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Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle #4)

3.79 of 5 stars 3.79 · rating details · 11,153 ratings · 398 reviews

Book Four of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle Years ago, 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 through no choice of his own.

Once, when...more

Paperback, 281 pages

Published November 23rd 2004 by Gallery Books (first published 1990)

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Nov 21, 2011 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-rated, a-owned, fiction-fantasy

I remember reading Tehanu in grade school; I also remember not liking it very much. However, reading it again, years later, I think of it as a masterpiece. The first three Earthsea novels were good, interesting, entertaining, but Tehanu belongs to another tier entirely. Its character development and world-building are par with Tombs of Atuan, but its pacing is better and it ties in more tightly to existing lore. Further, we get to see the characters we've come to love in a more natural light. It...more

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Jul 07, 2007 Jerzy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's possible that people who have never experienced much actual trauma or severe discrimination might not understand how on-target this book can be. If that's you, you'd probably find it really interesting to check out "Trauma and Recovery" by Judith Herman for a solid overview of how/why trauma survivors can be crippled by fear in seemingly irrational ways. And "The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz is a surprisingly good book on male violence (and not just against women).

Reading the first 3 Eart...more

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Feb 24, 2012 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: thinkers, fantasy fans, feminists

Shelves: fantasy, feminist, 2012, children-s-literature, bechdel

This is a difficult Earthsea book to read. After Ged's adventures crossing the sea and dealing with Kings, Princes and Mages, this book stays pretty much firmly on Gont and he hardly appears.

Instead the book concentrates on Tenar (from the "Tombs of Atuan") and her life on Gont Island and that of the small damaged girl Tenar finds in the road one day who has been so badly burned and mistreated that she is terribly deformed.

The book deals with discrimination on the basis of appearence, the every...more

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May 09, 2013 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: le-guin-and-lessing, i-own, sci-fi-fantasy-etc, 2013

May 2013

I don't know anything anymore.

A Wizard of Earthsea and The Farthest Shore, you can take your dragons and shove em. Your wizardry's not wanted here. All your quests are just cruises and island-hopping, boys' own adventures. Fuck it all. This is the real story. The tedium and horror of regular life is more epic than your silly jaunts, and all your hoity-toity man's magic won't do nothing to save you here.

Goddamn.

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May 12, 2012 sologdin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative

An oddity. The narrative, set in the well-known Earthsea setting, for the most part involves a domestic plot, wherein two has-beens take in a juvenile victim of sexual assault and handle the complexities of bucolic village life. The setting is supernatural, but the vast majority of the story is not. Sure, there's some supernaturalism hinted at and discussed, and one mythical creature from a prior installment makes an early appearance, and then shows up for the denouement. Other than that, this c...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Michael Tildsley rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book never really feels like book #4 in the Earthsea Cycle to me. The first hundred pages or so did not feel needed. The darkness, sexuality, and gender role issues in this book, though valid on their own merits, felt really out of place to me in this fantasy world. It would be like if Wicked were the fourth sequel in the Oz series. The political and social agendas do not jive with the previous books.

My other gripe is that this book would have been infinitely more entertaining if it had be...more

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Sep 13, 2008 Martine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, modern-fiction, north-american

Tehanu is the fourth entry in the Earthsea Cycle. It was written years after the original trilogy, and it shows: It is markedly different from the other books, both in style and in substance. Sadly, it is also inferior to the earlier books. Le Guin had picked up a strident feminism in between The Farthest Shore and Tehanu, and it shows in Tehanu in the worst way possible. Literally every female character in the book is worthy (even dirty, crazy Aunty Moss), whereas all the men in the book are we...more

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Apr 04, 2008 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved the original trilogy and considered it complete. Who knew there was more to say about Earthsea? But how glad I am there was!
Tehanu catches up with Tenar years after Ged left her on Gont. She's a widow with grown children who has quite left her past as Ahra-the-Eaten-One behind. When she takes in a severely abused child as a foster daughter her life changes again.
Ursula LeGuin is gifted, she can tell an interesting (gripping even!) story that taken at face value is just a story. On anothe...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Sam King rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Tehanu" steps back from the series' focus on epic journeys and instead focuses on Tenar and her place in the world.

I like the exploration of identity and autonomy. Ged has lost his magic, so he has to shape a new identity for himself, and Tenar's life is changing. There is the idea of a person being shaped by the events around them and playing a role rather than being their own person. Tenar says, "I chose to mold myself like clay... I made myself a vessel. I know the shape. But not the clay. L...more "Tehanu" steps back from the series' focus on epic journeys and instead focuses on Tenar and her place in the world.

I like the exploration of identity and autonomy. Ged has lost his magic, so he has to shape a new identity for himself, and Tenar's life is changing. There is the idea of a person being shaped by the events around them and playing a role rather than being their own person. Tenar says, "I chose to mold myself like clay... I made myself a vessel. I know the shape. But not the clay. Life danced me. I know the dances. But I don't know who the dancer is." She is saying that even when she was given choices, she was only choosing a role for herself and that she didn't know who she was as a person.

I like that discussion because it eloquently lays out a question that many people have: who am I? Where does the individual begin and the social conditioning end? I disagree with the overall answer, though, because I don't think that there is a transcendent self separate from the person immanent in the world. As Chuck Palahniuk said, "Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known." In Tenar's analogy, the clay gains its meaning only as a vessel; the dancer is defined by the dances. The question shouldn't be trying to figure out who the dancer "really is" (as if there were some meaningful answer to that question) but rather to figure out the right dances to do. We shouldn't ponder on the nature of clay; we should make things with it.

The book has a focus on social structures. I remember reading some second-wave feminist writings by Catherine MacKinnon where she describes women as superior for reasons relating to their connection to the earth and bearing children and having periods and breastfeeding (if I recall correctly). Le Guin reflects, in her afterword, about a conversation. One character, Moss, says, "Who knows where a woman begins or ends?... I have roots... I go back into the dark!... Who'll ask the dark its name?" and the protagonist, Tenar, responds, "I will... I lived long enough in the dark." Moss' statement seems very much like MacKinnon's writing, and Tenar's response, very much in the theme of her explorations in the book, is an expression of dissatisfaction with the simple mysticism of second wave feminism. She feels as though other peoples' explorations of identity aren't helping her own search, and a reflection of the power structures and systemic injustices that she has experienced are more relevant to her than discussions of intrinsic identity.
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Jan 30, 2013 RØB rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay, this here is the last book that appears in the records of book-reading I've kept for myself from before muh computer crashed. I read a handful more books between this one and when the computer crashed, but there were about three months between when I last backed up all my stuff and when the computer crashed. SO, until I can afford some costly data recovery to recover that (and other) precious documents, there'll be a bit of a gap in my supposed reading. AS FOR THIS BOOK: It was a departure...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in August 2001.

It is rare for a sequel written many years later to match up with a famous original, and Tehanu is not an exception to this rule. In time it follows on immediately from the end of The Farthest Shore, and it continues the story of Tenar, one-time priestess of the Nameless Ones in The The Tombs of Atuan. Rejecting the fame she could have had, she married a farmer from the island of Gont, birthplace of Sparrowhawk, the central character of all the...more

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Nov 07, 2012 Macade rated it 1 of 5 stars

I loved the first 3 Earthsea books...but this book was just too weird. I could never tell, nor did I care, that the first three books were written by a woman. Also, I didn't notice any political or social agendas in the first 3(real world agendas). Tehanu is very strange and hard to read because it is so different from the first 3 books. It REALLY feels like a woman wrote it, it has a very strong undertone of woman's suffrage. It also has very dark themes about a young girl being raped and how t...more

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Sep 30, 2012 charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

By far my favorite of the Earthsea quartet! Finally, THIS is the Ursula Le Guin I love -- feminist, anarchist, making poetry and epic out of ordinary lives. I don't think it's a coincidence that my second fave of the quartet (Tombs of Atuan) also centers around Tenar, the one major female character in the series, which is frighteningly devoid of females in other respects. It's not that I dislike male characters, but it's hard to take seriously a society or fantastic world where women (apparently...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Mina Villalobos rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, romance

I would have given this book 5 stars were it not for the feeling it gave me at the end that so much was left to tell, I really wanted to read more, since it ends in such an interesting point.

This is really different from the first 3 books. The first time I read Earthsea, this is as far as I got, and I read it a few years later after the first 3 -I must have been around 14- and I didn't really enjoy it. It was about old people with old people's problems and that's boooooring. As I read it again...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Davis rated it 4 of 5 stars

This fourth book is back in the form of not following a certain form for each book, but is also a direct sequel to the third book. This tells the life of farming of Tenar on the island of Gont, and the start coincides chronologically with the third book. I like what Le Guin tries to do here. The first three books are very male-centered, and this book rectifies that. However, I feel the story itself is not that interesting. The focus is more on society and daily life, and is too mundane. The char...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Malquiviades rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

"The last book of Earthsea" although it is not, has come as a nice discovery.

It is really fascinating how the story evolves from "Wizard of Earthsea": from a tale of mages, dragons and marvellous travels and adventures to a more intimate story like this one. It does have mages and dragons and more, but they are a side topic, something to kept the story tied to Earthsea than anything else.

There is a clear change in the depth of the story, although the surface is kept the same. You can feel the t...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Peggy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What I liked about this book is the idea of chapters in a life, which ULG (author) seems to underscore with different names for the characters at different times in their lives. Both Ged and Tenar had different names at different stages of their lives. Too often fiction seems to depict a character as a permanent set of characteristics without allowing for how the different roles we play in life change us for that time and place. An innocent daughter becomes a kidnapped Priestess becomes a Heroin...more

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May 20, 2011 Cyndy Aleo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

After reading the first three books of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle, I wanted to know more about the characters, especially what happened to Ged after he returned from the Land of the Dead in The Farthest Shore. My husband may have forced me into reading the first three books in the series, but I ordered the other three all on my own, the first of which was Tehanu, written several years after the "original" cycle.

::: Arha, Tenar, Goha :::

When Tehanu begins, Goha (who is actually Tenar of the R...more After reading the first three books of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle, I wanted to know more about the characters, especially what happened to Ged after he returned from the Land of the Dead in The Farthest Shore. My husband may have forced me into reading the first three books in the series, but I ordered the other three all on my own, the first of which was Tehanu, written several years after the "original" cycle.

::: Arha, Tenar, Goha :::

When Tehanu begins, Goha (who is actually Tenar of the Ring, Arha the Eaten One... whatever you'd like to call her) is the widow of a farmer, and living on Gont, Ged's birthplace. She is maintaining the farm that her husband left until her son, the heir to the farm, returns. Her friend Lark comes to tell her that some vagrants have abused and tried to kill a little girl, who is left half-burned. Goha takes the little girl in, whom she calls Therru in her native language, and soon sets out to Re Albi, after receiving word that Ogion, Ged the Archmage's first teacher, and her protector after Ged rescued her and brought her Gont, is dying.

Goha and Therru arrive in time to be with Ogion when he dies, and stay on in his cottage after he dies at his request to "Wait." When Ged arrives on the back of the dragon Kalessin unconscious and half-dead, Goha takes him in and nurses him back to physical health, although she has less luck with his mental well-being after the loss of his powers. She has established a comfortable second life at the cottage, however, and befriends the local witch, Moss, and the simple girl Heather. However, she has made enemies as well, including the two local wizards, one of whom (Asher) is rumored to be keeping the lord of the estates at Re Albi alive through magic that sucks the life out of the lord's grandson.

Goha also must face men sent by the new king (Lebannen) who are looking for Ged. When she is cursed by the wizard Aspen, and is chased by one of the men who abused Therru, she heads to Gont Port, where she meets the King himself, who takes her on board his ship to return her to her farm, where she had sent Ged to lick his wounds. Returning to her farm isn't what she had expected either though, as she is again confronted with the men who had abused Therru, and then meets up again with Ged the man, who is very different from Ged the Archmage. A summons back to Re Albi by the dying Moss brings Ged, Goha, and Therru to the climax of the novel, and sets up the rest of the Cycle, which continues with The Other Wind.

::: Sparrowhawk, Ged, Hawk :::

In all honesty, I found the book enjoyable until the end, which exposed the book as more of a set-up for the next novel than anything else. As a continuation of such a popular series, getting to know the characters of Goha/Tenar and Ged as people rather than the revered magic/religious figures that there were in the previous books was welcomed. LeGuin gives both of them a very realistic manner, from Goha's frustrations at Ged's self-loathing at the loss of his power to Ged's own sorrows at losing such a huge part of himself.

The problems with Tehanu arise when LeGuin tries to interweave the magic of the first three novels with the realism of this book. While Ged's arrival on the back of Kalessin fits in with the story well, the conflict between Goha and Aspen as well as the goings-on at the estates in Re Albi are given such short shrift that it feels rushed and confusing. When the final scenes play out, the reader is left feeling almost as if another novel has take over, leaving the one you were reading in the dust, and there is no resolution at all, merely questions that you assume will be answered in the next novel.

Tehanu really is a must-read if you want to continue on in the series, as much of The Other Wind will make no sense without the background given in this novel, but it will probably leave most fans of LeGuin's Earthsea Cycle disappointed.

This review previously published at Epinions: http://www.epinions.com/review/Tehanu...(less)

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Mar 19, 2011 Benjamin added it

Shelves: audiobook

The increasingly inaccurately named "Earthsea Trilogy" becomes a tetralogy with Tehanu, inaccurately subtitled as "The Last Book of Earthsea." Now, if you guessed that returning to a fantasy world 18 years after the original trilogy would result in an incongruous work, then congratulations--you've guessed correctly, as this book really doesn't fit so well with the previous books. On one hand, that means that people who dug the first three probably won't respond so positively to this one (among o...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Annie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm glad I read this book again — as an adult I understood it much better than when I was a teenager. "Tehanu" is the follow-up to "The Tombs of Atuan," and it was a bit of a shock when I first read it. "Tombs" ended with the promise of a typical fantasy ending. The heroine and the wizard enter triumphant into the city with the fabled artifact, honors doled out, followed by heroine coming into her own, learning magic and traveling the world having adventures. And stuff.

"Tehanu" picks up about tw...more

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Sep 28, 2010 Adriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

Tehanu by Ursula K, Leguin is subtitled the last book of Earthsea and is number 4 in the series, despite the fact that Earthsea is frequently called a trilogy. Tehanu is actually a bit of a misnomer considering that Leguin wrote a fifth Earthsea book, Tales of Earthsea, but I suppose a book of short stories doesn’t necessarily count as a novel and, therefore, not a direct continuation of the series. Ah semantics…

Tehanu takes place shortly before the ending of The Farthest Shore. Magic is disappe...more Tehanu by Ursula K, Leguin is subtitled the last book of Earthsea and is number 4 in the series, despite the fact that Earthsea is frequently called a trilogy. Tehanu is actually a bit of a misnomer considering that Leguin wrote a fifth Earthsea book, Tales of Earthsea, but I suppose a book of short stories doesn’t necessarily count as a novel and, therefore, not a direct continuation of the series. Ah semantics…

Tehanu takes place shortly before the ending of The Farthest Shore. Magic is disappearing in Earthsea and evil and mischief are brewing. We meet the widow Goha, the white lady of Font. She has lost her husband and her children are grown. She plans to live out her days alone on her farm until her neighbor-friend informs her of a badly burned child, Therru. A year later with Therru in tow, she visits Ogden the silent, her old tutor. In a few days she will encounter another figure from her past, an archmage once called Sparrowhawk. But how these two friends will continue their life’s journey and deal with their problems despite their advanced age is still a mystery, as is the history of the scarred child.

I really liked the Earthsea books, perhaps despite the lack of deep description. For the 70’s, it was probably amazing. However, compared to the depth of Harry Potter, it might seem a bit thin. Nevertheless, I think you can’t ignore the similarities of the two series. Like the more modern Harry Potter, each book has the characters getting older and maturing as people. First Ged was young and rash. Then he was mature enough to help Tenar. Next he was an elder leading a younger man on his quest. In Tehanu, both Ged and Tenar are considered old. They think their usefulness is worn out. They are not used to feeling helpless and afraid. At the “end” of their lives and yet, still very much alive, Leguin explores the remnants of once powerful people in a very interesting and, in my opinion, very satisfying way.

One main difference that sets Tehanu apart from the “trilogy” is that the other 3 books are considered young adult. Tehanu has some inexplicit adult content. Sex was never really mentioned much, if at all in the other 3, whereas in the 4th, Tenar and Moss have a conversation about wizards giving up their physical desires so they can have magical power.

Another interesting difference between this book and the trilogy is that Tehanu is from the woman’s perspective—more like the Tombs of Atuan. Tehanu focuses on what it is like to be a woman in a world dominated by men: Men who fight, have wars, seek power and control, who build, but also destroy. Women just sit back and try to make it through life by cleaning, farming, and caring for others. A woman feels helpless all the time, but when a man is helpless, he ceases to be a man.

Like the Tombs of Atuan, I greatly enjoyed this book. I so wanted Tenar and Ged to be together at last, though considering there is a 5th book, I’m not so sure it will stay that way. Nevertheless, I am interested in reading to find out if Leguin explores the theme of a woman’s power more and what the future holds for Therru.
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May 10, 2010 Jasmyn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, series, earthsea-cycle

Tehanu returns us to the world of Earthsea, to the time after the The Farthest Shore and The Tombs of Atuan. Tenar has grown older, had a family, and is now a widower when she received an urgentl from Sparrowhawk's former mentor Ogion, the mage that took her in when she first came to the area. As she journeys to her cottage we are introduced to the little girl Therru, marked by horrible tragedy and evil.

While at Ogion's cottage, Sparrowhawk returns to Tenar, but he returns scarred and damaged, m...more

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Mar 25, 2010 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: re-read, women, fantasy

It was good to meet up with Tenar again after all these years. And Ged. I tried to read it when it first came out, and was put off by what had been done to the little girl. Sad to say, it was easier to read now because it was horribly familiar. We hear about it all the time. I hope I never stop feeling sickened and outraged by such things, become resigned to "that's the way the world is."
I do think that reading it now, when I am about Tenar's age, married with grown children, that I understand...more

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Jan 10, 2010 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of the other Earthsea books, Ursula Le Guin

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Before I started this book, almost everything I'd heard about it was negative, so I went into it rather tense - really wanting to like it, but unable to stop looking for all the shortcomings it supposedly has. It is pretty different from the first three books, but I still ended up enjoying it immensely. Tenar and Ged are finally reunited, Ogion returns from the first book, Therru, the abused child Tenar takes under her wing, is both adorable and heartbreaking - those things alone are worth the p...more Before I started this book, almost everything I'd heard about it was negative, so I went into it rather tense - really wanting to like it, but unable to stop looking for all the shortcomings it supposedly has. It is pretty different from the first three books, but I still ended up enjoying it immensely. Tenar and Ged are finally reunited, Ogion returns from the first book, Therru, the abused child Tenar takes under her wing, is both adorable and heartbreaking - those things alone are worth the price of admission, so to speak.

Probably the biggest difference between "Tehanu" and the original trilogy is that it has much less action in it, the driving force of the story being almost wholly internal and psychological. The backdrop to the plot is not a grand adventure, but daily life on Gont, and the book actually feels like realistic fiction in spite of its fantasy setting. For me at least, this enriched the world of Earthsea even more. I really liked seeing the characters interact in a more ordinary, slice-of-life setting.

On the negative side, there are quite a few times when the narrative takes on a ranting tone. I think the feminist ranting was supposed to be coming from Tenar's character, but it really just came across as Le Guin getting up on a soapbox, and there are one too many snarky comments about men. I have nothing against feminist books (I am a woman, after all!) but this went a little overboard at times.

Also, I had a hard time adjusting to the idea of Ged being depressed and broken after losing his powers. It just seemed out of character for him, especially since "The Farthest Shore" ended with him seemingly at peace with his loss. I was really afraid Le Guin was going to throw everything good about his character under the bus just to make a feminist point, but thankfully she didn't. I suppose I should have had more faith in her and realized she was really just showing him going through a natural grieving process.

I disagree with the criticisms that "Tehanu" sacrifices good storytelling in order to get a message across. The story was very engaging, but I'm actually not sure what the overall message of the book is. Some very interesting questions about the nature of women's power are raised, but I don't feel like any clear, satisfying answers were given to that question (if it was answered at all?).

And that's a lot of criticism from me after I said I enjoyed this book, but honestly, I did! I'll admit that in the end, I think all I wanted was a book that focused on Ged and Tenar's relationship, and in that respect, this completely delivered.

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Jul 15, 2009 Nikki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, dragons, favourites

This book is probably my least favourite of the series. It's so much less about adventure and so much more about domesticity, which is strange coming from Tenar and Ged. Such ordinary thoughts and fears, after all the high and mighty adventure! Even the confrontation at the end of the book feels like a placeholder, more because those things will not leave Ged alone than because it's actually still a part of his life.

There are parts of this book I like a lot. Ged and Tenar's love scenes are worth...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

The most meditative of Le Guin's Earthsea series so far, and one that dwells on the question of women's power in Earthsea. Ged has returned from the land of the dead powerless, having used all his power to defeat the wizard who tried to live forever. Tenar, the former priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, is now the widow of a Gontish farmer, mother of two grown children, and the adopted mother of a child who was nearly burned to death by her criminal guardians. Therru, the child, is half burned and...more

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Nov 08, 2010 Raj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

I'm really not sure what to make of this book. Written many years after the original Earthsea trilogy, it continues the story of Tenar, the priestess that Sparrowhawk rescues from the Tombs of Atuan in the second book. Tenar has taken to a simple life as a farmer's wife, and now widow, and spends time musing on what it means to be a woman. She takes in a young girl, Therru, who has been cruelly abused by her parents and then has to look after the spent Sparrowhawk, after he returns from the even...more

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May 08, 2009 Thomas Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. From all I had heard about this book before reading it, I expected a much slower and less action-packed tale than the previous Earthsea novels presented. This expectation made it much easier to accept the novel as it was than it would have been if I had come in expecting another epic journey as presented in A Wizard of Earthsea or The Farthest Shore.

By keeping the story within a smaller scope, LeGuin actually makes her milieu seem more authentic than it ever has been: she demonstrates that ther...more From all I had heard about this book before reading it, I expected a much slower and less action-packed tale than the previous Earthsea novels presented. This expectation made it much easier to accept the novel as it was than it would have been if I had come in expecting another epic journey as presented in A Wizard of Earthsea or The Farthest Shore.

By keeping the story within a smaller scope, LeGuin actually makes her milieu seem more authentic than it ever has been: she demonstrates that there is more to life in Earthsea than the travails of wizards, and that her fantasy world is not free of sweat, grime, and monotonous daily routines. Because the setting is less extravagant, the novel, more than any of the previous installments, succeeds on the depth of its characters and the strength of the philosophical questions it proposes.

By making Tenar the primary viewpoint character, LeGuin allows the reader is able to empathize with Tenar's struggle to understand and help both Therru and Ged. Tenar, like the reader, doesn't understand all the rules of magical world she lives in, and yet is desperately trying to be a compassionate person within that world. Another part of her appeal is that she is clever enough to question the foundations of magic that Ged, and the reader, have taken for granted -- to consider the order Ged represents, and wonder whether that order is unchangeable or malleable. What does it mean for a woman to have magical power in a world where mages have historically been men? More importantly, why have mages historically been men?

It is this exploration of gender roles which makes Tehanu a fascinating read. LeGuin only raises these questions, allowing the reader to ponder them for him or herself. My hope is that she revisits these issues in The Other Wind, as I think they deserve deeper examination. As it stands, I give her credit for examining the parameters of her milieu in a way I haven't seen any other fantasy author do. However, it is ultimately Tenar's attempts to guide Therru and Ged through their trauma, and the joy she finds with both of them, which makes the novel an emotionally fulfilling read. (less)

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Jun 30, 2011 Art Noose rated it 4 of 5 stars

Continuing on with my Earthsea binge...

Written many years after the original three books, this book delves into an issue that the other three really didn't--- the strict gender norms on Earthsea. In the same way that I wondered about this issue when I finished those three, I imagine LeGuin also wondered why she had invented a world where wizardry was solely a male occupation.

I appreciate that she went back and told this other story. When we had last seen Tenar as a young teen, her life seemed f...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Neil rated it 5 of 5 stars

So very different from most fantasy fiction, so very beautiful. It's kind of like an extended riff on that last part of The Lord of the Rings that I've always loved so much, where the heroes have returned home after the great adventure and discover that they've got the rest of life to live meaningfully. So sad, but so true.

The main protagonist here is Tenar, from The Tombs of Atuan. After her part in the adventure, she married a farmer and made a country life for herself. As the book opens, farm...more

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About Ursula K. Le Guin

As of 2011, Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. Forthcoming...more As of 2011, Ursula K. Le Guin has published twenty-one novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. Forthcoming in 2012, Finding My Elegy, New and Selected Poems. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

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Ούρσουλα Λε Γκεν (Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, Berkeley California, 21 Οκτωβρίου 1929 - ) Πολυγραφότατη, πολυδιάστατη και πολυβραβευμένη Αμερικανίδα ποιήτρια και συγγραφέας του χώρου της «Επιστημονικής Φαντασίας» αλλά και των παιδικών διηγημάτων.

ΠΡΩΤΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΑ
Γεννήθηκε στο Μπέρκλεϋ της Καλιφόρνιας από τον ανθρωπολόγο Άλφρεντ Κρέμπερ (Alfred L. Kroeber) και την συγγραφέα Θεοδώρα Κρέμπερ (Theodora Covel BrownKracaw Kroeber), σπούδασε στο «Radcliffe College» και εν συνεχεία Φιλολογία (γαλλική και ιταλική αναγεννησιακή λογοτεχνία) στο «Πανεπιστήμιο Columbia». Το 1953 παντρεύτηκε στην Γαλλία τον ιστορικό Σαρλ Λε Γκεν (Charles A. Le Guin), που έγινε καθηγητής Γαλλικής Ιστορίας στο «Portland State College» του Όρεγκον και απέκτησε μαζί του 3 παιδιά.

«ΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΟΝΙΚΗ» ΚΑΙ «ΜΕΣΑΙΩΝΙΚΗ» ΦΑΝΤΑΣΙΑ
Από τα μέσα της δεκαετίας του 1960 συνέγραψε περισσότερα από 100 διηγήματα (που εκδόθηκαν σε 8 τόμους), 3 συλλογές δοκιμίων, 5 ποιητικές συλλογές, 19 νουβέλες και 13 παιδικά βιβλία, αλλά είναι περισσότερο αναγνωρισμένη για τα έργα της στον τομέα της «Επιστημονικής» και «Μεσαιωνικής» Φαντασίας, όπου συγκαταλέγεται ανάμεσα στους σημαντικότερους σύγχρονους δημιουργούς (πιο γνωστά στην Ελλάδα είναι τα βιβλία της «Ο Αναρχικός των Δύο Κόσμων», Αθήνα, 1992 και «Το Αριστερό Χέρι του Σκοταδιού», Αθήνα, 1990, 1994). Το 1990 αιφνιδίασε το αναγνωστικό κοινό της όταν πρόσθεσε δίχως προειδοποίηση στην έως τότε τριλογία του «μαγικού» «κύκλου της Γαιοθάλασσας» («A Wizard of Earthsea», «The Tombs of Atuan» και «The FarthestShore», 1968 - 1972) το σκληρό «Τεχανού», για το οποίο έλαβε το Βραβείο Nebula.(less)

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A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

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Quotes from Tehanu

“What's wrong with men?" Tenar inquired cautiously.
As cautiously, lowering her voice, Moss replied, "I don't know, my dearie. I've thought on it. Often I've thought on it. The best I can say it is like this. A man's in his skin, see, like a nut in its shell." She held up her long, bent, wet fingers as if holding a walnut. "It's hard and strong, that shell, and it's all full of him. Full of grand man-meat, man-self. And that's all. That's all there is. It's all him and nothing else, inside.” — 6 people liked it

“If women had power, what would men be but women who can't bear children? And what would women be but men who can?"
"Hah!" went Tenar; and presently, with some cunning, she said, "Haven't there been queens? Weren't they women of power?"
"A queen's only a she-king," said Ged.
She snorted.
"I mean, men give her power. They let her use their power. But it isn't hers, is it? It isn't because she's a woman that she's powerful, but despite it.” — 6 people liked it

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Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle #4)

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