FanFare

Two years have passed since the battle at the end of Season/Book 3 (Sun) but Aaravos's plans are far from thwarted. Like previous seasons, Book 4 has nine episodes. The first episode, Rebirthday, was released free on youtube a bit ahead of the rest of the season. [more inside]
posted by Karmakaze on Nov 4, 2022 - 7 comments

The sorcerer Alder fears sleep. The dead are pulling him 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. The threat can be confronted only in the Immanent Grove on Roke, the holiest place in the world, and there the king, hero, sage, wizard, and dragon make a last stand. (Book 6 of the Earthsea cycle) [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead on May 7, 2021 - 2 comments

The tales of this book explore and extend the world established by the Earthsea novels—yet each stands on its own. It contains the novella “The Finder”, and the short stories “The Bones of the Earth”, “Darkrose and Diamond”, “On the High Marsh”, and “Dragonfly”. (Book 5 of the Earthsea cycle) [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead on Apr 2, 2021 - 5 comments

Years before, they had escaped together from the sinister Tombs of Atuan—Tenar, an isolated young priestess, and Ged, a powerful wizard. Now she is a farmer's widow, having chosen for herself the simple pleasures of an ordinary life. And he is a broken old man, mourning the powers lost to him not by choice. A lifetime ago, they helped each other at a time of darkness and danger. Now they must join forces again, to help another—the physically and emotionally scarred child whose own destiny remains to be revealed. (Book 4 of the Earthsea cycle) [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead on Mar 5, 2021 - 15 comments

Darkness threatens to overtake Earthsea. As the world and its wizards are losing their magic, Ged—powerful Archmage, wizard, and dragonlord—embarks on a sailing journey with the highborn young prince, Arren. They travel far beyond the realm of death to discover the cause of these evil disturbances and to restore magic to a land desperately thirsty for it. (Book 3 of the Earthsea cycle) [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead on Feb 5, 2021 - 6 comments

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance. (Book 1 of the Earthsea cycle) [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead on Dec 4, 2020 - 23 comments

Would anyone be interested in a reread of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea cycle? [more inside]
posted by Cash4Lead on Oct 7, 2020 - 15 comments

(From the generic umbrella copy that autopopulates here for these books): The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or... Flight from Neverÿon was largely written in 1983 and 1984 and first published in 1985. The book consists of two shorter stories and one novel, “The Tale of Plagues and Carnivals”, Delany’s response to the AIDS crisis, and is notable as possibly the first published fictional work taking AIDS as its catalyst and subject. [more inside]
posted by mwhybark on Oct 8, 2019 - 5 comments

(This is for the first book, see below) In his four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R. Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization. Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nevèrÿon volumes in trade paperback. The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa, or... [more inside]
posted by mwhybark on Sep 25, 2019 - 1 comment

In his four-volume series Return to Nevèrÿon, Hugo and Nebula award-winner Samuel R. Delany appropriated the conceits of sword-and-sorcery fantasy to explore his characteristic themes of language, power, gender, and the nature of civilization. Wesleyan University Press has reissued the long-unavailable Nevèrÿon volumes in trade paperback. The eleven stories, novellas, and novels in Return to Nevèrÿon's four volumes chronicle a long-ago land on civilization's brink, perhaps in Asia or Africa... [more inside]
posted by mwhybark on Sep 22, 2019 - 15 comments

In the aftermath of the attack on King's Landing, the survivors deal with the future. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher on May 19, 2019 - 852 comments

Winter is here, and the show has outpaced GRRM's writing, but in case we want to talk about the books, here's a thread for speculating on this season.
posted by filthy light thief on Apr 15, 2019 - 96 comments

People gather in the North to prepare for the coming battle. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Apr 14, 2019 - 370 comments

Callum, Ezran, Rayla, Bait, and Zym continue their journey to Xadia, while being pursued by Claudia and Soren. Meanwhile Viren tries to make the case for war with the other Human kingdoms, and later meets a new boyfriend ally. [more inside]
posted by 1970s Antihero on Feb 18, 2019 - 31 comments

Two human princes who forge an unlikely bond with the elfin assassin sent to kill them, embarking on an epic quest to bring peace to their warring lands. [more inside]
posted by numaner on Sep 17, 2018 - 49 comments