white_hart: (Default)
white_hart ([personal profile] white_hart) wrote2017-07-05 12:26 pm

Reading: The Other Wind

The Other Wind is the sixth (and final) Earthsea book. Published in 2001, along with Tales from Earthsea, it picks up the themes of Tehanu and the novella 'Dragonfly' to complete the re-visioning of Earthsea begun in those two books. It mirrors The Farthest Shore in having death and the fate of the dead in Earthsea as one of its key themes, and goes much further than that book in examining the concept of the "dry land" where the souls of the dead reside (which seems to owe something to Hades in classical mythology) and arguing instead for true death and oblivion. The Farthest Shore ended with Ged fundamentally changed by his experience in the dry land, stripped of all his magical powers; The Other Wind fundmentally changes the dry land itself, and perhaps also the world of the living and the way magic works in Earthsea.

The book revisits many characters from the earlier books; I particularly liked the glimpse of Ged, fifteen years after Tehanu, at peace with who he has become and living contentedly with Tenar and Tehanu on Gont, and the Kargish Master Patterner of Roke. There are also engaging new characters, particularly Alder, the village sorceror whose dreams of the wall that divides the land of the living from the dry land are the catalyst for the events of the novel. It isn't a particularly plotty novel; mostly it's an inward exploration, as the characters use reflection and dialogue and the gradual sharing of traditional wisdom and histories across three cultures to arrive at an understanding of the nature of the problem they are facing and the way to solve it.

Interestingly, I felt that the depictions of the land of the dead and the ultimate resolution of the plot reminded me of the land of the dead sequence in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, published a year earlier; there was also a mention of death as a "gift", and a few other things, which reminded me of the end of Season 5 and some of the themes of Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which aired in 2001 and 2002. Clearly there was something in the zeitgeist at the turn of the millenium which made people ponder the nature of life and death and life after death.
maia: (Maia)

[personal profile] maia 2017-07-05 03:29 pm (UTC)(link)
The Other Wind is my favorite of the Earthsea books.


the depictions of the land of the dead and the ultimate resolution of the plot reminded me of the land of the dead sequence in Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass, published a year earlier

Oh, yes.

nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)

[personal profile] nineveh_uk 2017-07-05 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I really enjoyed The Other Wind despite having not been a bit fan of Tehanu.
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2017-07-05 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
I really enjoyed it too.

And it was lovely to go on the journey of discovery with the author, across all of the books.
legionseagle: Lai Choi San (Default)

[personal profile] legionseagle 2017-07-05 06:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I am very fond of Tehanu
legionseagle: Lai Choi San (Default)

[personal profile] legionseagle 2017-07-05 06:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I loved reading a novel in which the explanation given for bloodstained clothing after a stabbing with pitchfork incident is, "Oh, my period came on unexpectedly in the night."
serriadh: (Default)

[personal profile] serriadh 2017-07-06 07:59 am (UTC)(link)
I like Tehanu, but I think when I read it I really wanted more books-about-Ged and it wasn't that. It's a great book in it's own right (I tend to re-read it out of sequence as a standalone).
liadnan: (Default)

[personal profile] liadnan 2017-07-06 09:03 am (UTC)(link)
I loved Tehanu but kind of bounced off The Other Wind. I'm not sure why, it may well have been something to do with my mood at the time. It's been long enough that I could justify a complete re-read of the sequence...
nineveh_uk: Illustration that looks like Harriet Vane (Harriet)

[personal profile] nineveh_uk 2017-07-06 11:23 am (UTC)(link)
I think that what I had liked about the first three Earthsea novels was the atmosphere. My favourite bit by far was the first half of the Tombs of Atuan, indeed I don't think I've ever re-read the ending! Tehanu is interesting as a novel, but that look at ordinary life was precisely the opposite of what I enjoyed about the books - I was interested in neither Ged nor Tenar as ordinary people. Whereas The Other Wind brought back the things that I'd enjoyed.