This book changes it up, surprisingly going for an even slower pacing than the first book, which I considered a ‘down beat’. Maybe pacing was just different from old sci-fi though?I suspect readers were a lot more fervent and authors had people’s attention, possibly. Plus it’s serialized initially; I’m sure that played a part.

This book is almost all about one particular character learning about his companions’ culture. I found it pretty interesting and again, for me, this is a really fast book, especially via audio. Good narration makes everything easier and I was pretty interested in the tension between cultures, their modes of thinking, and how that informed said tension. Characters seemed more fleshed out and interesting too.

I guess the third book will be the climax, more so than the first two books having one structurally built in. Which is weird but alright, considering the length of each. As with the first it’s not blowing me away or anything. It’s worth a read but fits well within expectations, for better and worse.

It is very much a setup for the series, which will either appeal to you or not but it appears to have been serialized in initial publication, so it makes total sense to me. Plus I am consuming the entire series via audible anyways. And each instalment is pretty short, so I doubt it overstays it’s welcome for anyone.

The narration is pretty strong, thankfully! He does a good job of differentiating between characters and inflection seems on point. Not the best performance but when you listen to ad many audiobooks as I do, I find this narration much better than average.

It’s short enough, clips along fairly well pacing wise, and changes up worldbuilding from show and tell, which I personally don’t mind but may grate on the reader who prefers “show” and hates infodumps.

Decent prose and I’m just in the mood for this kind of old sci-fi—and it does feel very much like older sci-fi for better and worse. There won’t be anything here that will blow you away or feel innovative if you’ve read current sci-fi. But it does feel distinctive from Dune, where I wasn’t sure if it would or not. It’s more concerned with the cultural underpinnings of the various races and seeing where those drives take them, and the intrigue around that—then the scheming political and philosophy of Dune. I myself go back to Dune for my interest in culture/religion/philosophy, so I find these books pretty different (and overall prefer the Dune books) but I feel like that distinction might let other readers decide if they’d give this a go if they did not like Dune and were worried this was too similar.

Loved the subtle subversion of tropes and the unexpected quest Ged finds himself on, another subversion of many fantasy stories. There is no good/bad coding to the characters and features people of color. Unconventional and riveting.

I loved the shift to a female protagonist and that they had to work together to escape their own types of imprisonment. The amount of lore being put into these short novels is really incredible. The connection between the first and this was more satisfying than I expected.

I especially liked the end.

Mysterious and epic, each book feels fresh with the changing perspectives and timeframes. It was cool seeing Ged as the sort of Gandalf like figure, discover more about dragons, and follow along the spreading mystery that takes peoples’ ability to do magic away, as well as other things. Loved it!

It took me a bit to acclimate to how different this story is but once I did I think I appreciate it more. There is a heavy depth and exploration I’ve not seen in fantasy in this; steeped in a perspective never quite articulated and unkempt. There are many questions and little definitive answers and I enjoyed discovering Tehanu and Tenar.

Ged is more realized and more manly, truly growing up. Bow that he is “empty”, he can fill himself with something more substantial or substantive than this wizardly power that possessed his life. This is no “and then they lived happily ever after”, yet is some of that. Instead there is a joy in discovering the magic of being with and giving yourself to someone else, as well as the pleasure of a hard days work.

I may like it the most so far, as I make my way through all these stories.