Product Description

The wizard Alder comes from Roke to the island of Gont in search of the Archmage, Lord Sparrowhawk, once known as Ged. The man who was once the most powerful wizard in the Islands now lives with his wife Tenar and their adopted daughter Tehanu. Alder needs help: his beloved wife died and in his dreams she calls him to the land of the dead - and now the dead are haunting him, begging for release. He can no longer sleep, and the Wizards of Earthsea are worried. But there is more at stake than the unquiet rest of one minor wizard: for the dragons of Earthsea have arisen, to reclaim the lands that were once theirs. Only Tehanu, herself daughter of a dragon, can talk to them; it may be that Alder's dreams hold the key to the salvation of Earthsea and all the peoples who live there.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34603 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Other Wind, Le Guin revisits some of the material for which she is most famous--the magical world of Earthsea, whose scattered islands are the home of an inventively conceived magic of checks and balances. Once before, in the fourth book Tehanu, with its hideously burned child who is part dragon, Le Guin reconsidered what she had already written, forcing her readers to abandon complacent enjoyment of the heroic in favour of something rather more straight-edge and critical.

Now, with hitherto friendly dragons burning humans out of their homes and the dead whispering ominously in a sorcerer's dreams, she questions her own premises even further. Ged, the burned-out magus of the first three books, and his wife Tenar are here, but peripheral; this is the tale of the tinker mage Alder and his dreams of his dead wife and how he finds himself caught up in the affairs of the great and good.

This is a calmer, more satisfying book than Tehanu; it is as if Le Guin is less angry with herself and her audience for the popularity of the first three books, more prepared to accept one sort of good and force us to move on from it to a more mature and ascetic vision. As always, she writes in a crisp, lyrical prose that approaches the sublime; this is a book about enlightenment that makes us believe it possible. --Roz Kaveney

Perth Shopper, April 25, 2003
"A powerful and thought-provoking story of magic, love and loss."

Review
"...a thought-provoking continuation of the chronicle of Earthsea...a luminous, absorbing meditation upon life, death and man's relentless quest for immortality." (Booktrusted News )

"This absorbing philosophical debate can stand alone for Le Guin's new readers; for long-standing fans of the Earthsea saga, old friends are here." (TES, 31 May 02 )

"...a masterpiece of chilling narration" (Guardian, 27 Jul 02 )

"The characters and fantasy world are all vividly drawn and the fascinating issues raised by the story are important and profound." (Northern Echo, 12 Nov 02 )

"Le Guin's storytelling is remarkable...Without giving away the ending, it is both melancholy and affirming...moving and rewarding." (The School Librarian, Winter 02 )

"If you think you don't like fantasy, think again; Leguin's books simply give "reality" another shape." (Erica Wagner The Times, 7 Dec 02 )

"The Other Wind, a new Earthsea novel, felt like a homecoming to the magnificent otherworld that I escaped to at 14; wise, graceful, classic myth-making for all ages" (Julie Bertagna The Scotsman, 7 Dec 02 )

"A powerful and thought-provoking story of magic, love and loss." (Perth Shopper, 25 Apr 03 )

Customer Reviews

Takes your mind on a journey to big questions
I have recently embarked on the sumptuous project of re-reading childhood classics, and the Eartsea books especially have provided that gratifying sense of rediscovering a delight, while seeing new adult-related depths to it. To read them as wizard-adventures is to miss out on their almost Taoist meditations on death, freedom,fear - moving and noble themes.

All the Earthsea books I've rediscovered concern the painful relationship between the living and the Dry Land - our human fear and grief at the thought of dying and giving up everything here - and the destructive results of trying to avoid that fate. The Other Wind contains a redemption of sorts, and a redeemer. It is very interesting to draw parallels between this and Christian myths of redemption and death, because while Le Guin creates a salvation story of sorts, she rejects the dream of an afterlife of the type we are used to from the world religions.

Le Guin's narrative is such that these kinds of thoughts arise almost incidentally while reading the interesting, exciting, well-characterised tale (dragons!). The questions dealt with are large, the choices unforgiving, but theses are always tied to the personal dilemma of a character. This ensures that ideas never float around in the abstract and it becomes very easy to take the questions on personally.

The Earthsea world is as always deftly and evocatively described, and the language is so smooth and powerful that you can be transported even on a ten-minute bus journey. After I finished the book, its mood and ideas remained with me: a kind of sadness at the inevitable choices we face: freedom or possession; "to fly or to dwell", to give up what you love.

Wow!
And wow! And even more wow! If you loved the Earthsea Quartet you'll be blown away by this sequel. It was more than worth waiting for. I read it twice through and can't wait to read it again, once it's been round the rest of the family. I always felt that the issues raised at the end of the Quartet were too big and powerful to just be left where they were and Ursula Le Guin obviously realised that too. This story takes the reader even deeper into Earthsea's past, present and future, explaining, expanding and finally resolving the stories of Tehanu, Tenar, Lebannen and Ged in the most spectacular and breath-taking way. What a story-teller she is! By the way, it would be helpful, but not essential to read the short stories, 'Tales from Earthsea' first. These are a sort of prequel to the sequel and extremely interesting in their own right.

Dragons suddenly appear in an empty sky
The Earthsea trilogy started in the year I was born. I loved the books when I was little. Tehanu, a few years ago, was an unexpcted treat: bringing Ged and Tenar together, the way you knew it was meant to be. Now, like a dragon appearing in an empty sky, a book _after_ the "Last" book of Earthsea bringing all the threads together in a poetic, watm loving, so right way. I loved it.