Name: The Other Wind
ISBN: 9780441011254

The Other Wind

"The sorcerer Alder fears sleep. He dreams of the land of death, of his wife who died young and longs to return to him so much that she kissed him across the low stone wall that separates our world from the Dry Land - where the grass is withered, the stars never move, and lovers pass without knowing each other. The dead are pulling Alder to them at night. Through him they may free themselves and invade Earthsea.". "Alder seeks advice from Ged, once Archmage. Ged tells him to go to Tenar, Tehanu, and the young king at Havnor. They are joined by amber-eyed Irian, a fierce dragon able to assume the shape of a woman." "This group can confront the threat only in the Immanent Grove on Roke. Joining them, Alder, a mender of pots, may be the only one who can mend the world."--BOOK JACKET.

What Hacker News says

dcminterApr 2025

I enjoyed this review and thought the point about "whiplash" with Tehanu was well observed.

I read Tehanu roughly when it came out, so I'd have been about 18, having read the others much earlier. I was annoyed and disliked it due to the tonal change.

I re-read it again a year or so ago along with the short stories and The Other Wind. I loved it. Nothing had changed - except me, of course.

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nick-of-timeApr 2024

For anyone reading this thread, I strongly recommend The Other Wind. It's a wonderfully emotional book about loss and about the importance of everyone in the endeavor to fix the world.

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kejApr 2024

You may already know this, but just in case, Tehanu is no longer the last Earthsea book. It is followed by the collection Tales From Earthsea and then The Other Wind.

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MrJohzApr 2024

I know about Tales From Earthsea but decided I didn't need to read additional sort stories set in the same world. I didn't know about The Other Wind, thanks for letting me know!

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creerAug 2023

I loved these books precisely because they were a refreshing look at fantasy. But yes that makes them completely different reading and there's no problem with not liking them. They are not about plot, they are about the emotions of the characters and the mood of the landscape. And I find these extremely emotional to read because of how much they engage us into the emotions and surroundings of the characters. Also really, the mage has found a direction where not doing anything or much is the way. That doesn't help on plot :-) I loved that the books powerfully evoke the emotions of stages of life:

A Wizard of Earthsea, the young wizard

The Tombs of Atuan, the adventure (not about the adventure but about the wizard)

The Farthest Shore, mage at the end of failing magic

Tehanu, retirement, ex-wizard, reconciliation

Tales from Earthsea, short stories of wizards in the field

The Other Wind, more retirement, old wizards, settling accounts

And considering how long apart they are written, I marvel at how well they keep to this effort on emotion and mood.

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sdevoidJul 2018

I read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed at the beginning of the year, just before she passed away. This summer I the first four books of the Earthsea series and will probably read The Other Wind and Tales soon. I've really enjoyed both universes--with Earthsea I keep wishing someone would make a game with this kind of magic system. The Lathe of Heaven is such a wonderful title, I'm looking forward to reading that as well.

I read her translation of Tao Te Ching while waiting in 2 hours of traffic for a ferry and it was wonderful and really informs the rest of her works.

I'm currently reading Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, on the history of U.S. water policy in the West. Frustratingly dry.

Also re-reading On the Road but unlike 16 years ago I'm reading the 'Original Scroll Edition' this time: no chapters, paragraph breaks, invented character names, censors, etc. The book you read in high school is, in fact, the novelization of the original, which Kerouac wrote in twenty days. I've kept my beat-up paperback copy of the 'novel' nearby and I've preferred the scroll edition for the most part.

On the nightstand: - Annals of the Former World by John McPhee 300 pages into it, but I got a bit tired of the redundancy inherent in combining multiple books into one. - The Vulgar Tongue by Jonathon Green. 40 pages in. I've been looking for a copy of the dictionary. - The Path to the Nest of Spiders by Italo Calvino.

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