The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (Earthsea Cycle)

I'm a bibliophile. I love books, actual books, hardback books, the look of them, the feel of them in the hand, the solidity and weight of them, even their smell, of ink and paper, cloth, thread and glue. I recently purchased Ursula K. Le Guin's The Books of Earthsea, Complete Illustrated Edition, an omnibus that contains all the novels of Earthsea (six in all), all the short stories, including one never before published, her Oxford Lecture on Earthsea from 1992, a new foreword and afterwords in her own voice, all beautifully illustrated by Charles Vess. My heart is happy. It's a big, thick, heavy book, beautifully bound in red cloth with gold lettering, encased in a dust jacket showing dragons of several colors circling a little boat navigating a rough, rock-strewn sea. People used to handling paperbacks and Kindles and similar devices will no doubt find it unwieldy, heavy and cumbersome. For fellow bibliophiles, however, these are all plusses. The story is one that has captivated me since I was a small child, and it has held up well over the years. I find it just as enchanting now as I did way back then, when I first read A Wizard of Earthsea in the first grade. For Ms. Le Guin, who died in 2018, this edition, collected, annotated and illustrated to her specifications, was her swan song, a worthy product of a worthy Maker whom the world will not see the likes of again. Thank you, Ms. Le Guin, for this and all the stories you've told to a lonely, peculiar child for all these years.

First on the content: Earthsea is a splendid series, on par with Tolkien or perhaps better. Le Guin is a story teller like few others. She looks deep into the human psyche, exploring the good, the bad, and everything between with a delicacy that leaves hope that light is greater than darkness, and perhaps there's good in darkness too. The books of the Earthsea series focus mainly on the inner struggles of the protagonists. Similar to Tolkien, there are individuals who fall to the influence of evil, but still evil is less personified. There are not ecosystems of monsters as there are in Tolkien, and even the worst villain is within reach of redemption. While these tales are heavy, they are appropriate for any age group, from five years to 95. Le Guin's language is plain and easy to read. The writing is accessible to beginner readers and has a depth that is also satisfying to adults. About this particular addition: It is a high quality printing but some aspects could be better. 1. The entirety of Le Guin's Earthsea writings is in this single volume, including her short stories. 2. The paper has good quality and weight. 3. The text size is smaller than I would like, but not exceedingly small. The page margins are larger than necessary. Narrowing the margins would have allowed for larger text. 4. The illustrations are well done. Some in color and some in black and white. But there are too few. In the entire first book, A Wizard of Earthsea, there are 5 illustrations. 5. The book is too thick for its length and heigh. It's unwieldy to hold in your hand. Perhaps it was overly ambitious to fit all of Earthsea into one volume. Or perhaps it should have been done on a larger footprint in order to accommodate larger font size, more illustrations, and better ergonomics. I love this series too much to give it anything other than 5 stars to it. But this edition does have limitations due to being cramped into too small a footprint with wide margins wasting precious space. I don't regret having purchased it, and there is no good alternative for those wanting the comprehensive set of Earthsea, but I hope that a future edition will be sized better.

I only bought this book because it was on sale and was cheaper than getting the first three books in the series by themselves, but I'm glad I did. It is a beautiful book. The illustrations are worth it. However, it is very, very, very heavy. It's not a book that I would (or could) take anywhere. It does make me feel very important though, owning such a large book. I'm excited to take it to a coffee shop one day and make everyone else jealous. As far as the stories themselves, I'm only halfway through the first book, so I can't tell you much. I like her writing style though. The narrative has a historical bent to it (the narrator is outside the story, looking back long after the events have happened - as far as I can tell now) that I'm not used to, coming from listening to Brandon Sanderson, but I'm enjoying it. The magic system is also really interesting and I'm looking forward to getting more and more immersed in it.

This is an absolutely fabulous book. The collection of Ursula Le Guin’s is beautifully illustrated and well-crafted. It was a pleasure to hold and read a book of this quality. One really great feature is Le Guin’s commentary between each of the novels. They were written over a fairly long period of time and through life changes, and her explanations of what she was trying to accomplish, what she experienced in life at the time, and how she translated all of that background into her novels helped me appreciate her brilliance as a writer even more. They may have been marketed as books for young adults, but her writing is quite profound and even seasoned adults will appreciate the wisdom in her writing. It’s nice to have a book crafted with the quality to match her excellent writing.

Large, fill-your-hands book with really nice illustrations. Love the new book smell. The best part is being able to read the earthsea cycle from start to finish again.

Honestly, just so amazing. 🤩 I'm happy that I found this book and was able to get my hands on it!! Looks amazing up on my shelves, for my growing fantasy book collection. 🥹 Just really happy overall with this purchase. Worth the money and cannot wait to read it!!

I'd heard these books hyped up quite a bit in various forums and lists of best fantasy books. So my expectations were too high. It is decently written fairly easy to read and follow, but doesn't dive deep into the characters or the world or give you the same sense of completeness that you feel from Harry Potter or from Lord of the rings. Not bad, just not as good as I thought it would be. As for the book itself, it is bound well and looks great on my bookshelf.

My kids requested this classic story, and it arrived beautifully packaged in a custom box to protect it. However, despite being advertised as an illustrated edition, the pictures are mostly black and white and appear to be few and far between. It would have been better if they had used the vibrant and beautiful images from the graphic novel edition. Overall, I still appreciate the quality of the book.

In addition to having all the Earthsea books, this print contains afterwords from the author and illustrations. The print cover is well-made. Of course it’s a bit cumbersome but that is expected due to size.

Bonne reliure, qualité d'impression, belles illustration pour un prix très correct vu le nombre de pages.

I love the Earthsea series and this is a beautiful book. I needed Daughter of Odren and wanted this book anyway, even though that's just a short story. First time I got it the pages were all folded in because the delivery driver clearly checked to see if it was valuable (it's very weighty!) but I sent it back and got a mint copy. Lovely book.

Kargo cok hizli ve hatasiz urun geldi. Baski kalitesi cok iyi. Cilt ve sayfa kalitesi tatmin edici.

edição maravilhosa do ciclo de Terramar, folhas de boa qualidade, ilustrações lindíssimas. ela é bastante grande, convém ler com o livro apoiado em vez de segurar na mão. vi algumas avaliações dizendo que a fonte era pequena, mas achei o tamanho perfeitamente aceitável. acredito que houve descuido na hora de embalar, uma seção das páginas estava dobrada e vincada, mas não compensa devolver, pelo peso do volume acredito que se resolverá satisfatoriamente.