About 5 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 12 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
About the book
Alder, a village sorcerer who repairs broken things, fears sleep: his dead wife, Lily, and other spirits call to him across the wall separating the living from the dead. Seeking help, he visits Ged on Gont, then travels to King Lebannen’s court in Havnor, where Tenar and Tehanu have also been summoned. Dragon attacks and an unwanted marriage proposal from the Kargish ruler add to the king’s troubles.
Reader notes
The sixth Earthsea volume is reflective fantasy, much of its conflict unfolding in conversations about death and competing versions of the world’s past. Familiarity with the earlier novel Tehanu and the story collection Tales from Earthsea helps with the returning characters.
Yes, familiarity with the earlier books helps with the returning characters, especially Tehanu and the story collection Tales from Earthsea. This is the sixth volume in the Earthsea Cycle.
Is it hard to read?
The challenge lies in the ideas: conversations explore death and competing versions of the world’s past. Multiple points of view and braided storylines also require attention, while the prose combines spare and lyrical styles.
Is it full of action?
No, the pace is measured, and much of the conflict unfolds through conversation. Dragon attacks and troubles at King Lebannen’s court accompany a reflective, philosophical story focused on characters and ideas.
What difficult subjects does it deal with?
Grief and mortality are central: Alder fears sleep because his dead wife and other spirits call to him across the boundary between living and dead. Violence and abuse are mild.
How long is it?
288 pages in the Ace Books 2003 paperback edition.
Which edition is shown here?
Ace Books · 2003 · Paperback. ISBN 9780441009930.
How long does it take to read The Other Wind?
About 5 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 288-page Ace Books edition. Dense books can take longer.
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin wrote speculative fiction alongside poetry, criticism, translation, children’s books, and realistic prose, but her best-known settings are the Hainish universe and the islands of Earthsea. She builds societies in careful detail, then tests their customs through characters who initially misunderstand the worlds around them. Her prose can be spare and lyrical, while her structures carry much of the argument. In The Dispossessed, alternating planets and timelines place anarchist and propertied societies in sustained comparison without separating a physicist’s intellectual ambitions from his political choices. The Left Hand of Darkness makes diplomacy a problem of perception, as Genly Ai’s assumptions about gender and loyalty complicate his bond with Estraven. Earthsea binds magic to true names and cosmic balance, and its narration stays close to feeling without turning fully confessional. Le Guin also worked in more openly experimental forms. Always Coming Home combines narrative, poems, drawings, myths, and invented anthropological reports, while “Omelas” addresses the reader directly and converts a utopian sketch into a moral problem of complicity.
