The Other Wind

Earthsea Series

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Book 5 in the Earthsea series

Pages: 212

Published: 2001

Age: 10+

The sorcerer Alder has the power of mending, but it may have become the power of destruction: every night he dreams of the wall between the land of the living and the land of the dead, and the wall is being dismantled. If the wall is breached, the dead will invade Earthsea.

Ged, once Archmage of Earthsea, sends Alder to King Lebannen. Now Alder and the king must join with a burned woman, a wizard of forbidden lore, and a being who is woman and dragon both, in an impossible quest to save Earthsea.

Recognition:

World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2002); Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Adult Literature (2002)

About the Earthsea Series

Books in series order

  1. 1.A Wizard of Earthsea(1968)
  2. 2.The Tombs of Atuan(1970)
  3. 3.The Farthest Shore(1972)
  4. 4.Tehanu(1990)
  5. 5.The Other Wind(2001)
  6. 6.Tales from Earthsea(2001)

Reading age: 10+ years

This series should be read in order.

A mystical fantasy saga in the tradition of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, the Earthsea novels follow the fortunes of the wizard Ged from his childhood to an age where magic is giving way to evil.

As a child, Ged is but a goatherd on the island of Gont when he comes by his strange powers over nature. Sent to the School of Wizards on Roke, he learns the true way of magic and proves himself a powerful magician. And it is as the Archmage Sparrowhawk that he helps the High Priestess Tenar escape the labyrinth of darkness. But over the years, Ged witnesses true magic and the ancient ways submit to the forces of evil and death. Will he too succumb, or can he hold them back?

Fans of JK Rowling's Harry Potter series will find much to admire in this complex and captivating predecessor.