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Fantasy news round-up, August 2, 2010

Dawn Treader: new movie poster and trailer 
Dawn Treader, the film based on the CS Lewis book from the Narnia Chronicles, is being directed by British filmmaker Michael Apted and has been written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Michael Petroni. It will be appearing in cinemas around the world from December 10, 2010 onwards.

There has also been a trailer available for the past month:

Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their pesky cousin Eustace Scrubb – find themselves swallowed into a painting and on to a fantastic Narnian ship headed for the very edges of the world. Joining forces once again with their royal friend Prince Caspian and the warrior mouse Reepicheep, they are whisked away on a mysterious mission to the Lone Islands, and beyond. On this bewitching voyage that will test their hearts and spirits the trio will face magical Dufflepuds, sinister slave traders, roaring dragons and enchanted merfolk. Only an entirely uncharted journey to Aslan’s Country – a voyage of destiny and transformation for each of those aboard the Dawn Treader – can save Narnia, and all the astonishing creatures in it, from an unfathomable fate.

German fantasy authors boast worldwide reach
Children’s books by German authors such as Cornelia Funke and Michael Ende are proving extremely popular worldwide. Books lover in the US, Korea and China love reading, amongst many others, Inkheart and The Neverending Story and since the 1960s German children’s books has slowly but surely conquered the international book market.

"I think that many countries experienced this social shift where people began to take kids more seriously and included them more in the conversation. In that sense, German children’s books were on the cutting edge, and that’s what made them a success abroad," says Regina Pantos, chair of the Association for Children’s and Youth Literature.

Daniel Radcliffe turns 21
Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who plays Harry Potter in the film franchise, turned 21 on July 23. Born in Fulham, England in 1989, he had only just turned 11 when he was chosen to play the role of the boy wizard from the books by JK Rowling.

Forbes Magazine names JK Rowling as one of the world’s 30 most inspiring women
After seeking input from ForbesWoman followers on Facebook and Twitter, a list was compiled of the 30 Utterly Inspiring Role Models, and JK Rowling was chosen as one of the 30 women who “make the world a better place”. She’s in good company, with Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, Danica Patrick, Betty White, Elizabeth Glazer, Condoleezza Rice and Hilary Clinton also included in the list.

Ursula Le Guin allows British students to make one of her short stories into a film
Budding producer Rob Watson (Beaconsfield’s National Film and Television School) wrote a letter to Ursula Le Guin in April asking her for film rights to one of her books, and was shocked by its response. The author immediately wrote back and agreed that they could go ahead with the film without paying a penny for the rights. Now Watson is making one of the biggest student films ever. The 20 minute graduation film The Fleet of Vision is to cost £12,000 and will use sets first used in sci-fi epics like Sunshine and Thunderbirds.

“She doesn’t usually give away the rights to her material but she let us have it for free – it was amazing when we got the reply. Most student films are shot on location but we’re doing pretty much all of this on specially-built sets. There’s even professionally-made spacesuits being used,” said Watson.

Penguin Group see spike in First Half Sales and Profit
Sales at Penguin for the first half of the year rose 9 percent, breaking 493 million pounds. Sales at Pearson, Penguin’s parent, also rose 9 percent in the first half of 2010, with adjusted operating profit increasing by 79% to 178m. Overall, the operating profit at the book publisher more than doubled, hitting 44 million pounds (up from 21 million pounds a year ago). Penguin is one of the most famous brands in book publishing, known around the world for the quality of its publishing and its consistent record of innovation. Over the past five years, Penguin’s sales have increased at an annual average rate of 2% and profits at 5%. In the early part of 2010 Penguin grew well ahead of industry in its major markets and produced a substantial profit improvement. Additionally, Penguin continues to extend their reach to new audiences, most recently with the launch of Apple’s iBookstore and iPad where, in the US, Penguin’s Winnie-the-Pooh was the only book pre-loaded onto the device.

Posted: August 2nd, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: AA Milne, CS Lewis, Cornelia Funke, JK Rowling, Ursula Le Guin

Fantasy news round-up: May 20, 2010

Light a candle for JK Rowling’s charity
JK Rowling‘s children’s charity, Lumos, is asking you to light a virtual birthday candle to support its campaign to deinstitutionalise children in eastern European countries such as Moldova and the Czech Republic. Thousands of children living in these institutions do not know when their birthday is and so choose to celebrate it on 1 June, International Children’s Day. There are currently 1 million children living in large residential institutions across Europe. Contrary to popular opinion, the majority of these children are not orphans, but are disabled, from ethnic minorities or poor backgrounds. For more information, visit www.lumos.org.uk.

Stephenie Meyer to host her own Eclipse press junket
Twilight author Stephenie Meyer has decided to build her own press junket for fans to promote the upcoming adaptation of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. "For Twilight, I did the normal press junket, for New Moon I got to go on Oprah. Both of these were fun, exciting experiences. However, they both had the same drawback, the interviews were designed for a very broad audience, and because of that, most of the questions were about things you guys have known the answers to for years. I feel like all of the basic questions have been answered, and for Eclipse I want to focus on the more specific questions of the readers. To accomplish that, I’m hosting my own mini-junket with a few fansites*. It will be held on Friday, June 18th, the week before the L.A. premiere,” said Meyer.

* Twilight Series Theories, Twilight Source, Twifans, and Letters To Twilight.

London 2012 unveils Games mascots Wenlock & Mandeville
Focus groups of children and families helped form the designs and children’s author Michael Morpurgo added a story concept for an animated series. In author Morpurgo’s vision, the pair begin life as two drops of steel from a factory in Bolton, taken home by a retiring worker who fashions characters out of the metal for his grandchildren.
They appear to have a single central eye, explained as a camera lens, through which they’ll see the world, and respond to it.

Studio Ghibli’s Tales from Earthsea gets US release
Four years ago Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro directed his first film, the Tales of Earthsea.  Now the film is finally getting a stateside release, featuring the voices of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin and Mariska Hargitay.  The long hold up was due to the Sci-Fi Channel releasing a mini-series based of the same material from author Ursula Le Guin.

Garth Nix, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville and Shane Maloney help launch new Australian e-store
e-Books written by Australian authors are now available to be read by Australians with the launch of an e-Books store from Redgroup. There are already over 100 local publishers signed up to supply their electronic books to the store which will launch with two million titles. Children’s authors Garth Nix, Helen Garner, Kate Grenville and Shane Maloney are among the local authors whose works will be made available in the electronic form.

Posted: May 21st, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Garth Nix, JK Rowling, Michael Morpurgo, Stephenie Meyer, Ursula Le Guin

Puffin’s Top 70 children’s book ever

Puffin has published its list of what it considers the 70 best children’s books of all time. It is an impressive list and will provide bookworms with a wonderful choice when they next look for a book. Amongst the list are many Fantasy Book Review favourites including A Wizard of Earthsea, Watership Down, Charlotte’s Web, Dracula, Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior, Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief and Alice in Wonderland.

The list also highlighted some glaring omissions on the site, namely almost everything by Roald Dahl, Fungus the Bogeyman, Stig of the Dump, Finn Family Moomintrol, TimeRiders and Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Here is the list in full:

The titles feature in The Puffin Handbook, a guide to children’s books for parents, which is available free here.

Here is the Puffin top 70:

The Best Mischief and Mayhem

• The Twits by Roald Dahl
• Diary Of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
• The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog by Jeremy Strong
• The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend

The Best Weepies

• Watership Down by Richard Adams
• The Truth About Leo by David Yelland
• Two Weeks With The Queen by Morris Gleitzman
• Charlotte’s Web by EB White

The Best to Cuddle Up With

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis and Gwen Millward
• Peepo! by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
• Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy by Lynley Dodd

The Best Blood and Guts

• The Enemy by Charlie Higson
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Being by Kevin Brooks
• The Hound Of The Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Best Swashbucklers and Derring-Do

• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Captain Flinn And The Pirate Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae and Russell Ayto
• Young Samurai: The Way Of The Warrior by Chris Bradford
• Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green

The Best Heroes

• Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
• Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Young Bond – SilverFin by Charlie Higson
• The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Best Characters

• Charlie And Lola – Excuse Me But That Is My Book by Lauren Child
• Meg And Mog by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski
• Angelina Ballerina by Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig
• Fungus The Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs

The Best Sugar and Spice

• Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories by Joyce Lankester Brisley
• The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy
• The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
• The Princess And The Pea by Lauren Child and Polly Borland

The Best Friends and Family

• Dizzy by Cathy Cassidy
• The Borrowers by Mary Norton
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Family From One End Street by Eve Garnett
• Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

The Best Phizzwhizzers

• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Charlie And The Chocolate-Factory by Roald Dahl
• Fantastic Mr Fox by Roald Dahl

The Best Animals

• Spy Dog by Andrew Cope
• The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith
• My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
• Lionboy by Zizou Corder

The Best War and Conflict

• The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Once by Morris Gleitzman
• Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
• Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden

The Best BEST BEST BEST!

• Stig Of The Dump by Clive King
• Anne Of Green Gables by L M Montgomery
• Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson
• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
• Junk by Melvin Burgess

The Best Fantasy and Adventure

• TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow
• Dot Robot by Jason Bradbury
• Journey To The Centre Of The Earth by Jules Verne
• A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

The Best Weird and Wonderful

• Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Five Children and It by E Nesbitt
• The Wizard Of Oz by L Frank Baum
• Peter Pan by JM Barrie

The Best Rhymes and Verse

• Please Mrs Butler by Allan Ahlberg
• Michael Rosen’s A-Z – The Best Children’s Poetry From Agard To Zephaniah
• Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah
• Bad Bad Cats by Roger McGough

The Best Alternatives to Twilight

• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
• The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
• Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen

Posted: May 17th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Eoin Colfer, Lewis Carroll, Ursula Le Guin

The Citizen Patriot’s excellent Ursula Le Guin interview

Jackson District Library will be hosting a Big Read event, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and inspired by Le Guin’s Earthsea books. The Citizen Patriot conducted a really interesting and informative interview with Le Guin prior to the Big Read launch. Living in the UK as I do, the mention of the Scilly Isles as an Earthsea on Earth has led to a change in next year’s holiday plans…

Below is a snippet from the interview, to read it in full follow this link.

Citizen Patriot: The world depicted in the "Earthsea" series seems very complex. Did anything inspire its creation, like a part of the world you’ve been to or know of?

Le Guin: No, but after I’d written some of the books, I discovered pieces of Earthsea on Earth. One of them is Trinidad Bay, on the northern California coast. Another is the Scilly Isles, off the coast of south England. Nobody could make up places so fantastic.

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born on the 21st October 1929 in California and is an American author of novels, poetry and short stories. She has won numerous awards during her distinguished career, notably the Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master award in 2003. In 1968, A Wizard of Earthsea was published, followed by The Tombs of Atuan in 1971 and The Farthest Shore in 1972. In 1990, Ursula Le Guin came back to the series with Tehanu. A number of short stories also bridge gaps between the main novels. The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names (1975), plus Dragonfly and The Tales of Earthsea (2001) are all vital reading for all Earthsea fans.

Posted: March 2nd, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Ursula Le Guin

The ins and outs of the Google Book Settlement

The families of John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie have decided to opt in to the revised Google Book Search settlement. Gail Steinbeck, who initially opposed the settlement and Arlo Guthrie, said they would not bring a separate lawsuit against Google. Ms. Steinbeck is the wife of the late John Steinbeck’s son, Thomas, also a novelist.

Meanwhile, opposition to the settlement continues. Author Ursula Le Guin, who resigned as a member of the Authors Guild for “selling authors down the river,” has submitted to the Court an online petition signed by 367 authors against the settlement. In her petition, Le Guin states: “The Google Settlement was negotiated by the Authors Guild, without consultation with any other group of authors or American authors as a whole. The Guild cannot and does not speak for all American writers. Its settlement cannot be seen as reflecting the will or interest of any group but the Guild.

Among the Authors Guild members supporting the settlement are Wally Lamb, Simon Winchester, Beverly Cleary, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, Garrison Keillor and Elmore Leonard.

The objection corner has recently obtained heavyweight support in online retail giant Amazon, Consumer Watchdog, half-a-dozen French publishing houses and the Open Book Alliance. Amazon said the revised agreement violates anti-trust and copyright law and urged the judge to reject it.

British authors have also snubbed Google Books, with JK Rowling and Philip Pullman turning their backs on Google’s new digital library.

Caradoc King, Mr Pullman’s agent, said: “Why should we have to do this because Google decided to set something up which is clearly for the benefit of Google? Google can’t afford to do it without the support of major authors — they have to come back with a better deal.”

Ms Rowling’s lawyer at the Christopher Little agency said that the settlement “purport[s] to change US and international copyright rules”.

Other British authors including Helen Oyeyemi, Kamila Shamsie and Nick Harkaway have signed a petition headed by the children’s fantasy author Ursula le Guin, which argues the settlement “render[s] copyright essentially meaningless”.

The Justice Department has until February 4 to make its views known but the revised deal does not appear to have placated some of its original opponents.

The Google Book Search settlement agreement is the 303-page agreement reached between the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google in October 2008 and recently revised after intervention from the Justice Department. The agreement settles a lawsuit filed against Google for “massive copyright infringement” related to the Google Books Library Project in which hundreds of thousands of titles were illegally scanned by Google. The settlement seeks to develop revenue models to compensate authors and publishers for Google’s digital use of copyrighted books. A fairness hearing is scheduled February 18, 2010.

Posted: February 5th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: JK Rowling, Latest News, Philip Pullman, Ursula Le Guin

Book View Café to grow ebook catalogue with help from Smashwords

Book View Café, a digital publishing cooperative for professional authors, today announced it has partnered with Smashwords to distribute Book View’s growing ebook catalogue.

“Smashwords is taking a truly dynamic approach to ebooks,” said Book View Café Project Manager Sarah Zettel. “From the beginning, BVC has promised readers the books they want, when they want them. Smashwords’ commitment to delivering multi-format ebooks to a wide variety of major retail outlets and mobile smart phone platforms will help us keep that promise.”

The authors of Book View Café are all veterans of the publishing world and plan to make the majority of their current ebooks available through Smashwords’ bookstore, affiliates, and retail distribution partners.

This will include titles by award-winning and bestselling authors such as Sarah Zettel, Sylvia Kelso, Steven Harper, Pati Nagle, and Chris Dolley.

All Book View Café content is DRM-free at the Book View Café web site http://bookviewcafe.com as well as at Smashwords (http://smashwords.com).

Book View Café came together in 2008 around a group of authors with a simple aim: to use the Internet to bring their work directly to their readers. It was already clear that a revolution was coming to the publishing industry and these authors wanted to help shape its course.

Posted: January 27th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Ursula Le Guin

Ursula Le Guin gathers writers to fight against Google digital book settlement

As the January 28 deadline approaches for those wishing to opt-out of the Google digital book settlement, author Ursula Le Guin has gathered more than 300 signatures in her fight against the scheme to digitise books.

Le Guin has been vocal in her opposition to the Google book settlement, recently signed by the U.S. Authors Guild, and authors had until January 25 to put their names to the petition, which she plans to send to the judge overseeing the Google settlement case.

“The free and open dissemination of information and of literature, as it exists in our public libraries, can and should exist in the electronic media. All authors hope for that. But we cannot have free and open dissemination of information and literature unless the use of written material continues to be controlled by those who write it or own legitimate right in it,” her petition continued. “We urge our government and our courts to allow no corporation to circumvent copyright law or dictate the terms of that control.” wrote Le Guin in the petition.

The Google book settlement followed legal action by US authors and publishers against Google over its digitisation of works without consent. The search giant reached a deal with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers in 2008, but following objections from groups including the US Department of Justice it amended the $125m (£77.5m) deal, presenting a revised version of the settlement to a New York federal court in November. A final hearing is scheduled for February 18.

It is not all good news for those fighting against the deal though with news that the family of John Steinbeck, the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author of Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, reversed its opposition to the deal.

“While we continue in our belief that what Google did was an imperious act of copyright infringement, it is time to step off the battlefield and evaluate our losses and our gains. When we look at the new conditions of the revised settlement, it meets our standards of control over the intellectual properties that would otherwise remain at risk were we to stay out of the settlement,” wrote Gail Steinbeck in a statement released Friday.

Ireland, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany, and France were all exempted from the settlement after objecting to it and Ursula Le Guin would like to see the US do follow the same path.

Posted: January 27th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: Ursula Le Guin

Round-up: JA Rowling, Bath-time for Pullman and Le Guin not finished yet

A round-up of fantasy news around the world.

A rare JK Rowling uncorrected proof sells for £1,600
An uncorrected proof edition of JK Rowling’s very first Harry Potter book has been sold for £1600 at auction.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, attributed to JA Rowling was bought by a collector at Edinburgh’s Lyon & Turnbull auction house. The copy was sent to critics and booksellers around the UK by Bloomsbury shortly after taking Rowling on.

The book, which also contains spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, was famously written on an old manual typewriter in coffee shops around Edinburgh.

Twilight seeps top spots in USA TODAYS’s best-selling books of 2009
For the second year in a row, Stephenie Meyer has swept the top four spots in USA TODAY’s lists of the best-selling books of 2009. Not even JK Rowling achieved this.

Books for children and teenagers accounted for 29% of sales recorded in 2009. Altogether, last year the Meyer books added up to £29.3m in sales – 10% of the total children’s book  sales, according to Nielson BookScan, which compiles the best-seller lists for several national newspapers.

Philip Pullman’s Bath-time
Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, thriller writer Robert Goddard and celebrated cult writer Philip Pullman are just three of the internationally acclaimed writers who will be visiting Bath over the coming weeks.

Philip Pullman comes to Bath on April 1. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is his spellbinding retelling of the life of Jesus. Philip comes to Bath to discuss his new work, which is part novel, part history and part fairytale. He will discuss the tensions inherent in the dual nature of Jesus Christ and explore some of the myths and mysteries of the gospels that have helped shape human history in the last two millennia. The event is at the Guildhall at 8pm. Tickets £9 with £9 off the book. Tickets £7 when booked in person at the bookshop.

Random House to raise funds for new new television, toys, video games, and film projects
Random House Children’s Screen Entertainment will be looking to raise $100 million in order to create new television, toys, video games and film projects. The group was created when Random House Children’s Books struck a partnership with the UK production company, Komixx Entertainment.

A number of authors and illustrators could see more properties developed with Philip Pullman and Terry Pratchett having already been mentioned. Komixx intends to go out into the market for RHCSE in March. It may yet approach an existing film and television financier such as Aramid Capital to help it raise the money. The $100 million will be used to develop cartoons and live-action films and television series based on RHCB properties, as well as video games and toys.

Ursula Le Guin plans next move after resigning over Google Book Settlement
Ursula Le Guin says she wants to do more than simply resign in protest. On the Book View Cafe Blog, she says she’s heard from many writers who agree with her and wants to start marshalling that collective sentiment.

“How, where, can I ask writers who are unhappy with the Settlement to speak up – to stand up and be counted? We don’t have to agree on every detail, but I think there are a lot of us who see it as urgently important to let it be known that writers support the principle of copyright, and want the Copyright Office, the judges, the publishers, and the libraries to know that we intend to keep control of our work, in print or out, printed or electronic, believing that the people who do the work, rather than any corporation, should have the major voice in how it’s used and who profits from it.”

Oscar nominated Keisha Castle-Hughes to appear in Legend Of The Seeker
Keisha Castle-Hughes, the youngest woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award will be a guest star on an episode of Legend of the Seeker.

Castle-Hughes, who originally rose to prominence in 2002 for her role in the New Zealand film Whale Rider. The actress recently starred in projects such as Hey, Hey, It’s Esther Blueburger and Piece of My Heart. She also portrayed the Virgin Mary in The Nativity Story and had a small role in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

In Legend of the Seeker, Castle-Hughes will play a mysterious young woman who claims to be the Creator, the incarnation of God.

Posted: January 16th, 2010
Author: Lee
Categories: JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, Stephenie Meyer, Terry Goodkind, Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Guin

Google Book settlement leads to Ursula Le Guin resignation from Authors Guild

Ursula Le Guin, whose membership in the Authors Guild dates back to 1972, has resigned from the organization, citing her unhappiness with the role the Guild played in the Google Book settlement.

“You decided to deal with the devil, as it were, and have presented your arguments for doing so. I wish I could accept them. I can’t,” Le Guin wrote in her letter of resignation. “There are principles involved, above all the whole concept of copyright; and these you have seen fit to abandon to a corporation, on their terms, without a struggle.”

Le Guin is keeping her membership in the National Writers Union and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, both of which have opposed the settlement. Le Guin concedes that while they don’t have the clout of the Guild, they possess sounder judgment.

The Authors Guild said it was sorry that Le Guin resigned, but said the agreement was a good one for all authors. It offered to discuss the agreement with Le Guin, and noted the deal came after the lawsuit it brought against Google to defend authors’ copyrights.

Ursula Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in 1929 in Berkeley, California. Her mother was a writer and her father an anthropologist. With a love of languages, she studied French and Italian literature at Radcliffe College. In 1953, in Paris, she married the historian Charles A. Le Guin. A very private person, Ursula Le Guin has three children, three grandchildren and lives in Portland, Oregon. She has published six books of poetry, twenty novels, over a hundred short stories, four collections of essays, eleven books for children, and four volumes of translation and says of the work of authorship: “Writing is my craft. I honour it deeply. To have a craft, to be able to work at it, is to be honoured by it.”

• Gifts book review
• The Earthsea Quartet book review
• The Other Wind book review
• Tales from Earthsea book review

Posted: December 24th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Ursula Le Guin

The Tombs of Atuan (unabridged) read by Karen Archer

Synopsis
In the legends of Earthsea, it is said that the wizard and king Erreth-Akbe was defeated by the high priest of the Kargad lands, and his amulet of power, bearing the rune of bonding, was broken and was lost.

Now, in the second book of Earthsea, the wizard Sparrowhawk enters the menacing labyrinth of the Tombs of Atuan to regain the amulet, and restore the rune which will bring peace to all of the islands of Earthsea.

Yet the labyrinth has a guardian, a young princess called Arha, whose life is dedicated to the the dark spirits who inhabit the tombs. She is determined that Sparrowhawk will meet the fate the befell Erreth-Akbe long ago.

Review
The Tombs of Atuan follows on from A Wizard of Earthsea but there is a distinctly different feel to the story. Featuring a predominantly female cast and set mainly in the location of the Tombs it is a departure from its predecessor. Those expecting simply more of Sparrowhawk and his voyages will be in for a surprise. Ursula Le Guin again shows the power of names introduced in A Wizard of Earthsea, and the themes of light and shadow, good and evil are again evident. It is a courageous and compelling sequel.

Karen Archer’s narration is first-rate and her pacing and delivery are once again perfect.

About the reader
To all of her performances, Karen Archer brings a seamless fluidity and humanity combined with precision  and attention to detail. These qualities have made her a familiar voice in the many documentaries she has recorded for National Geographic and Discovery Channel. Karen has made numerous broadcasts for BBC Radio, twice being a member of BBC Radio Drama Company. Her work in the theatre includes classics such as Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and contemporary roles such as Annie Wilkes in an adaptation of Steven King’s novel Misery. Her extensive  television work has included Assistant Chief Constable Anne Stewart in the police drama series The Chief and Queen Elizabeth I in David Starkey’s acclaimed historical series, Elizabeth.

Karen has read a biography of Queen Elizabeth I for Naxos Audio Books. For Craftsman, she has also recorded the complete Snow-Walker trilogy by renowned fantasy author Catherine Fisher and the critically-acclaimed recording of Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Karen says of its sequel, The Tombs of Atuan:

“Ursula Le Guin’s evocation of atmosphere and place is quite breathtaking. But it is her overriding belief in the enduring goodness of one human spirit in the face of evil that is at the core of this book, connecting Earthsea to the here-and-now.’’

About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber in 1929 in Berkeley, California. Her mother was a writer and her father an anthropologist. Her childhood was spent in a household filled with talk, argument and discussion surrounded by books, music and story-telling. As the only daughter in her family, the absence of her 3 elder brothers during World War Two made the summers at home lonely ones. Yet she considers those long days as a teenager, wandering the hills, of great importance: ‘I think I started making my soul then’ Ursula says. With a love of languages, she studied French and Italian literature at Radcliffe College. In 1953, in Paris, she married the historian Charles A. Le Guin. A very private person, Ursula Le Guin has three children, three grandchildren and lives in Portland, Oregon.

She has published six books of poetry, twenty novels, over a hundred short stories, four collections of essays, eleven books for children, and four volumes of translation and says of the work of authorship: “Writing is my craft. I honour it deeply. To have a craft, to be able to work at it, is to be honoured by it.”

The books in the Earthsea cycle were first published to great acclaim in 1968 with A Wizard of Earthsea. Millions of copies have subsequently been sold and the books have been translated into 16 languages. Ursula says:

“Exploring the Archipelago, discovering the rules of magic and what happens when you break them, the things I learned in Earthsea and the people I met there – that’s been a great part of my life for nearly forty years. And a great part of the joy of it is knowing that I share it with my readers.”

Posted: December 24th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Audio-books, Ursula Le Guin