The Farthest Shore

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Like all of the Earthsea stories, it’s told in beautifully simple yet rich language, full of archetypal resonance and vivid, unforgettable imagery. I felt myself to be walking with Arren and Ged through the unsavory streets of Hort Town, witnessing the tragic undoing of the weavers of Lorbanery, floating on the rafts of the Children of the Open Sea — and their quest became mine, too, their questions my questions. With all the power we have gained over life and death in our modern world, all our efforts to control our environment and defend ourselves from danger, we seem also to be losing what makes our existence true and meaningful, the life that springs up within life. Could it be that the key is not power, but surrender, or offering? As Arren says, “I have given my love to what is worthy of love. Is that not the kingdom and the unperishing spring?” There are surely better passages to quote than the above to encapsulate the meaning or theme of this book but I think it's a fine example of Le Guin's beautiful writing and her ever-present wit. Besides, “to make doing nothing at all seem the very crown of wisdom.” is a skill I would like to acquire; where do I sign up for that? Why do you think Le Guin italicizes the sentence, "Infinite are the arguments of mages . . . . "? What might she be trying to create or set up with this statement? Arren’s trip from the north, down past the great isle Havnor and through the Inmost Sea to Roke, was his first voyage. Only in these last few weeks had he seen lands that were not his own homeland, become aware of distance and diversity, and recognized that there was a great world beyond the pleasant hills of Enlad, and many people in it. He was not yet used to thinking widely, and so it was a while before he understood. “Where else?” he asked then, a little dismayed. For he had hoped to bring a prompt cure home to Enlad. Sure, I'm reading into it things that perhaps she didn't explicitly mean. But in that case, the fact that it got me thinking makes it a pretty good book, doesn't it?

IN THE COURT OF THE fountain the sun of March shone through young leaves of ash and elm, and water leapt and fell through shadow and clear light. About that roofless court stood four high walls of stone. Behind those were rooms and courts, passages, corridors, towers, and at last the heavy outmost walls of the Great House of Roke, which would stand any assault of war or earthquake or the sea itself, being built not only of stone, but of incontestable magic. For Roke is the Isle of the Wise, where the Art Magic is taught; and the Great House is the school and central place of wizardry; and the central place of the House is that small court far within the walls, where the fountain plays and the trees stand in rain or sun or starlight. My father believes that this matter, and the tale of Narveduen, show some evil at work in our part of the world. He desires the counsel of the Wise.” The Bones of the Earth" is set on the island of Gont where Ged was born. The story centers on an old, stubborn wizard named Dulse and his apprentice, the mage Ogion, who will become Ged's first teacher in sorcery. How does this story depict a wizard's life? How does the story serve to further illuminate Ogion's character?Coyote's Song: The Teaching Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin, Richard D. Erlich, SFRA, 2007. http://www.sfra.org/Coyote/CoyoteHome.htm What do you think the Master Summoner means when he says, "[T]he truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do?"

With a greater understanding of the Balance [5] and Equilibrium that encompasses Earthsea (fundamental parts of Taoism, a philosophy Le Guin encourages in her works), and how life comes from death as much as death comes from life (death itself being a balancing force in the book [6]), Ged is portrayed as a wiser and sager archmage.Ged walked over the fields from the Great House. He took off his white cloak, for the sun was at noon. A farmer plowing a brown hillside raised his hand in salute, and Ged replied the same way. Small birds went up into the air and sang. The sparkweed was just coming into flower in the fallows and beside the roads. Far up, a hawk cut a wide arc on the sky. Ged glanced up, and raised his hand again. Down shot the bird in a rush of windy feathers, and stooped straight to the offered wrist, gripping with yellow claws. It was no sparrowhawk but a big Ender-falcon of Roke, a white-and-brown-barred fishing hawk. It looked sidelong at the Archmage with one round, bright-gold eye, then clashed its hooked beak and stared at him straight on with both round, bright-gold eyes. “Fearless,” the Archmage said to it in the tongue of the Making. What do you think Le Guin means when she writes: "To be one's self is a rare thing and a great one"? How does the idea of being one's self play out in the rest of the novel? I therefore had high hopes for 'The Farthest Shore'. However it disappointed. In a nutshell I didn't enjoy this book. Before I go into why I didn't, the obligatory free plug: My fantasy novels are available on Kindle Unlimited. If you like fantasy, here they are:-

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. Doubly. First, I have to admit that the first time I “read” The Farthest Shore , I did not finish the book. In fact, I left off just after Ged and Arren left Wathort, after the hazia drug-den incident and after Arren was kidnapped by slavers. I was bored. It wasn’t the right moment for me to be reading Farthest Shore ; I wanted more of Tombs and less of this angsty boy looking up to Ged, driven by chivalric notions of duty and love. It didn’t help that someone I quite dislike said it was the greatest fantasy novel of all time. As if! So I put the book away, read a summary, and moved on. Some months later I returned to Earthsea in the embrace of Tehanu , loved it more than any Le Guin book, and didn’t think Farthest Shore was worth returning to after that. It happens. Sometimes the context in which one reads is as important as the thing read. At his hip he wore a sword in a sheath of new leather figured with inlay of red and gold; but the sword itself was plain, with a worn cross-hilt of silvered bronze. This he drew forth, all in haste, and offered the hilt to the Archmage, as a liegeman to his prince. How would you describe the man who tells Ged to go to the Court of the Terrenon. What does the man say and do that is suspicious? How does the man react to Ged's suspicion? Why does Ged decide to take his advice?

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Le Guin is one of my favourite fantasy writers. There’s just something about the way in which she writes; she doesn’t waste a single word with her smooth and succinct prose. Her novels are thought provoking and her characters are wise. I’m looking forward to trying some of her science fiction after finishing this series and seeing how it compares. I've heard great things about some of them. In what way does "On the High Marsh" contrast the love of power and the power of love? How does this story explore the theme of redemption? What is Ged's reaction to what the Master Hand tells him? What do you think the Master Hand mean when he says, "To light a candle is to cast a shadow"? According to Ged, what is the fundamental difference between summoning light and summoning an object? Why is it that summoning light does not upset Equilibrium, yet summoning an object does? Es un libro que me gustaría que mis hijas lo leyeran en cuanto tengan edad porque les enseñará más de la vida que muchas otras cosas que puedan encontrar. Porque aunque sea una Fantasía a la vieja usanza: la lucha entre el bien y el mal, el camino del héroe y hasta el dragón de turno; es una historia que va más allá de lo que narra y su importancia reside en el mensaje que quiere transmitir.