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Tehanu

Earthsea #4 / 6 ✓
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Tehanu (Earthsea #4) by Ursula K. Le Guin
★ 7.70 / 51
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Nebula Award 1990, Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel 1991, Mythopoeic Fantasy Award nominee 1991.

Cover art by Tudor Humphries.

Years before, 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 not by choice.

A lifetime ago, they helped each other at a time of darkness and danger. Now they must join forces again, to help another – the physically and emotionally scarred child whose own destiny remains to be revealed.

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FantasyHigh FantasyEpic FantasyLocus AwardTV SeriesNebula Award
Release date: 1990
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Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin

In a literary landscape often dominated by action and conquest, Ursula K. Le Guin carved quiet, radical paths—through forests of magic, across alien planets, and into the deep folds of human nature. Her stories didn’t shout; they asked, wondered, and listened. Through them, she reimagined what science fiction and fantasy could be—not just a reflection of our world, but a transformation of how we see it.

Born in 1929 to a family steeped in stories and scholarship—her father was an anthropologist, her mother a writer and the biographer of Ishi—Le Guin was raised among mythologies, cultural curiosity, and a profound respect for the power of narrative. These early influences are stitched into every book she wrote, from A Wizard of Earthsea to The Left Hand of Darkness.

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Her science fiction was never just about technology or alien landscapes. Instead, Le Guin used speculative settings to explore themes of gender, power, language, and balance. In The Left Hand of Darkness, she envisioned a world without fixed gender roles long before mainstream conversations began catching up. In The Dispossessed, she built an anarchist society and interrogated what freedom really means. Always, her stories resisted easy answers.

Le Guin’s writing style was spare yet lyrical, rich with poetic rhythm and a deep sense of philosophical quiet. She once said, “Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now.” She was one of those voices—visionary not because she predicted the future, but because she dared to imagine futures that didn’t mirror the mistakes of the past.

Over her lifetime, she won almost every major award in speculative fiction—Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and National Book Awards among them. But perhaps her most enduring legacy is how she reshaped the boundaries of genre. Le Guin didn’t just write fantasy and science fiction—she elevated them, proving they could be vessels for philosophy, sociology, and poetry.

She lived most of her life in Portland, Oregon, far from the publishing epicenters of New York or London. That distance seemed fitting—Le Guin always stood just outside the expected, looking in with clear eyes and quiet defiance. She passed away in 2018, but her words remain—to comfort, to provoke, and to remind readers that power and gentleness are not opposites.

Whether you're discovering the Archipelago of Earthsea or walking the icy plains of Gethen, Le Guin's stories don’t just transport you—they transform you. In her universe, the journey is never just across space, but inward, toward empathy, understanding, and change.

Photo: Eileen Gunn

Earthsea

Earthsea consists of six primary books, and includes two additional books that complement the series but are not considered mandatory reads — considered a complete series. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.

A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea #1)
★ 8.12 / 73
The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea #2)
★ 8.00 / 59
The Farthest Shore (Earthsea #3)
★ 8.44 / 54
Tehanu (Earthsea #4)
★ 7.70 / 51
Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea #5)
★ 7.98 / 34
The Other Wind (Earthsea #6)
★ 8.08 / 36
The Earthsea Quartet (Earthsea)
★ 8.66 / 15
The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (Earthsea)
★ 8.00 / 1

Book Reviews

10/07/2007
Seregil of Rhiminee avatar
Seregil of Rhiminee
3707 books, 260 reviews, 15 posts
★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8 / 10

There are some people who don't like Tehanu, but I like it. Tehanu is completely different from the previous Earthsea books, but it's well written and interesting. I think that Tehanu was written for adult readers and that's why young readers shouldn't read it, because it contains certain philosophical things, which may be a bit difficult to understand. If you're interested in sword fights and sorcery, this book isn't for you. But if you want to read a story, which has depth, you should read Tehanu.

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