A thoroughly developed non-Western fantasy world provides the setting for a complex completion of what is now LeGuin's Earthsea Quartet. The plot hinges upon what a child bearing the physical and emotional damage of her first years can and will do, while middle-aged Tamar and Ged are the vehicles through which the dual struggles of choice and identity attain mythic depth. Although winged dragons will always create excitement, a more typical characteristic of this novel is the way readers are consistently shown rather than told how each character responds to the other and to the dangers to be faced. Two maps chart the fantasy locales. Honor Book, 1990 CCBC Newbery Book Discussion. (Age 12 and older)