Tehanu The Earthsea Cycle, Book 4 :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

one opinion...take it or leave it

2008-09-02
I had the pleasure of reading the entire cycle from A Wizard of Earthsea through to The Other Wind in a two month period. Apparently for some people, having to wait several years between the end of The Farthest Shore and Tehanu gave them time to build up rather unrealistic expectations of what Ursula K Le Guin should have written. The first three books were not exclusively about Ged. Indeed, he was the central character but the books were really about Earthsea itself, and why not continue the cycle with someone else as the main focus?

For some, I believe Ged is seen to be the Archmage and nothing else, he can't be free to change and evolve. And the same holds true for Earthsea-Earthsea cannot evolve and grow in a different direction for a good many people. But that is what happens in life. Change is inevitable, change is good. Change is what keeps life from being one-sided and boring. Earthsea and her characters change and develope and keep one guessing what is going to happen. Ged is not just a wizard, he is also a man, a man with feelings like other men, with problems like other men. Tenar is not just a vessel for an unseen power, she is a woman with power of her own; and Tehanu is a survivor and possesses a magic all her own.

Change is magic. Change is hard for some to accept, harder than it can be to accept the concept of magic. I am for an Earthsea that explores different levels of being in the world. This book, and the subsequent books, forge ahead instead of looking behind.

Disappointment.

2008-07-24
It took me three tries to get passed page 27 of "A Wizard of Earthsea," but once I did, I was hooked. Especially by the second book in the series. The third book sucked me in just as easily as the second.

Unfortunately, I read the fourth book.

Kirkus Reviews called it ".. A grand conclusion to a revered cycle." Obviously, whoever wrote the review has no idea what plot, climax, consistency, etc mean. This book was a complete disappointment. I have to admit, I was sucked in by it, but only because I was waiting for something to happen. Nothing was concluded, there was no major Climax point, and it was filled with tripe. I was thoroughly disappointed by the time I realized that nothing had happened, yet I only had a few more pages left. I won't get into the details, because I wouldn't want to spoil the little plot there is in case someone does want to read it.

Seeing as this was evidently meant to be the final book, I wonder how many fans Mrs. Le Guin lost after they read this book.

Trying to pretend, that this book does not exist

2008-07-17
Who said that the Earthsea Trilogy is for children??? It's full of universal truths, like learning to be silent in order to hear (just try it, if it sounds trivial), or like the importance of cognition (it's not important, if the herb is useful, it's much more important to know it's essence, explains Ogion). And so on, and so on. I truly do not believe that any 9-year old would be capable to see beyond dragons and understand one tenth of it. Or understand anything of "The Tombs of Atuan", including the most beautiful love story I've ever read, though the word is never mentioned. "It's something between us, a very big thing. It has many names, trust one of them." (Sorry not an exact quotation, just from memory.) Or maybe I'm wrong about the kids, as my youngest is already 14?..... And then, Ursula K. Le Guin was not THAT young at the time, I'd say she was mature THEN. Some people say, that she "matured" to write "Tehanu". I'd use some other word, but it's better to omit it here.

Anyway, this is not about the trilogy.

I really do not know, what "Tehanu" would look like as a standalone book. I really doubt, if I would have ever read it. Unfortunately, it's an Earthsea book, and I did read it. And I'd give it as many minus stars, as possible and even more. And, sure enough, it's the very last Earthsea book I'll ever read.

Now, why? In fact I do not care so much, that it is different, or that magic is lost, or whatever, though all that is bad enough by itself. Just it was like a personal insult. Like somebody telling you, that your hero in fact is a serial killer or something like that. And that is because the third book, "The Farthest Shore", ended so perfectly.

SPOILER??? CONCERNING THE THIRD BOOK
The end of the third book left some space for interpretation. I felt pretty sure, that Ged died, but not some usual death even for a mage, without going forever into the country of the dead. He just went away. Somewhere. Like dissolved into silence. Like retreated from the world as someone, who succeeded accomplishing a task, too great even for him, the greatest of the mages. Having lost his powers, his very essence, he lost his very existence, but (that was my hope) was rewarded with exceptional death, so beautiful, that not even sad.
END OF DOUBTFUL SPOILER

And - LO! Some 20 odd years later we just find Ged, a wreck, crying and crouching somewhere in the fields in the midst of some stupid womanish blabbering. And please do not accuse me of sexism, as I'm a woman just a bit short of Tenar's age myself. It's a slap to the face with a dirty rag, and only THEN it's just an average and boring book, one of those, that you forget the beginning, till you reach the end.

So what's the idea? Magic is not for fun, a mage does only what he must do. This is something we learn in the first book. The forth book tells us this: do not save the world, for you'll end up a wreck yourself, and besides this world teeming with unhappy women and abused children perhaps is not worth saving.

Please, DO NOT read this book, if you liked the wonderful Earthsea Trilogy. And if you did not, this review perhaps is not for you anyway.

Why?

2008-06-14
Before reading the fourth book in the Earthsea "cycle", I was aware of the opinions of many who had already read this book. Quite frankly, I was hoping that I would disagree with those who were disappointed in "Tehanu". But try as I might, I failed to see the beauty in this "continuation" of what HAD been one of the greatest trilogies written.

Quite simply, "Tehanu" lacks the conciseness and mystery of the previous books. While I could - perhaps - forgive Le Guin for her decision to tear apart the world she had so beautifully constructed with this rather mundane and heavy-handed tale, I cannot excuse the absence of poetry here; poetry which abounds in each page of the previous three books.

Shame on you, Ursula!

Social Roles Defined

2008-04-09
The first three books in the Earthsea series are surface reads, which is, after all, not surprising considering they were written for children. Tehanu, however, is written at a slightly higher level and, consequently, contains deeper levels of development. For Tehanu - the main thread discussed is not, as so many reviewers hone in on, women's rights per se, but the aspect of gender roles in society. One must remember, Le Guin is the daughter of a rather famous and ground breaking anthropologist - she would have been exposed to the anthropologist's language of social structure, gender roles, kinship ties, mores, etcetera at a very early age - during a time when these ideas were becoming mainstream. This book does point a finger at equality of the sexes: a woman's mind as well as her day-to-day tasks are just as important as those of her male counterpart. It wasn't the oppression of women, Le Guin points out, but the lack of respect for them as thinking, valuable contributing members of society. A sub-theme also expressed in this novel is brought forth by the child character - (unlike many reviewers I refuse to ruin the book for those who haven't read it)- that is, she is stereotyped and judged based upon her appearance - a very human thing we all do. Only a couple people take the time to know this child - to want to know her for who she is, not what she looks like. Hence, Tehanu's story revolves around two themes - still, unfortunately, seen in our society today - gender bias and stereotyping - which leads to fear and hate.

Terrible

2008-02-09
Years before, they had escaped together from the sinister Tombs of Atuan -- she, an isolated young priestess, he, a powerful wizard. Now she is a farmer's widow, having chosen for herself the simple pleasures of an ordinary life. And he is a broken old man, mourning the powers lost to him not by choice.

A lifetime ago, they helped each other at a time of darkness and danger. Now they must join forces again, to help another -- the physically and emotionally scarred child whose own destiny remains to be revealed.

With millions of copies sold, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle has earned a treasured place on the shelves of fantasy lovers everywhere. Complex, innovative, and deeply moral, this quintessential fantasy sequence has been compared with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and has helped make Le Guin one of the most distinguished fantasy and science fiction writers of all time. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

A change for the better 2008-01-03
I recomend this book for all Serious Ursula K LeGuin Fans! There was a long gap between the original Earthsea trilogy and when this book was written. Ursula K. LeGuin grew up and so did her charecters. Life changes over time, the world changes, people change, they learn and grow wise. Same with this book, the world and the people do too. If you are looking for a childrens book full of a foolish powerful wizard this book isn't for you. (yes, Ursula K LeGuin wrote the first 3 as childrens books.)

If you enjoy the depth of charecters and complexe development of these charecters you will enjoy this book a lot.

This book is the begining of controversy for UKL because Ged has lost his power. But can someone ever truely know wisdom if they have not lived different lives, walked in others shoes, and seen different aspects? this is a very different aspect book but no less amazing.

I see men complaining about how this book is all about womens powers, I see women complaining about how this book shows women as weak. It is amazing that men and women are saying the exact opposite.
It is amazing that women assume that if a woman does not over power everything then they are being taken advantage of. I cannot imagine how these people would deal with reading historic fiction when women were thought of as nothing and had no rights. This book actually focus a lot on womens personal power and is a leader into her next books which are fully about women as the center stage.

My second thought, men who shy away or regard this book as bad because it begings to delve into womens power instead of just mens power shows how sexist they themselves must be.
This book is not worse because it takes on a womans point of view or elaborates on women (my goodness why would you have even begun reading a book writen by a women then?)

In my opinon this book has a balance of the female aspect and the male aspect, something the original 2 books were missing and the 3rd only barely began to touch on. Neither gender is to overpowering in this book and neither is forgotten or left out.

The story is great, though not as elaborate and full of magic as her first 3 (though you could always read harry poter if you need to get your fill of cheap sorcery) This book delves into a different aspect for the wizard, learning about life from a HUMAN standpoint, not a supernatural standpoint. This is what leads him to wisdom, knowledge, and humbleness that he has not fully achieved in the previous 3 books.

The writting is as wonderful as her originial 3, but on a more complex level. This book (and the next 2) are more complex, falling in line with many typical sci-fi/fantasy writters as being written on a higher reading level, not written for children but on an adult level (which sometimes makes it hard for the average adult to understand as the Average American adult only reads on a 9th grade reading level.) So if complex reading is not your thing it may be better to just save yourself time.

Personally I find many of the changes in this book hard to accept as anyone but I don't hate the book because of it. The book is not badly written it's just that everyone wants the powerful fun magic, wild adventures, or sappy happy endings of the first 3 to continue and they don't so people complain. There is no reason to be upset because the story didn't go the way you or I would have invisioned it to go. This book is hard to accept in the way that the truth is. You don't like the turns it makes but they all make sense and while you may not like them you totally understand the reasoning behind it and know that it could not have gone any other way.
This book has become the mother who has told the child that she is not going to buy him the $100.00 toy that he wanted. Some readers throw a fit because they didn't get what they wanted, and some readers, though they would have prefered to get their way understand the reasoning and logic behind it and love and enjoy the book as the way it has to be.

The changes do not detract from this book, it is wonderfully written and is a great addition, developing and expanding on the emotions of humans and each charecter. Instead of devloping a new adventure it devlops their mind. The first 3 books were box office blockbuster hit action films but this book is the award winning independent film.

Underdeveloped and Incomplete 2007-12-11
I enjoyed the first three Earthsea stories a good deal. They all have a rather dark tone that tend in some ways to be anti-heroic and anti-dramatic. The climaxes tend to be muted. Nevertheless, they are very richly drawn with substantive characters and beautiful writing. I've enjoyed them and will continue to read them.

The 4th book in the series, Tehanu, is exceedingly short and really incomplete. The basics of any story are the establishment of tension through the development of a coherent plot around a principal character, the escalation of tension as the protagonist reaches his or her goal followed by a dramatic climax. This book really fails to deliver in a way that is comparable to the previous works.

I found myself frustrated by how the author failed to keep developing the burned child character, Tehanu, in the plot and instead kept wandering around with the most inane and boring dialog of Tenar. She introduced a lot of material about the inequality of men and women in Earthsea, which was fine. But the way this was done and the fact that there was no resolution to the inequality and injustices was completely unsatisfying. The book was supposed to be about Tehanu. Unfortunately, Ursula kept forgetting that and instead spent huge amounts of text on the broken character of Ged and Tenar, who is no longer an exotic Priestess but a mostly domesticated widow. A real let down really.

Because of the recurring failure to properly get the plot behind Tehanu and her ascent as some new powerful mage woman and the incessant circling around Tenar as this weak and confused widow, I found myself thinking that Ursula rushed this out the door without giving it the effort it deserved.

I hope she is able to correct this error with Book six, which revisits the Tehanu character.

Is feminism pushing men down? 2007-09-19
I first began to read Earthsea about two months ago, and sped through Le Guin's wonderful world, reading one book pretty much straight after the other....until the fourth book, Tahanu. Putting aside what has already been mentioned among these reviews (poor narrative structuring, poor dialogue, and generally poor characterization), I found the book to be personally insulting. How this book could be considered at all feminist I have no idea. While the main character, Tenar, seems strong in some ways, in the end she is a "domesticated" woman. All other women in the novel (Moss, Tehanu's mohter, etc) are victims, and in particular, victims of men (and do not escape this, and if they do, not on their own accord, but by men's actions). Further, the "strength" of women and men are described in very sexist terms. In the first three books, Ged's voice comes as, if not the voice of reason and truth, at least as a voice on that path. In the fourth book, he and Tenar talk of the powerlessness of women, ecchoing generally what "culture" and "society" say. Men are also described previously as a "walnut, empty inside if without power," with women being "deep, their roots stretched into places unknown." Perhaps this doesn't seem sexist, but we have to remember that sexism can be against men as well (personally, I don't find myself to be as men are characterized in this book). Later, Tenar's actions MAY contradict some of these things said, but they are left mostly uncontested or in the mouths of the wise.

In the end, perhaps I missed the "feminist agenda", but I felt that the sexism versus men ruined any feminist message that Le Guin wished to give.

The first three were wonders and true pillars in literature, and are beloved to me. Tehanu, on the other hand, seemed uncharacteristic of Le Guin's depth and style at best, and a betrayal of her own world and characters at worst.

Not Free SF Reader 2007-09-03
Tehanu is a pretty pointless codicil to the original Earthsea trilogy.

The girl from the Tombs of Atuan married and had a couple of kids, and has now adopted a more supernatural child on top of that.

Ged, no longer with any wizardly abilities arrives . Naturally, given she had a crush on him earlier and is now lonely, they live together.