The Other Wind

The Other Wind was my least favourite Earthsea book since Wizard. Which, obviously means it's still pretty great, but to me it felt a lot like an extended epilogue rather than having a clear identity of its own.

It picks up threads from all of the earlier books except, perhaps, Wizard of Earthsea - Ged makes only a fleeting appearance - and it does wrap them all up quite neatly, but there isn't anything new here. Books 2-5 all felt distinct, and had their own particular identities. This book brings characters together from all of them, and wraps things up, and that's kind of it.

It's hard to say it's disappointing, with writing this great, but it's certainly less outstanding than books 2 through 4, which I adored.