The Other Wind

The Other Wind is the final (for now) book in the Earthsea series. And it is easily the best. The plot moves along at a good pace and is satisfactorily resolved. There are a ton of characters with interesting relationships that shift over the course of the novel. LeGuin even managed to devote an entire chapter to sailing without boring me. On the contrary, that time was used quite well for the development of various characters and the history of Earthsea.

This book manages to pick up plot threads I'd thought long abandoned, like the dismal afterlife, and make them relevant again to the lives of both new and old characters. Many of my disappointments with the earlier books were addressed and resolved in this one. As rocky as the series has been, it honestly may have been worth it just to get to the end.

The series as a whole has, unfortunately, left me wary of LeGuin's other work. I'll probably read The Left Hand of Darkness at some point, but I'm not sure I'll see out any of her other books. I'm a little too worried that I'll find myself reading another dud.

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