both melancholy and affirming...moving and rewarding." (The School Librarian, Winter 02 )
"If you think you don't like fantasy, think again; Leguin's books simply give "reality" another shape." (Erica Wagner The Times, 7 Dec 02 )
"The Other Wind, a new Earthsea novel, felt like a homecoming to the magnificent otherworld that I escaped to at 14; wise, graceful, classic myth-making for all ages" (Julie Bertagna The Scotsman, 7 Dec 02 )
"A powerful and thought-provoking story of magic, love and loss." (Perth Shopper, 25 Apr 03 )
"This absorbing philosophical debate can stand alone for Le Guin's new readers; for long-standing fans of the Earthsea saga, old friends are here." (TES, 31 May 02 )
"...a masterpiece of chilling narration" (Guardian, 27 Jul 02 )
"The characters and fantasy world are all vividly drawn and the fascinating issues raised by the story are important and profound." (Northern Echo, 12 Nov 02 )
"Le Guin's storytelling is remarkable...Without giving away the ending, it is both melancholy and affirming...moving and rewarding." (The School Librarian, Winter 02 )
"If you think you don't like fantasy, think again; Leguin's books simply give "reality" another shape." (Erica Wagner The Times, 7 Dec 02 )
"The Other Wind, a new Earthsea novel, felt like a homecoming to the magnificent otherworld that I escaped to at 14; wise, graceful, classic myth-making for all ages" (Julie Bertagna The Scotsman, 7 Dec 02 )
"A powerful and thought-provoking story of magic, love and loss." (Perth Shopper, 25 Apr 03 )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have recently embarked on the sumptuous project of re-reading childhood classics, and the Eartsea books especially have provided that gratifying sense of rediscovering a delight, while seeing new adult-related depths to it. To read them as wizard-adventures is to miss out on their almost Taoist meditations on death, freedom,fear - moving and noble themes.
All the Earthsea books I've rediscovered concern the painful relationship between the living and the Dry Land - our human fear and grief at the thought of dying and giving up everything here - and the destructive results of trying to avoid that fate. The Other Wind contains a redemption of sorts, and a redeemer. It is very interesting to draw parallels between this and Christian myths of redemption and death, because while Le Guin creates a salvation story of sorts, she rejects the dream of an afterlife of the type we are used to from the world religions.
Le Guin's narrative is such that these kinds of thoughts arise almost incidentally while reading the interesting, exciting, well-characterised tale (dragons!). The questions dealt with are large, the choices unforgiving, but theses are always tied to the personal dilemma of a character. This ensures that ideas never float around in the abstract and it becomes very easy to take the questions on personally.
The Earthsea world is as always deftly and evocatively described, and the language is so smooth and powerful that you can be transported even on a ten-minute bus journey. After I finished the book, its mood and ideas remained with me: a kind of sadness at the inevitable choices we face: freedom or possession; "to fly or to dwell", to give up what you love.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
And wow! And even more wow! If you loved the Earthsea Quartet you'll be blown away by this sequel. It was more than worth waiting for. I read it twice through and can't wait to read it again, once it's been round the rest of the family. I always felt that the issues raised at the end of the Quartet were too big and powerful to just be left where they were and Ursula Le Guin obviously realised that too. This story takes the reader even deeper into Earthsea's past, present and future, explaining, expanding and finally resolving the stories of Tehanu, Tenar, Lebannen and Ged in the most spectacular and breath-taking way. What a story-teller she is! By the way, it would be helpful, but not essential to read the short stories, 'Tales from Earthsea' first. These are a sort of prequel to the sequel and extremely interesting in their own right.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
When Ursuala LeGuin published 'Tehanu', it was clear that she was angry - angry at the world she had created for being a world of male wizards where women and the powers of earth had no true place in magic.
You can see this anger in the earlier stories of 'Tales from Earthsea', but the final story, 'Dragonfly', which is the prelude to this book, is a rediscovery of what Earthsea was about.
The single most important motif in the original Earthsea stories was the wall of stones which divides the living from the dead, and the effects of unwise traffic across that wall. Two subsidiary motifs were dragons and the old powers of the earth. LeGuin recaptures and develops the importance of these in 'The Other Wind' in a way which she failed to do in 'Tehanu'. This story is a story about what would happen if the wall of stones itself came under attack - if the dead, from their side, began to pull it down. The theme is powerful, and readily captures the imagination.
What this book doesn't recapture is the way the original Earthsea stories were put together - and the reason why they were so successful as children's stories to read and re-read. A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore are stories about growing up, about how children become adults. The first two are significant achievements in the genre. To achieve this, they are written through one set of eyes.
'The Other Wind' loses both the simplicity of a single narratorial point of view, and, crucially, contains no children. Here we meet our favourite characters again - Ged, Tenar, Lebannin, Tehanu and Orm Irian, but we do not spend enough time to ground the tale in their consciousness.
This is a good book, but a minor one. It is a story about Earthsea philosophy and rationale. What it lacks is the Aristotelean focus of 'what happens next?'
It does, though, open the door for more Earthsea books which we want to read, and which a child of any age could read. This was a door that Tehanu closed.
Intriguingly, the former wizard Ged dreams of a time _after_ the time he lost his power. Above all things, we would like to read another novel about Ged as wizard.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Brilliant, Unmissable, Sophisticated
Ursula Le Guin is a writer who has been with me all my life, so to speak. I was drawn back into her wonderful books as the result of her intermittent reviews in The Guardian's book... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Booksthatmatter
A wonderful unexpected ending to the series
After returning to Earthsea after a long absence, I discovered both the short tales collection 'Tales from Earthsea' and the new finale 'The Other Wind' at the same time. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Patrick Penname
The other wind
A lovely book following a thread, learning to do only what it is necessary to be done (ie in following the thread of things falling into place). Read more
Published 16 months ago by .
Closure or Disappointment?
This is quite hard to call.
If you loved the original Earthsea trilogy mainly for its characters, stories and fantasy - the consuming world of Earthsea and its geography and... Read more
If you loved the original Earthsea trilogy mainly for its characters, stories and fantasy - the consuming world of Earthsea and its geography and... Read more
Published on 6 May 2010 by A. Askew
As poetic and allusive as ever
I've enjoyed Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea novels for a very long time. Initially a trilogy, published in 1968-72, a fourth volume appeared in 1990, and the present book was published... Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2010 by Jeremy Walton
A wonderful conclusion
How to describe a quintet (a sextet with the new collection of short stories) that's been thirty years in the writing? Quite superb is the answer. Read more
Published on 26 Nov 2006 by Mr. R. Lamont Abrams
Should've stopped at 3, but better than Tehanu
It took me a while to get this, after the considerably disappointing "Tehanu", which, although not exactly bad, lacked the imagination and plot of the original Earthsea Trilogy. Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2006 by Mike Marshall
A good sequel to the Earthsea books.
THE STORY:
The sorcerer Alder is plagued by the unquiet dead in his dreams. He seeks the advice of the world's wise, including former Archmage Ged, but when the dragons begin... Read more
The sorcerer Alder is plagued by the unquiet dead in his dreams. He seeks the advice of the world's wise, including former Archmage Ged, but when the dragons begin... Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2005 by Ian Tapley
A magnificent, meaningful book
The Other Wind is the winner of the 2001 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and for a reason.
The book is beautifully written and meticulously crafted; It's a concise book in... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2003 by Oren Douek
Of Promises and Names
The Earthsea tales, from the very beginning, have always been different from the average fantasy, focusing far more on individual character and actions than on grand battles, and... Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2002 by Patrick Shepherd
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