The Books of Earthsea

Love for this series is as much beyond my comprehension as love for McCarthy's The Road (and other stuff he wrote).

I actually made a pole in FB fantasy/sci-fi group whether I should read Earthsea or Hainish Cycle first and overwhelmingly, like 95 to 5 Earthsea won. What?

I liked the first book a lot actually. Second book was still decent but I wasn't a big fan. It got better as it progressed. Third book was utter garbage and when I was deciding whether or not to continue I read reviews for fourth only to learn it's even worse, making Ged, the greatest wizard who ever lived, a useless moron to make the main character shine oh that so much more as Mary Sue.

So I'm DNFing. I don't even like Hainish Cycle much, tbh, but it's better than the latter two Earthsea books I read. There's so many other series I want to start or continue with that I'm not going to bother and forcing myself through more of this knowing I'll hate it.

I have another edition in log

Finally, after all these years, I've finished the books that came to define my late teens and early twenties– heavily influencing me with its themes and philosophy. With Firelight, it feels like a true epilogue of Earthsea. Finally we get another story from the perspective of Ged, and it's a send-off that feels befitting the likes of him.

Earthsea all in one place is very nice to have, and it's a nice edition. Included are some interesting notes from the author on how she came to write various things and what she thought about them at the time as well as what she thinks about them years later. The very short stories done specifically for this volume (at the end) aren't that strong but they're still Le Guin. Also included are a couple of essays on Earthsea.

Strangely the illustrations by Vess aren't that great - he's done better quality work in comics - and don't add much.

I started this book 45 years ago and just finished it now!
I got myself this magnificent edition of all the novels, with a few short stories and the author's comments , to finally catch up from where I left off in Mrs. Cooper's primary school class.
At 10 I was avidly reading anything that looked interesting in the little book stand in the corner of the classroom. “ The Wizard of Earthsea” blew my mind, but although in later years I re-read it I never read the others.
Funnily enough I'm glad I waited, because I can see now how the experience and wisdom of Ursula K. Le guin developed over a lifetime as she carried on writing of the world I loved so much.
I can see also how my taste in books and even my world-view was informed by that one book and how my philosophy and politics have evolved in parallel with the following books.
Thank-you Ursula.