Tales from Earthsea

If the author's note is completely discounted, then these are five stories that merely take place in the world of Earthsea. If, however, the author's note is taken into account, then this acts poorly as an explanation of the history of Earthsea and more like a poor man's version of Tolkien's

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Silmarillion—a very poor version indeed, because I have never really wondered about the background of Earthsea like I did about Middle-Earth, and thus made the book come off as trite and self-indulgent.

The stories are good enough; the first was my personal favorite because it stood alone as one that seemed coherent, cohesive, and above all seemed to matter in the grand scheme of the novels (of course we want to know about how the wizardry school on Roke was founded!). The others were all right taken all together and had their own levels of intrigue, but it could have done without the too-scholarly "A Description of Earthsea" at the end. There simply hasn't been enough substance in these books for me to care about the history of the languages and writing to any great extent; there hadn't been enough emphasis placed on much of anything but the characters through the first four novels of the cycle, so to have something like that came completely out of left field.

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Tales from Earthsea is a very enjoyable set of five stories set in the archipelago of Earthsea at various places and times, plus an essay, "A Description of Earthsea". I liked each of the five stories in their own way with no clear favorite for me. If I had to pick one though, it would be "The

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Dragonfly". One or two of the stories could be considered novellas. "The Finder", the longest of the stories by far, felt like a companion novel to "A Wizard of Earthsea". "On the High Marsh" had a different feel than other Earthsea stories, a bit of a mystery about it, but quite enjoyable with a nice surprise. These stories are a good companion to the earthsea novels, and well worth reading.

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After Tehanu was published in 1990, Le Guin declared the Earthsea series complete, but later in the decade had a change of heart. This volume includes five short stories, the last of which is Dragonfly, which serves as a bridge between Tehanu and The Other Wind, which truly would end the series.

My

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favorite story was The Finder, which takes place centuries before the main series and describes a humble boy with a special talent who is enslaved by a wicked king and wizard acting in tandem. Le Guin’s understanding of human nature and power demonstrated through her characters is highly relevant to the real world, and it was remarkable how she didn’t settle for a possible simple ending after the first half of the story. The young man eventually makes his way out to Roke, where he meets those who will ultimately found the school of magic, but is pursued. “The lords of war despise scholars and schoolmasters,” one character observes. Indeed. As in other stories, Le Guin’s climactic ‘battle’ is not maudlin or drawn-out, and I loved the maturity in her concision.

Another strong story was Darkrose and Diamond, which of them all seemed geared most towards younger readers, dealing as it did with choices in life and young love. I also liked On the High Marsh, which has a wizard with healing powers over cattle show up on a rugged island. Through this character, who is an enigma to the locals, we see a spectrum of human behavior: mercy, jealousy, avarice, and cruelty. Ged, the main protagonist from the earlier novels, makes an appearance and explains the young man’s backstory, something which seemed rather convenient, but even here Le Guin provides a satisfying wrinkle in the story’s resolution.

I was less enamored with The Bones of the Earth, the shortest of the stories. It tells of a wizard and his apprentice who deal with an earthquake, and it seemed the most obvious, or any event, the least developed. The final story, Dragonfly, is better, but perhaps not on a par with the best in this bunch. I loved the feminism in the story and how it illustrated that even on the wise island of Roke, progress was necessary. It started strong, but then seemed as if Le Guin was searching for a way to end the story, maybe because The Other Wind was already being developed. She then includes A Description of Earthsea, which outlines the culture and history of her imagined world – probably something that readers heavily into the series lapped up like ice cream, but for me, more of a convenient reference.

All in all, an enjoyable read, reflecting Le Guin’s sharp eye, maturity, and excellent prose.

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The penultimate book of the Earthsea cycle is a collection of five stories rather than a novel. In principle, it could be a point of entry to the series, since most of the stories take place earlier than the events of the first four books. But I think that having those novels for background and

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context colored and enhanced my experience of reading each of the stories here.

The first and longest of the Tales is a significant novella "The Finder," set in the earliest history of the wizards' school of Roke, centuries before Ged's time. It involves a secret society, the Hand, with a manual sign of recognition and the object of recovering and managing magical knowledge.

The second story "Darkrose and Diamond" most excellently stumps quite a few narrative tropes for fantasy bildungsroman. Le Guin doesn't admit as much in her foreword or afterword, but I can imagine it being her exploration of some characterizations, motives, and outcomes almost in opposition to those she had developed at greater length for Ged and Tenar.

"The Bones of the Earth" concerns wizardry on Gont before Ged's time. In this shortest story of the set, there is an important character who is known from the other Earthsea books, but who is introduced under another name. I realized who it really was just a few paragraphs before the story made it clear, and I was impressed with the artistry of the story in affording me that experience.

"On the High Marsh" is a story set during the time when Ged was Archmage. In a way, it is a bookend to "Darkrose and Diamond," dealing with an older pair of central characters.

The final story "Dragonfly" Is another novella. It follows directly on the events of Tehanu, and Le Guin characterized it as a "bridge" to the final book of the cycle. It mirrors "The Finder," with both tales concerning someone who comes to Roke at a time of its radical transformation. Where "The Finder" was before the era of Archmages, "Dragonfly" Is after it. So the five stories have a sort of mirrored arrangement, folded across the fault in "The Bones of the Earth" at the book's center.

There is also an expository appendix "A Description of Earthsea," which gives some ethnographic and historical information about the setting that had been developed over the course of five books. There are few details in this forty-page set of short essays that hadn't already been offered in the novels and stories, and there are some redundancies and repetitions within the "Description." It began as author's notes for her own orientation in writing the tales, and she published it with an understanding that it might be "of real interest to some readers." It is reminiscent of Tolkien's apparatus in The Lord of the Rings.

I enjoyed each of the stories in this book, and I'm already a little sad that there's only one tale of Earthsea left that I haven't yet read: I will be reading The Other Wind soon.

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The Finder: Some cool parts, some fluff, same style ; Darkrose and Diamond: It's like the karate kid does fantasy. Boring, stupid love story. ; The Bones of the Earth: Silly and childish except for talking with earthquake. ; On the High Marsh: Feels like the first 3 novels but was shorter and had

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less plot. ; Dragonfly: Captured some of the old flavor and was longest story. A woman on Roke. She was a dragon.

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It's hard for me to verbalize LeGuin's impact on me. Her writing is so... simple. Her style reads so often like writing for youngsters (and maybe it is...), but the ideas are not simple. They're complex and somehow sit in my mind for weeks after I've finished one of her books.

I have a few authors

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who I am working on "completing:" reading all they've published. Le Guin is one of them.

So, yes. I very much enjoyed this collection of stories. They run the entire timeline of the Earthsea series, from before book one and as a bridge between 4 and 6. The world filled out for me with this volume, and I have a hankering to go back and start over with number one.

But first, I'll dig into 6. Big things are going to happen.

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If this collection of short stories were written by anyone other than LeGuin, I would have given it 4 stars. I just have very high standards for anything written by her, because of the caliber of her writing.

I really like Le Guin and her writing, but this book just didn't fit my expectations.

Tales from Earthsea was more like a writer's notes about her own world semi-written into a story format. I was expecting more cohesive story lines regardless if they explored the past or future of Earthsea. But it

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seems like the whole purpose of this book was more to explain the backstory/future of characters. I'd rather have a compelling story than focus so much on seeing a character as a youngin'.

The strongest story was probably the first about Otter/Tern/Medra. I loved how each section dove into the particulars of his use-name, true name, and other. It was a beautiful progression of plot and villains - also a careful exploration of Roke's path. The idea of the wizard island originating as an island of canny women plus the powers of a finder was interesting. Especially as we got to see how things were before there was an obstruction to tyrannical power.

I did enjoy reading the story about Gift and Irioth because of the Ged cameo. Also there was a bit of mystery and hints of strangeness.

I thought the Diamond & Darkrose lovestory was rather boring without much plot. Yes, it did show off the mindset behind wizard beliefs and celibacy and what people choose, but I don't think it was good as a story.

Same with the story about Dragonfly. I just felt bored reading it the entire time. There wasn't enough hint that she had a dragon nature. It didn't really explain her name at all. And the defeat of the enemy was just too easy. The whole story just didn't fit well for me.

This book just moved more slowly than all the other ones. Maybe it is because it's a compilation of short stories, maybe because it was just Le Guin trying to write out history of her own world, who knows. All I know is that this book was only okay and hardly indicative of her strengths in writing.
Two stars. I think I expect more from Le Guin. I only wanted to finish reading this book because I know there was a story in here before the next book in this series. Still, not exactly recommended unless you just want to finish out the series.

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05/08/14 Earthsea: Tales From Earthsea, Ursula K. LeGuin, 1997. I was disappointed that this was not a full novel. Instead, LeGuin constructs five tales that fill in some of the gaps in the overall history of Earthsea. However, each story has the same wonderful style and feeling as the rest of

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LeGuin’s saga. Included in this book is a description of the structure of Earthsea and, as in the other books, comments by the author about the writing itself. She mentions that Earthsea has changed over the years; as she writes it and remembers it, and as her fans read it.

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It's odd that this book should leave me cold. Short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin! Come on! I should love them all. Instead, I just kinda like "On the High Marsh," and I don't care for the rest at all. Certainly the most skippable of the Earthsea books.

A welcome and valuable addition to the Earthsea mythos. What can one say about Le Guin’s writing? Beautiful, lyrical, evocative, magical. And – and this is what sets her apart – always thoroughly moral, ethical and right-minded without ever being boring, sanctimonious or preachy.

This was a good introduction to Earthsea, for me. Might have been better if I'd read the original series. Going to try them now, though, because I enjoyed these stories. :)

A novella, stories, and "essay" about the customs, geography, and history of Earthsea.

Since I'm one of those people who have the luxury of reading these books one after another in a short period of time (as in, the first book of this cycle is older than me! There are no years in between reading them.) I enjoy how Le Guin builds her world more and more through the stories in this

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book. I enjoyed the story about the founding of Roke, the run-away wizard - Diamond, Ogion's past and how his master found his end when they stilled the earthquake, the episode about Sparrowhak's past as archmage and how Dragonfly was part of the change that was brought to Roke. (Did I forget anything?) I love how suddenly everything's changing. Some might think, alright, the world is built, there are rules - but the rules Le Guin set herself she abolishes as she likes it and that I love. As for Dragonfly, the world of Earthsea is changing. I think that is quite a good thing for a fantasy world too - constant change. Suddenly, everything seems to move back to their origins a bit more. People are dragons again, and dragons are people.
It fascinates me and I'm currently enjoying 'The Other Wind' as well.

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A nice collection of short stories from Earthsea. Individually good but there are nothing amazing. Hence an average rating of three stars.

This book has five short stories set in Earthsea - I've read Le Guin's four novels set in this world before, although I don't remember them too well. I might have to reread them soon. Again, I really enjoy Le Guin's writing style and world-building skills. I believe that the Earthsea books are

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supposed to be "children's fantasy", but they didn't feel dumbed-down at all, which I thoroughly approve of :)

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Mostly stories from before the organisation of magic on Earthsea, but vividly detailed. Stories in essance from the notes that made Earthsea what it was first known for.

Really enjoyed these snapshots of Earthsea's history.

The fifth book in the Earthsea series consists of five short stories and a description of Earthsea that details the history of the islands. If you liked the first four books I would recommend you read it. The stories are set on different islands in different times and help to shed light on the

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history and culture of the people of Earthsea. The last story "Dragonfly", is the prequel of the next book The Other Wind.

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Earthsea is fleshed out delightfully through these five stories, the last of which bridges the way between Tehanu and The Other Wind. My 2012 edition has a forward (written in 2001) where Le Guin explains her need to revisit Earthsea and how that place led her to these particular stories. It also

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includes 'A Description of Earthsea' at the end, a slightly rambling and repetitive (she says these were her working notes to keep her on track, so no surprise) but nonetheless interesting summary of how Earthsea has revealed itself to her, and a 2012-written Afterword, in which she talks of how these stories were necessary for her, to lead her to an understanding of what was going wrong with things in Earthsea and why: questions she had to formulate in order, presumably, to be able to answer them, or at least explore them, in The Other Wind (which I am starting today.)

'The Finder' takes us back to the beginnings of Roke, in dark days where magic is ungoverned, used for nefarious purposes and as a result distrusted. It's a history bound up in the personal tales of a boy, later young man, whose powers have to be hidden, a network of women and men (the gender barriers of "later" times are well and truly thrown into question) and their perforce secret work to found the first school of magic on Roke and to bring good intentions and governance back to magic. I wish I'd written about it straight after reading as the others have overtaken this tale in my mind, but I know it was very enjoyable and interesting. I loved the giving of a footing, a grounding to the School of Roke that we know from the earlier books, set so much later in time, and how many questions that grounding answers and poses.

'Darkrose and Diamond' explores the relative importance of magical powers and other loves (of the romantic sort and of music in this case) and whether one can or should reconcile them. A very sweet story.

'The Bones of the Earth' blends the Old Powers and "modern" Roke-taught magic to avert disaster (more hintings at how things could/should? be different, how the rules we know from the previous books are more strict than they need to be?), featuring Ged's teacher Ogion and his teacher, Dulse. This felt amost like a prequel to A Wizard of Earthsea and I was glad to spend more time with Ogion, one of the few characters I really liked in that first novel!

In 'On the High Marsh', a wandering mage, clearly with a dark past, arrives in a small village and tries to find a new way to live, facing fear and misunderstanding and offered just a few helping hands. Again, we have to wonder whether Roke is the be all and end all that it seemed in the first books or whether there are other, perhaps even better ways to find fulfilment. Gently intriguing.

The novella 'Firefly' brings this collection to a close, following the life of an uncouth girl of mysterious power. It's hard to say anything much that won't be a spoiler, but as every story in this collection has in different ways challenged the "rules" of Roke, it won't be much of a surprise to know that this follows that pattern! Very exciting, leaving beloved Earthsea teetering in the balance, with all the heavy questions ready to be resolved? in The Other Wind.

I enjoyed these stories so much that I wanted to start the "final" novel straight away, but felt the need to go back and reread Tehanu first. Having finished with that this morning, I'm itching to go on what will possibly be one last journey into Earthsea.

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Bones of the Earth and DragonFly are my two favorites here. But anytime Ursula wants to return to EarthSea is alright with me. I like her other novels but the EarthSea books have always been my favorite.
These stories flesh out some of the early history in anticipation of the cycle ending The Other

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Wind.

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The first of these -- really a novella not a short story -- is to my mind the very best of Earthsea. (Even though it is an Origin Story and I hate those as a rule.) I like the chaarcter Hound very, very much.

What a delight to go back to Earthsea and read more stories from that marvelous place. It was quite odd to be in the middle of this when I heard the news that the author had died, but I was glad that I still have so many more of her works to enjoy.

A group of short stories from various eras in Earthsea. It gives some good background and history to the novels. Interesting to fans of the original trilogy.