The king of Enland sends young Prince Arren to the island of Roake to speak with the Arch Mage Wizard. The unbelievable news that magic is disappearing along with the magic word's meaning and spells. Young Prince Arren has no special talents or qualities but commits whole-heartedly to take on the quest with the Arch Mage to find out why magic is going away. In the process Arren grows up. Very interesting how this story evolves as the most follow the darkness to find the answer. I enjoyed this story the best.

Ursula's stories are somehow very japanese in flavor. The words are spare and slow, the descriptions are as needed. Nothing unneccessary. The story is big enough indeed. A still, deep, dark lake you can float in while the sun shines overhead. Beautiful. But do KNOW what you are getting into or you will NOT be happy.

The Farthest Shore was the 3rd book of the trilogy and the best thing I can say at this point is "I'm done". Book 1 was by far the best book and it really pulled me in. Book 2 left soooo much to be desired with a writing style so different then the previous book that it was hard to tell it was by the same author. Book 3 yet again seemed to be of a different style then the previous 2 books and really made me want to ask what happened to the author who wrote the first book.

In this book we join SparrowHawk in his later years where he seems to have lost his will/joy of using magic and now concerns himself with just being old. He "of course" has to go out on an important quest and takes along a young companion. The rest just seems to drone on and on.