World Famous Comics: The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3)
The Farthest Shore (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 3)
By: Ursula K. Le Guin Publisher: Pocket Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Pocket Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 272 Publication Date: November 23, 2004
Product Description: Book Three of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle
Darkness threatens to overtake Earthsea: the world and its wizards are losing their magic. Despite being wearied with age, Ged Sparrowhawk -- Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord -- embarks on a daring, treacherous journey, accompanied by Enlad's young Prince Arren, to discover the reasons behind this devastating pattern of loss. Together they will sail to the farthest reaches of their world -- even beyond the realm of death -- as they seek to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it.
With millions of copies sold worldwide, Ursula K. Le Guin's
Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere, alongside the works of such beloved authors as
perfect This book arrived well before the expected date and was a great buy. I will be buying from them again.
Estimated Delivery Dates from Amazon or related-sellers I recently ordered 7 books from Amazon and its partner Warehouse Deals. The books were ordered May 22, the promised delivery date was June 4. It is June 24 and they have still not been received. This is not the first time books have been extremely late (over a month late) or not received at all. So if you need to get books within a certain time, don't order them here.
Not Free SF Reader A little more interesting than The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore is a story of the older Ged. He is now an archmage, and has come to the realisation that magic is slowly disappearing, and that to ordinary people, this does not matter a whole lot.
Ged ends up on what to him is a quixotic quest, along with a young prince, to see what is going on.
Awesome I loved the first two but this is really great too! I cant decide which is my favorite The Farthest Shore or the Tombs of Atuan. Ged is the best. i would recommend this highly.
"I Do Not Mistake You for Any Finished Thing..." The third book in what is known as the "Earthsea Cycle," this installment takes place a number of years after "A Wizard of Earthsea" (in which the character Ged was a boy) and "The Tombs of Atuan" (in which he was a grown man). Now he is edging into late middle-age as the Archmage of the Wizards, and a much younger man has come to the island of Roke, seeking his aid.
Arren is a young prince of the isle of Enlad, eager to serve and awe-struck at the great wizard Ged, but he comes with sobering news. Magic is leaking out of the world, leaving imbalance and chaos in its wake, news that matches reports that the wizards have been receiving from all over Earthsea. A wizard council is held, and Ged announces that he will go forth to find the cause of the magical entropy, and stop it if he can. The untried Arren pledges himself to Ged and his mission, and - despite the trepidation of the other wizards - the two set out to find the symptoms, effect and cause of the plague upon Earthsea.
What they find is sobering. Without magic (defined in this fantasy world as knowledge of "True Names" for people, places and objects) all meaning and purpose is draining from the world. Wizards are going mad for want of their true identities and spells of all kinds are being forgotten by those who have used them for countless years. People are suffering from a lack of interest in living; and as the mage and prince gather clues to the mystery, Ged decides that the problem must be centred on an individual with an unnatural desire for immortality. But where to find such a man? The two must travel to the Farthest Shore - into death itself to defeat their foe and restore the balance to the world.
"The Farthest Shore" is generally considered the best of the "Earthsea Cycle" (although le Guin continues to surprise her readers by churning out another novel set in this fantasy-world just when we think she's done), an accumulation of all the themes and plot-points established in the first two installments. Her established mythology concerning both the history of the islands and the workings of magic are used to excellent effect, and elements that were left upon in the previous books (the empty throne in Havnor, Ogion's prophecy, Ged's relationship with the dragons) are all brought to their logical conclusions.
Le Guin's language is beautiful, effortlessly evoking the cultures of each island, life on the open water and the dull dreariness of the realm of the dead, where "those who had died for love passed each other in the streets." Likewise, her imagination seems to know no limits; my particular favourite was her depiction of "the children of the sea", a community that lives entirely on floating rafts, coming ashore only once a year to replenish their wood supply.
Ged is now beginning to show his age; no longer being the prideful and impetuous youth he was in "A Wizard of Earthsea", his hair is greying and his physique weakening. But with age comes wisdom, and in many ways we are seeing Ged in his prime, especially when compared to the impatience and inexperience of Arren. I cannot bring to mind any other fantasy series that follows our protagonist from youth to old age (the great percentage stop when the hero reaches maturity, leaving the aging process as part of the "happily ever after") and it is for that reason I find the "Earthsea" cycle so unique. This is a person's entire lifetime we are experiencing, not just their youth; making it a much richer and deeper reading experience.
Anyone who considers themselves a fantasy connoisseur should pick up "The Farthest Shore", as well as "A Wizard of Earthsea" and "The Tombs of Atuan". Though not my favourite of all the fantasy series ever written, it is refreshingly unique and beautifully told.
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