Tales from Earthsea

Book Review: Tales from Earthsea

This was a natural place to go after having finished the ‘First four books’ earlier in the year. I absolutely loved those books, and if anything, they seemed to get better as the series wore on – which bodes well for this, which is essentially book #5. Let’s see what it’s about then shall we?

Well, as the name suggests, this is actually a collection of shorter tales. There is a nice intro from Ursula where she explains the logic for pulling this collection together, but to paraphrase – this series of stories explores parts of Earthsea that are well developed but which have not necessarily been fully explored in the first four novels. Personally, I don’t think we need an excuse for this sort of book, but if you are not usually a fan of this sort of thing, then fear not: they are all cracking stories in their own right. Let’s have a look at each in turn.

The Finder is the story of how the school on Roke came into being. It is quite an old story chronologically, and it follows the story of Otter, who is a crafty sort (crafty means magical) and who therefore gets banged up. But Otter is craftier than most, and with the help of a girl (who is also gifted), he escapes his shackles and finds himself sailing away to escape his prisoners. From here he sails to Roke, and the rest is history as they say (you’ll have to read if you want to find out more).

Darkrose and Diamond is a love story where the antagonist is magic itself because Diamond is at risk of losing Darkrose if he is ever to become a magician on Roke. This is a nice little story, and it explores the conflict between witches and wizards more thoroughly.

The Bones of the Earth: if you’ve read a Wizard of Earthsea, you will have heard of the story where Ogion prevents an earthquake on Gont. Have you ever wanted to hear what actually happened? Well, this is that story! I really liked this one because it was much easier to relate it to the wider series, and it’s also really rather brilliantly done.

On the High Marsh is about a mysterious healer who arrives in a remote village threatened by a livestock epidemic. It is a funny little story without an obvious home, but as it develops, the truth behind the words becomes clear – which is great! Ultimately this tells the story of a time that links really nicely with the wider series, and it is a good little read in its own right. To find out how it links in, you’ll have to go and read it.

Finally, we have Dragonfly. This is my favourite of the stories because it dovetails beautifully with the fourth book (Tehanu) and also leads into the sixth book (The Other Wind). It is the story of a girl who seeks the training of Roke Island, but of course that school is forbidden for women. Nevertheless, she tries and has some measure of success, but ultimately her experience is nothing like she expects. The world is changing, and this story is a catalyst for that change. After finishing this final story it was impossible not to read on – so I did!

Overall, these books are fantastic. They are well paced, richly written, and they encompass some fascinating periods of the history of Earthsea (both recent and distant). I really have loved exploring Earthsea, and with these five tales still bounding around in my head, I rushed onto the next and final book of the series – The Other Wind. Hopefully it’s a cracker!