The Other Wind by Ursula Le Guin

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Summary An involving tale, told beautifully and full of warm and humane characters.

This is another wonderful book from Ursula Le Guin. Exploring themes such as fear of death and belief in reincarnation. This is not a fantasy book full of large battles and insurmountable odds but a book about people and how they live life, deal with grief and try to make the right choices when they are presented.

The sorcerer Alder dreams of his dead wife and is able to kiss her across the stone wall that separates our world from the land of the dead. This puts Alder and Earthsea in mortal danger as the dead seek to free themselves through Alder and invade the land of the living.

Alder looks to Sparrowhawk, the former Archmage for advice and help and is sent to Havnor to seek the council of Tenar, Tahanu and King Lebannen. The dragons are also threatening Earthsea and Alder, his three new companions and a dragon woman named Irian journey to the Immanent Grove on Roke looking for answers.

Thankfully, The Other Wind keeps up the high standard of story-telling that readers of the Earthsea books have come to expect. It is evenly paced book that is strong on the characters with a deep, involving story. Some readers may have been concerned that this was an unnecessary sequel that could detract from the originals but they need not have worried.

Once again the story deals with death, love, freedom and the dangers of interference in the natural order of life. It is obvious that Le Guin is putting her own beliefs and thoughts across into the book but I'm glad to say that it never feels like you are preached to or having beliefs thrust upon you. I have read that Le Guin uses feminist and Taoist themes in her books but due to a lack of knowledge in both these areas I am unable to comment if this is true in The Other Wind. As I have said before, the themes that do come across strongly are death, how races view the afterlife differently and of the human streak of self destruction. There is, again, a certain darkness surrounding this book as the author does not shy away from subject matter that is not normally found within adult literature.

The most enjoyable parts of the book were, for me, the chapters involving Ged. He is now an elderly man, no longer possessing the powers he once had. What I most liked was the dignified way in which he conducts himself, he is an example of how I would like to be when I am old.

This is another wonderful book from Ursula Le Guin. Exploring themes such as fear of death and belief in reincarnation. This is not a fantasy book full of large battles and insurmountable odds but a book about people and how they live life, deal with grief and try to make the right choices when they are presented.

I would advise reading the prior Earthsea books before The Other Wind as some of the references may otherwise be lost. I would really just advise reading the Earthsea books, full stop.

The Other Wind: An Earthsea Novel (Amazon.co.uk)

Author: Ursula Le Guin
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 256
Publication date: 2003-03-20
Publisher: Orion Childrens

RRP: £6.99
Lowest new price: £1.85
Lowest used price: £1.30

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
Amazon.co.uk Review

The Other Wind: An Earthsea Novel (Amazon.com)

Author: Ursula Le Guin
Binding: Paperback
Number of pages: 256
Publication date: 2003-03-20
Publisher: Orion Children's Books (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

RRP: $12.40
Lowest new price: $7.81
Lowest used price: $4.76

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 Description

Robert from Cambridge
"Unlike a lot of Earthsea readers I enjoyed the change of pace that Tehanu brought to the series, the characters had changed as so too did the narrative. The Other Wind carries on in the same style and is a perfect conclusion (if this is the last book) to the saga. Ursula Le Guin has a gift and that is in telling deep and involving stories in a way that is accessible to both children and adults. If you thought that Harry Potter was good, this is even better."

Stephanie from London
"This is great way to bring one of the best fantasy series to an end. It moved me immensely and the themes it covers are very important to the series and life as a whole. Beautiful in its simplicity."

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