Arren is the son of the prince of Enlad, comes to Roke to warn the wizards that something has caused wizards in his land to forget their spells and lose power. Ged and the others had heard of other places on the periphery of the archipelago where similar things were rumored. Arren pledges to serve Ged, and the two go off in search of the problem, conversing with a drug addled wizard, Arren shanghaied as a galley slave, traveling the south reach, and staying with sea people, before going to speak with dragons. The dragon Orm Embar guides them to Selidor, where they find a mage, Cob, who attempts to kill them with an ancient staff, but is crushed by Orm Embar. The mage is Cob, who is trapped between life and death, because he has opened the door between worlds. Ged and Arren confront Cob (a long conversation with unsophisticated New Age conceptions of death and life), and force him to take them to the open door. Ged closes it using nearly the last of his strength. Ged and Arren are once again on the beach of Selidor, the end of worlds, exhausted and without food. They are found by Kalessin, the eldest dragon, and flown back to Roke, where Arren is proclaimed king of Havnor. Ged is flown back to Gont, to wander the mountain, or, in an alternate ending, attends Arren's coronation in Havnor, and departs on the Lookfar, either way ending the saga of Ged. ( )

Of the three primary Earthsea novels, this is by far my favorite. It's a sailing-the-world tale, and I'm a sucker for sailing tales from 'The Odyssey' on. It plumbs the value of life, the strength of love and magic and loss, and in Le Guin's enchanting narrative tone works as a primer on those things as well as telling a good story.

But for me, the greatest beauty of TFS is the relationship between Sparrowhawk and Arren. It might seem static and stilted to another reader, but to me it is very dynamic; both man and teenager are affected by the other, both learn and change because of the other. They play out as a pair like a mixture of Jedi/padawan and father/son, and real affection grows there. The power each can claim, magical or political, takes back seat to who they are to each other at each step of the way. And this leads to a sweet denouement. ( )

This book is very metal. m/ ( )

"When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are." ( )

I read this when I was 10 and it's sacred. :) ( )