"Tehanu" by Ursula Le Guin

This is the fourth of the Earthsea books about a fantasy archipelago where wizards rule over an idyllically rural people and dragons still fly. The three previous books have been:

• A Wizard of Earthsea which introduces Sparrowhawk, a young lad who trains to be a wizard and battles death
• The Tombs of Atuan which introduces Tenar, a young girl in training to be a priestess of a silent world underground
• The Farthest Shore in which an old Sparrowhawk and a young prince voyage to the end of the world to find out what is causing wizards to forget their magic

Tenar, now a widow living on Gont, has taken under her wing a child, Therru, who was raped and burned by her father. They hear that wizard Ogion is dying and go to him. Then Sparrowhawk flies in on a dragon. But he has lost his magic. Evil forces chase Tenar and Therru and Ged seems powerless to help.

A strange story that feels a little like the tying up of lost ends. There are still some beautiful and remarkable phrases:

• "The little ruined butterfly came shivering from her cocoon" (p 646)
• "There was nothing she could do, but there was always the next thing to be done." (p 682)
• "There seemed always a great deal to be learned." (p 691)
• "A good deal of her obscurity and cant ... was a mere ineptness with words and ideas." (p 692)
• "Wanting a man got me into awful troubles more than once. But wanting to get married, never!" (p 694)
• "to drive the cart without the ox." (p 744)
• "Nine of us wet ... and one of us happy." (p 796)
• "a den of infamy and chickens" (p 818)
• "to spin thread with the whirlwind" (p 819)

April 2017; 251 pages