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Tales From Earthsea: Short Stories by: Ursula Le Guin

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Rating: - Tales from Earthsea

Good stories in the same vein as previous books. It would be better to read the earlier stories first, namely the quartet ; A Wizard Of Earthsea, The Tombs of

Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu.

These are very good stories for young people as they combine exciting narrative with much wisdom about the human condition.

Rating: - Vivid, mature, power-ful....

This is an essential addition to the Earthsea collection, a beautiful, mature and intricately well-imagined fantasy world (where magic is a metaphor for a particular level of responsibility and approach to living and being in connection with nature).

What will I recall about this book? Apparently the Studio Ghibli movie interpretation is not too faithful, perhaps because it's the son who directed it and not the master. Major pity, but I shall see it all the same. I like what she writes in the intro about Earthsea, as a changing place..and the nature of how stories change....I also had to put some of her words to a piece of guitar music, because i liked the 'Darkrose and Diamond' story so much....

I very much enjoyed the book, although at times not quite as engaging as the novels. The stories extend and increase the resonance of Earthsea, and I sometimes wish for less spiritual significance and more spiritual action. Spiritually, the book scores as high as you'd expect, and at times the detail is beautiful and ideal. It was a great book to take on holiday to Devonshire.

The last story is an important bridging piece, but to be honest I found this the hardest work to get through. Sometimes involvement in the magical relevance seems to come less naturally until Le Guin finds a suitable cause. It can get a bit 'far out' like with Frank Herbert's Dune books.

People keep mentioning the gender issue but I feel this is always exaggerated: I'm more than happy with Le Guin's evolved approach to the sexes, and that Roke should be finally more open to both. It suits my own, equal opinion of the sexes, and I like the idea that we might all have once been dragons...

..So i look forward to reading The Other Wind...standby for a forthcoming review....!

Rating: - A wonderful collection of stories!

I fell in love with Earthsea many years ago, reading the original trilogy as a teenager. Since then I have reread these books quite a few times and found that they bear the test of time tremendously well. When Tehanu came out, like many other readers, I found it hard to accept the change of tone and the ardent feminism, but that book too has grown on me. So I considered myself quite a hard-core fan of this world at the time Tales of Earthsea was published, although I was a bit uneasy as well - I was a little afraid ULG was going to do away with Roke and 'male magic' entirely, after the turn things had taken in Tehanu.

My fears proved unfounded, and reading Tales of Eathsea was one long delight. Although the feminist tones are unmistakable, the female focus is never at the expense of the story. The world of Earthsea is as vivid as ever, or perhaps even more so, the language is beautiful, and the stories hold many surprises yet remain faithful to the world of the original trilogy. Magic is alive and well, the great house at Roke still stands, and learning of how it was founded makes me confident that it will take more than a few female students or broken celibacies to bring it down. I think short stories are perhaps the ideal medium for ULG: Her beautiful, economic prose crafts a unique gem out of each tale, and leaves the reader wishing for more.

Rating: - On the High Marsh

Frankly I was a little surpsised at the reaction the book seems to be getting. The main thing that drew me to the earthsea stories was the impalpable sense of magic that appeared in the first books. Something special was there. They were quite childish in thier basic concepts, bad boy does bad things fixes them becomes good, lonely girl saves the world, etc. but there was an almost mystic undercurrent there that really let the reader know that there was something inherently different about this world..
I think she managed to recapture that feeling for me almost perfectly with "On the High Marsh". The author claims to have a fixation on trees but in my view her talent for real beauty comes to the fore when she writes about winter. The cold almost seeps off the pages and into your bones... This "effect" also appeared in the hainish novel "Planet of Exile" They just feel cold.. But the people are not cold, quiet, thinking, judging, caring, watching, above all watching. Special people in a harsh climate, beauty inscribed on a brief few pages.. Don't be harsh because there appears to be a gender bias, This is not about Amazons taking over the world, just a sort of quiet suffragetism......

Rating: - ONE GOOD BOOK

Well 5 actually. it proberly all won't be that much sence to anyone if they havn't read the earth sea quartet 1st which are also reall good, so a must read to anyone.

the "tales of earthsea" is a collestion of 5 different stories telling you the history of earthsea, how the school of roke was established and the continues battle of the magic world.

full of excitement and suprises, mystery and magic. a must read.

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