Book Review: The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book #189 of 2022:

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea #3)

The Earthsea Cycle was originally presented as a trilogy, published from 1968 to 1972, and in that context, I think this concluding novel is a bit of a disappointment. It’s heavy on mysticism but light on plot or detailed worldbuilding, and while it structurally mirrors the first book in certain ways, only with the former child protagonist now an old man in his full power, it largely elides the stronger middle volume. I also don’t care much for our newest hero, whose primary contribution to the current quest is to gaze in wonderment at the archmage as the two embark along their journey. At best, we are simply asked to accept on faith that he is a special young person with an important destiny ahead.

The premise is solid in conception and creepily conveyed: from the most distant regions away from the wizard’s home, word is spreading about people losing their magic, sometimes to the point of insisting that they never really had any at all. (I’m reminded of the endtimes in Narnia’s The Last Battle, an apocalyptic tone that fits the overall eeriness here.) As the man and the boy pursue these rumors across Earthsea’s waters, they travel beyond the islands they know and ultimately into the land of the dead, the depiction of which seems likely to have helped inspire Garth Nix’s Sabriel and its sequels. This could be a touchstone for other genre works like The Magicians in its thematic treatment of depression, as well.

It’s all effective enough, and provides some fine material for when the series would later resume with Tehanu in 1990. But to the extent that this title succeeds, it’s all down to atmosphere and philosophical takeaway, rather than anything particularly interesting on a story or character level.

[Content warning for drug abuse and slavery.]

★★★☆☆

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