The Farthest Shore

First published in 1972, this Earthsea novel sends Ged, now Archmage of Roke, with Arren, a young prince of Enlad, to find why magic, song, and the true names of things are failing across the archipelago. Their course runs through villages where wizards have forgotten their craft, into the open sea, and toward a dry land of the dead. The source is a mage who has opened a way to escape death. The book is a quest fantasy about the cost of immortality, not a guidebook to the islands and not a standalone first visit to Earthsea.

7 full-page colour illustrations, one of which is a double-page spread by David Lupton. Printed map endpapers in varying shades of blue. Bound blue cloth printed and blocked with a wrap-around black and gold picture. Plain slipcase.