The third and final Earthsea book, at least until Tehanu.
In this installment, Arren, a young prince of Enlad, arrive at Roke with news that magic is disappearing in Enlad. Wizards and sorcerers can no longer remember the incantations and their meanings. Roke is the wizard headquarters, where the Archmage Sparrowhawk resides. Sparrowhawk, or Ged, if you remember, is the child and young wizard from the first two books of Earthsea. Older, wiser, and he’s become the most powerful mage in Earthsea. But even he doesn’t know why magic is dying. So he sets off on a quest with Arren to find out why. Their travels take them to the south reaches, amongst an ocean-dwelling raft people, through the isles of dragons, and finally to Selidor, the home of dragons where they enter the realm of the dead to confront the evil mage who has cheated death and offers immortality to everyone. Only it’s the immortality that is killing magic.
Religious themes aside, since I didn’t have the patience to ponder through them too much, the story is about Arren’s relationship with Sparrowhawk. Initially he sets the Archmage on a pedestal. Through the story he becomes disillusioned. In the end he achieves a much more balanced relationship with his mentor.
Yup, I didn’t like this as much as I liked the first two books. Probably because their travels seemed just as aimless to me as it does initially to Arren. The characters’ actions in the first two books had a much more understandable point than this one does.
Title: The farthest shore
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Illustrator: Gail Garraty
Title: The Farthest Shore
Imprint/Publisher: Bantam Books
Year: 1972 (printing 1975)
Pages: 197 p.
Subject: Magic — Fiction
Subject: Fantasy
LC Classification: PZ7.L5215 Far
