Leguin should have stayed with just 3 books - this fourth book is over long and does not fit the style or feeling of the other books in the trillogy. ( )

This and The Other Wind came along well after the first three were done. While I enjoyed them, I sort of wish she had just left it at the near-perfect first trilogy. ( )

Tehanu is the last book of the Earthsea Cycle, at least as far as I can tell. Like the other books, this is a fantasy novel but, also like the other books, it has its own distinct theme. Tehanu picks up the story of Tenar, from The Tombs of Atuan and the action starts at about the same as that of The Farthest Shore. Since her arrival in Havnor, Tenar has created a life for herself as the wife of a farmer. She is a mother and recent widow, and seems to have left her adventuring days behind. One day she hears of a little girl who has been raped, beaten, burned, and left for dead by a group of beggars. Although the little girl is severely injured, Tenar takes her in and adopts her as a daughter, her own children having grown up and moved away.

The story line follows Tenar and her adopted child as they return to Ogion, Ged's first master from A Wizard of Earthsea. Never welcomed by the people of Re Albi, Tenar must now deal not only with their distrust of her but also their malice towards her child. Into the middle of this arrives Ged, broken down by the final battle in The Farthest Shore and looking only to escape. The three of them must redefine their relationships with each other as they adjust to the new world they find themselves in.

Filled with plot twists and connections, Tehanu} makes for an enjoyable addition to the Earthsea Cycle. Le Guin tied up a lot of loose ends and gave her characters endings that while happy, were not saccharine. The plot twists were somewhat transparent, but then, the book was written for adolescents. Like the other Earthsea novels, these were less filled with adventure than your typical fantasy novel but had characters that were developed enough to compensate. The child, Therru, was the only one that I wish had been more fleshed out, since her character was intriguing. The way that Le Guin dealt with the aging of her protagonists and their attempts to deal with the accompanying changes in their lives was admirable, and I for one will be sad to see the last of them. ( )

Tehanu is the fourth and “last” book in the Earthsea Cycle. Written over a decade after The Farthest Shore but overlapping and going beyond the events of that book from Tenar’s perspective, it has a completely different style and emphasis than the original books in the series. It reads much more like a novel for adults and contains very little in the way of traditional fantasy story elements. The novel shows the world of Earthsea to be a much more sinister place and there is a lot more social commentary than in the previous books.

The most frequent comment I hear about these books is that there is a much more overt feminist viewpoint and a lot more criticism of the values of the Earthsea world that LeGuin established in the first three books. Although I thought this commentary and viewpoint were sometimes over-the-top and intrusive, I actually thought it worked and made sense most of the time, given that the book is really told from Tenar’s perspective (through a third-person narrator). Despite having lived on Gont for 25 years and become a good Gontish woman (wife, mother, housekeeper, etc.), Tenar is still very much an outsider in this society and many of its ways undoubtedly seem very foreign and wrong to her. She knows that Kargish society wasn’t perfect but she sees that this society isn’t perfect either. (I thought this seemed very characteristic of LeGuin and reminded me of the way she characterized civilizations in The Dispossessed - just because one is ultimately “better” than another doesn’t mean either is above reproach.) It didn’t seem like a revision of the world at all to me – even Ged still holds to the impossibility of women being mages, and at the end of the book men’s power still seems to be firmly in place. Perhaps there is recognition (on the part of a small number of people) that there is a power greater than that of men, but it is certainly not that of women. But I do agree that sometimes this “feminist voice” seemed to get in the way.

With regards to the plot itself, I was very conflicted.

On the one hand, I really enjoyed it. It was much more "adult" - Tenar and Ged have already had their coming-of-age stories and all their great adventures, now they just get to live and figure out how to relate to the world once the identities that they have defined themselves by are gone. Ged is no longer archmage - he is probably no longer even a mage. Tenar has gone through several identity losses and re-definitions in the 25 years since we last saw her in The Tombs of Atuan - from priestess to student to wife and mother and now finds herself at a loss as to what role she can fill in the world. I liked this in certain respects.

I also liked how Tenar, despite her crisis of confidence, is the dominant figure in the book once again. Its kind of a reversal of Tombs - this time Tenar is more assured, more in control and Ged has lost an essential part of himself and needs to be guided to a new way of being in the world.

On the other hand, I thought it was sad and pathetic – watching two great heroes do the dishes…..???? But I guess it is the reality of things – people get old, adventures end. This was kind of the reward that Tenar and Ged get, I guess. They get to be together, but only once they’ve both relinquished power and excitement.

With respect to the Therru/Tehanu portion of the plot, I was generally confused. It didn’t feel natural or integral to the overall story. Reading the book, I assumed that she would grow up to be a person of importance or power because it seems like the torch is being passed from one generation to the text, plus the book is named after her – she’s got to be important, right? But so much of this plot seemed bizarre to me and I didn’t like the way it was resolved in the end. It seemed random and out of nowhere. Wondering where it will go next. ( )

Written considerable afte the first 3 of this series, this book is considerably different in tone. All the characters, male and female, are well rounded and interesting to me. I liked the book, it was homey and comfortable. Familiar fantasy themes. Although I thought the use of dragons was a bit too much convenient. ( )