Ok, this past weekend I re-read "Farthest Shore" (which I enjoyed), along with "Tehanu" (which it turns out I've never read before, and which I regret having wasted my time on).
I'll be blunt - Tehanu was an unexpectedly feeble offering by LeGuin. I found it to be a long, boring, rambling, uneventful, dreary, downbeat, anti climactic, and even a tad (if you can believe it) misanthropic and stereotypical waste of time. The 20+ year gap since the authoress's last involvement with this series is very apparent - to the point where she seems out of touch with the flavor and ambience of her own works.
For me, the only enjoyable part in the entire book (Tehanu) were the all-too-brief re-appearance(s) of an ancient dragon.
My rankings for the books in this series now stand as follows:
1-Wizard of Earthsea (9 of 10)
2-Tombs of Ataun (7 of 10)
3-Farthest Shore (8 of 10)
4-Tehanu (5 of 10)
My advice is to stop reading this series at book 3, because those books are the meat & potatoes of this series, and the rest is just unsatisfying filler and add-on.
No word yet on book 5 ... I'll look into it.
Ursula K Le Guin - Tehanu (Earthsea Book 4) - 5
Moderators: clong, Mr. Titanic
Ursula K Le Guin - Tehanu (Earthsea Book 4) - 5
Last edited by Darb on Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Ursula K Le Guin - Tehanu (Earthsea Book 4) - 5
Tehanu /A Wizard Of Earthsea /4
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[Mod Alert: this is the review link back to the database - do not delete it. -- Brad]
Have you read this book? Click here to rate it!
[Mod Alert: this is the review link back to the database - do not delete it. -- Brad]
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I remember getting this one when it first came out in paperback so that was too long ago to give an accurate rating myself but I do concur with the thrust of Brad's review (a 5 may have been too generous, fwiw). The first three installments read as fleshed out fables with a strong central theme or lesson whereas Tehanu is essentially character driven and frustratingly dull to read. She should have stuck with the first three and ended it there.
"It was the best of times, it was the 'blurst' of times?!! You stupid monkey!!!"