I love Ursula K. Le Guin’s first two Earthsea novels. A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan are among my two favourite fantasy novels, and together I think they form an essential duology that showcases some of the most compelling and truthful storytelling about identity and finding oneself. So it was with some trepidation that I read The Farthest Shore.In the third Earthsea novel, magic is dying. Our protagonists are a much older, more experienced and more weary Ged, and the youthful and exuberant Prince Arren of Enlad. This contrasted pairing is interesting and the major source of suspense. But I also get the sense that Le Guin wanted to write about a wizard who was old but not necessarily—at least from his perspective—wise.Le Guin makes much of the fact that magic does not lead to longer life or necessarily any power. Magic is a potent and omnipresent force in Earthsea—everyone keeps their true names hidden lest someone have power over them—but it is also underwhelming whenever it actually puts in an appearance. Arren’s reactions to Ged’s infrequent and unimpressive uses of magic testify to this, but on a wider note, the consequences of magic’s disappearance reflect this idea. Every time Ged and Arren visit an island where people have forgotten their magic, they react as if wizardry is and always has been chicanery. Rather than meet their challenges head-on by demonstrating powerful acts of wizardry, Ged shrugs it off and continues with his quest. Even at the climax, where he does some powerful magic, his most effective assets are his confidence and his powers of persuasion, which he uses to undermine their enemy. (A close third would have to be his faith in Arren and Arren’s importance.)The importance of magic, and its inversely proportional profile, has been another long running theme of Earthsea. After all, the much younger and headstrong Ged gets into trouble all the way back in The Wizard of Earthsea for trying forbidden magic on a dare. (Turns out there’s a reason it’s forbidden!) The rest of the novel is quite literally him spending years travelling around Earthsea and cleaning up the mess he made. No wonder he spends the rest of his life, including his time as archmage, focused on maintaining the Balance.Now, in The Farthest Shore, Le Guin takes the “magic is dangerous” stance to an extreme, playing with the possibility of extinguishing magic altogether. As much as it might be cool to be a wizard, I have to say, I’m glad we don’t have magic in the real world—people would keep messing with my stuff! Yet Le Guin rejects a magic-less Earthsea as hollow, a mere shadow of what it once was. Like Narnia or countless other fantasy worlds, Earthsea relies on magic as much as it does on wind and wave.Ged understands what is at stake. Arren, however, doesn’t. He is much more like Ged from the first novel—albeit without the magic powers or the huge arrogant chip on his shoulder. Instead, he develops a bit of hero-worship crush on the much older archmage—but that infatuation is tempered by a nagging sense of doubt that only grows as the duo gets closer to the enemy behind their problem. Le Guin alternates between Ged and Arren’s perspectives to allow us to see two interpretations of the voyage.By the end of the novel, it becomes clear that the entire adventure was for Arren’s benefit foremost, and Ged’s and Earthsea’s only secondarily. Arren’s prophesied role requires an understanding of the Balance and the dangers of magic, morality, and humanity that his youth precludes. One recurring lecture Ged gives involves the idea that humans are unique animals because only humans can do evil. Sharks aren’t evil; they kill because that is their nature as a predator. Humans, with their ability to work magic, can work great evil on each other and the world in their quests for immortality and power. (Le Guin views these two desires as two sides of the same coin: any quest for power ultimately becomes a quest to conquer death, i.e., to have ultimate power over life—likewise, any quest for immortality necessitates finding more and more power to stop death). And Arren and Ged only confront the evil man behind magic’s degeneration at the very end of the book—most of the journey is actually about how Arren reacts to the situations in which they find themselves and whether Ged uses magic in them.Once again Le Guin impresses with her ability to insinuate philosophy into a low-key fantasy adventure. This is the sneakiest coming-of-age quest story I’ve read in a long time. But I think it would be a mistake to ignore this essential angle to the book. If you come at this looking for a “Ged/Sparrowhawk adventure” like A Wizard of Earthsea, you’ll be disappointed, because this is very much about Arren and the preparation he needs to assume his new position.For Ged, this is in some ways a goodbye. Le Guin creates a fascinating triptych of Ged throughout these three novels. As I said above, the Ged of the first book is youthful and headstrong and basically has to learn patience and wisdom enough to manage his own great skill at magic. The Ged who puts an appearance into The Tombs of Atuan is more knowledgeable but not necessarily wiser—Le Guin actually portrays him through Tenar’s eyes as a pushy interloper whose presence was unasked for and whose arrogance is insufferable. I enjoyed this less-sympathetic portrayal of someone who was once our protagonist; in her typical style, Le Guin reminds us that those we view as heroic from one perspective could equally be seen as villainous or, in this case, merely unwelcome. This older Ged is incontrovertibly an adult, fully possessing his powers and in the prime of his adventuring life. Now, in The Farthest Shore, Ged is middle-aged. He’s not old, but his adventuring days are drawing a close, and his position of archmage restricts him and chafes him sometimes. He embarks on this quest with Arren a little too eagerly, and in some ways, he perhaps views the conclusion as the consequences of his old arrogance and impatience once again rearing its head. Le Guin demonstrates how a character can change over time, how event can temper their attitudes and reactions, but how stress and danger can sometimes cause regression.On its own, then, The Farthest Shore is not that impressive. It’s still Le Guin, of course, and most Le Guin is better than the best of average writers. Yet it is underwhelming, in many ways, compared to the previous Earthsea novels. We don’t have the same connection to Ged that we have with him or Tenar in the previous books. Arren, while important, is annoying. The quest is subtler and less tense than the previous ones.Viewed within the continuum of the Earthsea series, however, The Farthest Shore is more remarkable. Unlike the first two books, I don’t think I’ll be calling this one a favourite any time soon—those first two books hurt; it’s like Le Guin delivers back-to-back sucker punches to the gut. In contrast, this novel is far less emotionally wrenching but no less philosophically interesting. While you could do worse than just reading the first two books, I’d still recommend you read this one too.I’ll close with a quotation, Ged admonishing Arren for thinking the archmage might possibly know how to cheat death:Listen to me, Arren. You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose …. That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure.Le Guin’s writing is always beautiful and always painful, for in that pain and beauty we find the truths of what it means to live and love and be human.My reviews of the Earthsea series:← The Tombs of Atuan
Ο νεαρός γιός του Πρίγκιπα των Ενλάδων, ο Άρεν, καταφθάνει στην νήσο Ροκ κομίζοντας στους εννέα θεματοφύλακες των μαγικών τεχνών που διδάσκουν εκεί την πανάρχαια τέχνη, δυσάρεστα νέα. Ο Γέροντας Αρχιμάγιστρος Γκεν, ο Κοσμήτορας της Σχολής, θα διακρίνει στο πρόσωπο του παιδιού κάτι βαθύ και ελπιδοφόρο· την πιθανότητα της εκπλήρωσης μιας παλιάς, αλλά όχι ξεχασμένης, υπόσχεσης. Οι δυο τους θα βγουν μαζί στο Αρχιπέλαγος της Γαιοθάλασσας αναζητώντας τη βαθιά πληγή στο μεδούλι ενός κόσμου, που δεν είναι πια γηραιός αλλά γηραλέος. Καθοδόν θα συναντήσουν όλα όσα απεύχονταν. Ανθρώπινα ράκη καθεύδουν μακάρια βουλιάζοντας στα μελανά απόνερα της αβελονίνης. Τα θολωμένα μάτια των πολλών αδυνατούν να ξεχωρίσουν πια το καθάριο γαλανό από το λασπερό γαλάζιο. Στις συντροφιές τους οι χωρικοί δυσπιστούν για ό,τι είχαν για να μην έρθουν αντιμέτωποι με ό,τι έχασαν. Οι γιορτές τους ρημάζουν νωρίς, γιατί οι τροβαδούροι χάνουν τα λόγια των τραγουδιών. Ορισμένοι επιχαίρουν, γιατί είναι δειλοί και δεν θέλουν ν’ ακούνε για ήρωες. Οι γνώριμες λέξεις, που έσφυζαν άλλοτε από δύναμη και ζωή, γυρνούν αξιοθρήνητες μέσα στα στόματα των ανθρώπων, ακατανόητες, άγνωστες, απογυμνωμένες νοήματος. Ακόμη και οι δράκοι, οι γιοι και οι κόρες του Σεγκόυ, που ποτέ τους δεν καταδέχθηκαν άλλη από την αρχαία λαλιά της δημιουργίας, μοιάζουν να έχουν καταδικασθεί στον βουβό τρόμο των ζώων. Η ισορροπία ενός ολόκληρου κόσμου έχει διασαλευθεί κι έχει μετατραπεί σε διακύβευμα.Μια γυναίκα θρηνεί: «Έχασα όλα τα πράγματα που ήξερα, όλες τις λέξεις και τα ονόματα. Βγήκαν στη σειρά σαν ιστοί αράχνης από τα μάτια και το στόμα μου. Υπάρχει μία τρύπα στον κόσμο και το φως διαρρέει απ’ αυτήν.» Ο νεαρός Άρεν αδυνατεί να καταλάβει την πλήρη σημασία των λόγων της, αλλά ο γέροντας Μάγιστρος θα του πει την αλήθεια με τρόπο: «Η πρόβλεψη της μοίρας και τα ερωτικά φίλτρα δεν είναι τα παίρνει κανείς στα σοβαρά, αλλά τις γριές γυναίκες αξίζει να τις ακούει κανείς με προσοχή.»Η αλήθεια είναι πικρή σαν κινίνο, αλλά η Ursula K. Le Guin, με την σοφία που είχαν οι γιαγιάδες, πριν αποτρελαθούν από το Botox και τις ασκήσεις σουηδικής γυμναστικής, έχει επιλέξει σοφά να την λιώσει μέσα στo ζαχαρόνερο της φαντασιακής αφήγησης: άπαξ και το αντίκρισμα των λέξεων χαθεί, τίποτα δεν μπορεί να ‘χει πια σημασία.
What do You think about The Farthest Shore (2004)?
People like to talk about "The Golden Compass" as the athiestic answer to C. S. Lewis' Narnia series. However Ursula Le Guin's series has a far better claim to this title. In these books, the most trenchant critiques of religion, and the best arguments for humanism are presented. In the first book, the greatest enemy is within the protagonist, who must name his darkest self in order to overcome. Old powers are present throughout, and fear is their power. In the second book we see this replayed, with religion being the worship of darkness and fear. Throughout this, the wizards power comes from knowing names. This corresponds to science. But it is the final book that most tellingly seeks to express problems that Le Guin identifies with religion. In the book, people lose their pleasure in life as their longing grows to gain eternal life. The protagonist has to argue back his friends from the abyss of leaving life, and sanity, in their pursuit of eternal life, and fight with the one who makes these promises. It is a gripping book, in which simple sentences are chunked into pictures. In one particularly memorable passage, the wizard of Earthsea visits a city where addictions are rampant, greed has overcome, and chaos rules everything. For the student of the modern city, the description rings true. Visit Atlantic City. Or don't and read the book. Anyways, I had to think through the thematic implications of this book. It is true for a long time that faith in an afterlife has made many Christians into people who do not believe in the goodness of this one. Examples are rampant, but I find the Shakers, with the banning of sex, particularly apt. Recent readings of Paul point out that this is not the intention of the early church, that the redemption, not the chucking, of this creation is what it's all about. Jesus isn't raised as a spirit, he's a body. To quote Bryan Appleyard interviewing Marilynne "Robinson, sitting in a “porch swing”, a hanging sofa, swings continuously for two hours. The sounds, the swinging and the damp, dim light make me feel we have been sitting here for ever. In a way, in Robinson’s faith, we have, for here is heaven. “In Revelations, what is promised is a new heaven and a new earth.. .” she says, “which sort of suggests what we have here.. . I would not ask for more. It’s a vastly more moving idea to me than the idea of pearly gates. I mean, this” - she sweeps her hand in a gesture that takes in the house and the deep green, soaking garden - “would be heaven enough for me.”"Therefore, I can read this as an honest critique of what faith often is, but not of what it should be. I wish that this trilogy was not over. I would put this in the top five fantasy series I have read.
—J. Trott
I really could not put this book down.It has the same dream-like, otherworldly quality that all the earthsea books have. But this one enhances it even further with the strange dreams of Arren, the young prince. We once more meet Ged, but he's the old Archmage now, and embarks on his final quest, to find out why, and then stop magic from leaving the world.Trying to comment on this book is like waking up from a dream and trying to write what you saw. It was thought provoking, touching on a search for meaning in life, and how you can get caught up chasing a worthless dream, and how we convince ourselves of the lies we tell.I cant give this book 5 stars, because I dont know if i want to read it again. I think Ged's tale is done, and the story of earthsea has been told, and told beautifully.
—Kenny
In the third of Ursula Le Guinn's Earthsea books, Sparrowhawk the mage is a much older, wiser man. We see him through the eyes of Arren - a Prince making the jouney from boy to man, and devoted to the mage. Magic is dying, and the two set out to discover what has gone wrong and try and save the world.It's not just the magic being lost - all the joy, skill and art is leaving the world. Creativity, hope and inspiraiton are stripped away. I could not help but read this book and see parallels with modern culture, with the loss of life that we are experiencing as we retreat into the 'safety' of little boxes and passive entertainment. We don't live any more either, many of us. There is no magical explanation for what is happening in this world - simply we do it to ourselves. The Farthest Shore offers hope and inspiraiton and a tale of courage and sacrifice. It's a wakeup call about what is needful, a shout in the face of coroporate mediocrity. I wonder if it was always this relevant and resonant. As a child I read the story, not the meaning beneath it, as an adult I was stunned, inspired, and deeply moved. I suspect The Farthest Shore would stand alone, but probably works better in the context of reading the other two first.
—Bryn
