The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin

An Aging Archmage and a Young Prince Sail to the Farthest Reach to Restore the Balance of Life and Death

Published in 1972, The Farthest Shore won the 1973 National Book Award for Children's Books and serves as the climax of Ursula K. Le Guin’s original Earthsea trilogy. The story opens on the Isle of Roke, where young Prince Arren of Enlad arrives with disturbing reports: across the islands, sorcerers are forgetting spells of Making, traditional songs are losing their meaning, and entire communities are sinking into apathy. Recognizing that the fundamental Equilibrium of Earthsea is breaking down, Archmage Ged enlists Arren to set sail on the small boat Lookfar to locate the source of the unraveling.

Their search carries them past the lawless markets of Hort Town and the silent silk looms of Lorbanery to the floating rafts of the Children of the Open Sea, eventually landing on the remote western sands of Selidor. There, they track down Cob, a sorcerer whose terror of dying drove him to tear open a permanent rift between the living world and the dry land of the dead. To seal the tear and stop the world's vitality from bleeding away, Ged and Arren must step across the low stone wall into the realm of shadows, where Ged must expend the last of his wizardly power.

Why You’ll Love This Book

Ursula K. Le Guin explores mortality, aging, and the price of power with clarity and restraint, avoiding conventional good-versus-evil shortcuts. Readers drawn to the grounded, mythic world-building of Robin Hobb, Patricia McKillip, and J.R.R. Tolkien will find plenty to appreciate here.