Throughout the Earthsea Cycle, the concept of balance has been critical to understanding characters' relationships with society and environment, especially as seen with the protagonist Ged. In The Farthest Shore the disruption of balance serves as a main antagonizing force that not only drives the plot, but further explains the "rules" of magic throughout the archipelago and beyond.

Overall, as this is very much a coming-of-age story for the young prince Arren, it was hard not to draw comparisons to what I consider to be a superior entry to the series, A Wizard of Earthsea, aka- Ged's coming-of-age tale. Truthfully, Arren is a rather bland character compared to the colorful figures that have been introduced so far; sorry dude.

What does make The Farthest Shore a solid book is the world-building. The dragons are compelling creatures throughout the series, and continue to raise the drama. Other cool moments include meeting the Raft People, a deep-sea version of the Uru who live on man-made islands in Puno, Peru.

If you enjoyed the previous books, I would recommend continuing the series with this one.