Another Earthsea book? Wasn’t there one just last year? Well, fans will want grab this latest addition to the brilliant fantasy series.  In its short stories and description of the world, Ursula le Guin paints the scenery that sits behind the main events of the five other books. 

She began writing about the magical world of Earthsea some 30 years ago, and the series has become a modern classic.  It is one of the few fantasy worlds regularly ranked with Tolkien, both for its breadth of imagination and for its care and consistency of detail. 

But while the other books make up one continuous story, these tales come both before and during those events.  Some go right back to the dawn of Earthsea’s magic history, while some deal very precisely with characters and events of the other books. 

In all of them Magic is a key element.  But this is not the Magic of Harry Potter, of wands and broomsticks and potions.  This Magic is of Life itself and of Death.  It is Power and it requires as much understanding of “Why?” as knowledge of “How?” 

The first story “The Finder” is almost a novel in itself.  Here is the beginning of the Magic School of Roke in the persecution by petty tyrants of the people fated to become wizards.  There is a love story “Darkrose and Diamond” with a wizard torn between his human and his magical natures.  The Archmage Ged, central to the other books, comes into several stories that fill in a few gaps in what we know of his life.  And the essay on the lands, people, languages and history of Earthsea are absolutely essential reading. 

The final story “Dragonfly” clears up one key aspect in the recent fifth book The Other Wind about the links between humans and dragons.  It also helps to bring readers back to the main story that ties the whole series together. 

Tales of Earthsea is certainly not an exploitation of a successful series, the way many other fantasy books stretch an idea thinner and thinner to wring out sales.  The hallmark of Ursula le Guin’s writing has always been the careful crafting and the precise attention to detail, and it is obvious here again. 

While Earthsea may have begun as a teen readers fantasy story, le Guin’s mastery of her writing has made it a reward for all fantasy fans.

Other books by this author:
The Other Wind (Orion, 2002)

Review by David Beagley

© 2003 David Beagley