supercheesegirl

This book is actually fifth in the series, not last, and should rightly be read before The Other Wind, which I didn't realize either on the first read or on this read. Unfortunate, because while Tales includes some fun unrelated stories, there's definitely some content that informs The Other Wind and would have been handy to read first (not that my reading of The Other Wind suffered too terribly, but still). Tales is an excellent collection - Earthsea fans get more of some of our favorite characters, as well as stories only alluded to in the novels, and some fascinating historical material (notably, the founding of the school on Roke), and of course each story is beautifully written as only Le Guin can do. Readers who aren't typically big fans of short fiction won't want to skip this volume in the series.