Tales from Earthsea
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| Tales from Earthsea | |
|---|---|
 First edition iridescent cover |
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| Author(s) | Ursula K. Le Guin |
| Cover artist | Marion Wood Kolisch (photo); Kelly Nelson (design) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Earthsea |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace & Company |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | book |
| Pages | 296 pp |
| ISBN | 0151005613 |
| OCLC Number | 45813870 |
| Dewey Decimal | [Fic] 21 |
| LC Classification | PZ7.L5215 Tal 2001 |
| Preceded by | Tehanu |
| Followed by | The Other Wind |
Tales from Earthsea is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in 2001. The stories are set in the Earthsea world.
Tales from Earthsea won the 2002 Endeavour Award which recognizes distinguished novels or collections.[1] The individual short stories "Darkrose and Diamond" and "Dragonfly" were each nominated for Locus Awards for best novelette when they were originally published.[2]
Contents |
[edit] Contents
The collection contains the following stories:
- "The Finder", which tells of the founding of the school of magic on Roke, one of the Islands of Earthsea
- "Darkrose and Diamond" (previously published in October of 1999 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), a tale of romance between the daughter of a witch and the son of a rich merchant
- "The Bones of the Earth", wherein Ogion the Silent deals with an earthquake
- "On the High Marsh", the story of the arrival of a mysterious healer in a remote village
- "Dragonfly" (previously published in October of 1998 in Legends), which provides a postscript to the novel Tehanu
Also included is an article titled "A Description of Earthsea".
[edit] Themes
A common thread to all the stories is the effort to reinterpret the world of Earthsea. The books of the original trilogy presented Earthsea in general and the practice of magic in particular as strongly male-dominated. Women can only be witches, which is the lowest and most despised rank of the magical world, expressed in the proverb "Weak as women's magic, wicked as women's magic".
The stories collected in Tales from Earthsea make a huge effort to redress the balance. It is disclosed that Ogion, Ged's beloved tutor and mentor, had learned his magic from a master who himself learned from an "unauthorised" woman mage, and that the Roke school itself had been originally founded by women who were later excluded from it. Other stories feature strong and assertive women who in various ways challenge male dominance.
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ "Endeavour Award History". Endeavour Awards. http://www.osfci.org/endeavour/history.php. Retrieved 2011-07-10.
- ^ "Locus Awards Nominee List". The Locus Index to SF Awards. http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/LocusNomList.html. Retrieved 2011-07-10.
- Bibliography
- Bernardo, Susan M.; Murphy, Graham J. (2006). Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion (1st ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313332258.
- Cadden, Mike (2005). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0415995272.
- Martin, Philip (2009). A Guide to Fantasy Literature: Thoughts on Stories of Wonder & Enchantment (1st ed.). Milwaukee, WI: Crickhollow Books. ISBN 978-1933987040.
[edit] External links
- A comprehensive review of Tales From Earthsea
- Earthsea series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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