The Farthest Shore (Earthsea, Volume 3)

This is my third attempt to review this book; the first attempt reached only one sentence before I deleted it; the second reached...not even one character before I gave up, but now I've thought of a way to approach it, so here goes, wish me luck trying to do it justice.

Each of the first three Earthsea books is a coming of age story. In the first Ged has to face and accept his own mortality in order to truely begin his adult life. In the second Arha must choose between conforming to the narrow and worthless role that has been forced on her or abandoning everything she has known in order to find her own way in life.

In The Farthest Shore, Arren goes on a spirit journey. It can be viewed as similar to what men went through in shamanistic societies; taking drugs or fasting in order to experience hallucinations, in a formal coming of age rite of passage. For Arren, the journey is real, though he is helped by a wizard (and helps Ged in turn). In doing so he fulfills a prophecy, inherits a kingdom and helps save Earthsea from destruction. These consequences of his journey are perhaps typical of epic fantasy, part of what makes it epic in the first place, but the cause of the threat is not. LeGuin returns to the subject of mortality raised in the first book and examines the desire for its opposite that lurks within humanity.

The story turns the plot of A Wizard of Earthsea inside out; there Ged is manipulated by evil conspirators but only succumbs to their machinations because of his own pride. Here, Ged's pride leads him to rebuke a fellow wizard, who turns to evil in response and finds a way to become immortal, with grim consequences for all the people of Earthsea.

The theme is profound and the telling of the tale is superb. For me, the most memorable scenes of any of the Earthsea books are to be found here; lost and dying on the open water, the Raft People, the horror of Dragons who have lost their speech, Orm Embar and Kalessin. (The Dragons in this book all have better names than Yevaud from the first book.)

When the final confrontation with Cob, the creator of the hole torn in the realm of the dead that allows one to go back into life (but is draining all vitality from Earthsea), eventually comes his reactions are interesting. Pride and defiance come first, but an admission of pitiful remorse and of failing to undo the damage he has caused follow. It comes down to Ged to heal the rift and Arren to get their spirits back to their bodies. Ged's sacrifice pains me every time I read of it and Arren, a boy when he first meets Ged, has become a man in perhaps the hardest way imaginable.

I have never been able to seperate the first and third Earthsea books by much but this time round I feel that The Farthest Shore is the best of them all. Its message, fear of death is healthy but don't waste your life seeking immortality, is unmistakable. It occurs to me that the promise of immortality is a fundamental aspect of many religions - is LeGuin making a veiled assault on them? The answer to this question is to be found in The Other Wind, I think and I will discuss it when I review that book.