Earthsea

Le Guin originally intended for A Wizard of Earthsea to be a standalone novel, but she wrote The Tombs of Atuan as a sequel after considering the loose ends in the first book; The Farthest Shore followed after further consideration. These three books were written in quick succession, from 1968 to 1972, and are sometimes seen as the "original trilogy".[8][9] Nearly twenty years later, Le Guin wrote a fourth book, Tehanu (1990), and followed it with Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind in 2001. The latter three books are sometimes referred to as the "second trilogy".[9][10] The series as a whole is known as the Earthsea Cycle, and was published in a single volume in 2018 as The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, with art by Charles Vess.[11]

Le Guin published nine short stories of Earthsea. Seven appear in two collections of her work (and some have been reissued elsewhere). Two early stories were originally published in 1964, and were collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters (Harper & Row, 1975). These helped to define the setting of Earthsea. Five much later stories were collected in Tales from Earthsea (Harcourt, 2001), where three were original.[12] In October 2014 a new novella set in Earthsea was published as a stand-alone, "The Daughter of Odren".[13][14] A final 12-page short story, "Firelight", was published in June 2018, covering the last days of Ged.[15]

Tales from Earthsea also includes about 30 pages of fictional reference material titled "A Description of Earthsea" (2001).[12]

• "The Word of Unbinding", Fantastic Stories of Imagination, January 1964 ^+Q
• "The Rule of Names", Fantastic Stories of Imagination, April 1964 ^+Q
• "Dragonfly", Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Tor Books, 1998 ^+T
• "Darkrose and Diamond", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct-Nov 1999 ^+T
• "The Bones of the Earth" (2001) ^T
• "The Finder" (2001) ^T
• "On The High Marsh" (2001) ^T
• "The Daughter of Odren" (2014) [13]
• "Firelight", Paris Review, Summer 2018, issue 225[16]

Notes:

^+Q Collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters

^+T Collected in Tales from Earthsea

^T   Original to Tales from Earthsea

All of the stories are included in The Books of Earthsea.

After "The Rule of Names" and before "A Wizard of Earthsea", Le Guin wrote a long story about a prince in search of the Ultimate. He travels south-west from Havnor through the archipelago into the open sea. There he finds a raft-colony and sea-people, whom he joins in the sea. The prince wears out, sinks and finds the Ultimate. This story was never submitted for publication because "it never worked out itself well".[17] However, the theme of a raft-colony and sea-people was later taken up as an important ingredient in the plot of The Farthest Shore.

There have been a number of audiobook readings by different narrators and publishers.[22] In the early 1990s, Robert Inglis narrated the first three books of the series for Recorded Books.[23]

A BBC-produced two-hour radio dramatization of A Wizard of Earthsea was originally broadcast on Radio 4 on December 26, 1996. This adaptation was narrated by Dame Judi Dench, with Michael Maloney as Ged, and used a wide range of actors with different regional and social accents to emphasize the origins of the Earthsea characters (for instance, Estarriol and others from the East Reach were played by actors with Southern Welsh accents).[24] The adaptation was subsequently released on audio cassette.

In April and May 2015, BBC Radio 4 aired a new, six-part dramatization of the Earthsea works, encompassing the storylines and motifs of the novels A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore.[25] The first of the six 30 minute-long episodes premiered on April 27 and the last on May 5. The characters of Ged and Tenar were portrayed by three actors at different stages in their lives (Kasper Hilton-Hille, James McArdle and Shaun Dooley as Ged; Nishi Malde, Aysha Kala and Vineeta Rishi as Tenar). The radio drama was adapted by Judith Adams, directed by Sasha Yevtushenko and featured original music composed by Jon Nicholls. Following the premiere radio broadcast, each of the episodes were made available for online streaming on BBC Radio 4 Extra for a month, via the BBC iPlayer service.[26] The adaptation was created and aired as part of a thematic month centered on the life and works of Ursula Le Guin, in commemoration of her then-recent 85th birthday.[27] In addition to the Earthsea radio drama, the thematic month included the airing of a two-part radio adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness earlier in April, as well as exclusive interviews with Le Guin and some of the writers she inspired.[28][29][30]

The U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel broadcast in December 2004 a three-hour loose adaptation for television of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, entitled Legend of Earthsea (later, simply Earthsea). It was broadcast in two parts on Channel 4 in the UK at Easter 2005. Sci Fi Channel had angered Le Guin[31] and fans of the Earthsea novels with its announcement that Ged and the vast majority of the other characters would be played by Caucasians and with the dramatis personæ posted on an official website. The latter revealed several original characters – such as "The Archmagus" and "King Tygath", "Diana", "Penelope", and "Marion" – and it referred to "Kargide" characters rather than Kargad, Karg, or Kargish. The religious practices of Atuan were portrayed differently in the adaptation, and the celibacy of Earthsea wizards overlooked as Ged and Tenar become sexually involved.

One month before the U.S. broadcast, Le Guin posted on her website "A Reply to Some Statements Made by the Film-Makers" published in the December 2004 issue of Sci Fi Magazine. She opened with the observation, "I've tried very hard to keep from saying anything at all about this production, being well aware that movies must differ in many ways from the books they're based on, and feeling that I really had no business talking about it, since I was not included in planning it and was given no part in discussions or decisions." (Director Robert Lieberman, too, had stated that she was not involved.)[32]

"That makes it particularly galling of the director to put words in my mouth."[32] Le Guin disavowed some specific interpretations both by Lieberman and by executive director Robert Halmi Sr., and concluded (quoting Lieberman):

I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended ..."[,] would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?[32]

In May 2018, it was announced that the series had been opted for a film adaptation by producer Jennifer Fox.[33] In 2019 it was decided to produce a TV series instead.[34]

As of September 2023, nothing has been heard of this proposed series in five years.

Studio Ghibli's 2006 film, Tales from Earthsea, is loosely based in the Earthsea mythology. It was directed by Gorō Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki. Le Guin granted Studio Ghibli the rights due to her love of Hayao Miyazaki's films.[35] Le Guin called the adaptation "disappointing" and "entirely different" from her creation.[35]