The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Research dossier

Earthsea Cycle

#2664.07 in the official ranking · full ranking

Books 6 books Status Complete 1968–2001 Reading commitment Low Ursula K. Le Guin Last reviewed 2026-08-04

Overview

Earthsea is Ursula K. Le Guin's archipelago fantasy world, introduced in two 1964 short stories and developed across five novels and one story collection published between 1968 and 2001, plus late short fiction through 2018. The series follows the wizard Ged and, in the later books, revises the epic-fantasy tradition through the lives of women and the powerless; each of its six books received a major literary honour. With Le Guin's death in January 2018 and the posthumously published final story "Firelight," the cycle is complete. The opening novel, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was voted third among Locus's readers' poll of all-time best fantasy novels in 1987; the American Library Association later recognized the wider Earthsea sequence, alongside two of Le Guin's other novels, with its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2000. Margaret Atwood has named the series among the foundational "wellsprings" of modern fantasy literature.

Epic fantasy · For All ages

Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking

Earthsea Cycle Ursula K. Le Guin

WorkYearCanonRating
Cover of A Wizard of EarthseaA Wizard of Earthsea1968core4.01 (376,616 ratings)
Cover of The Tombs of AtuanThe Tombs of Atuan; First appeared in Worlds of Fantasy magazine, Winter 1970; first book edition Atheneum 1971.1971core4.14 (141,582 ratings)
Cover of The Farthest ShoreThe Farthest Shore1972core4.13 (130,868 ratings)
Cover of TehanuTehanu1990core4.07 (62,589 ratings)
Cover of Tales from EarthseaTales from Earthsea; 5 stories (The Finder, Darkrose and Diamond, The Bones of the Earth, On the High Marsh, Dragonfly) + essay 'A Description of Earthsea'. Continuity-essential between Tehanu and The Other Wind ('Dragonfly'); registered Expanded.2001expandedN/A
Cover of The Other WindThe Other Wind2001core4.21 (34,670 ratings)

Six-book cycle (5 novels + 1 collection), 1968-2001.

Library: Expanded Canon & reference (5 works) context only

Quick answers

Why is it ranked #266?

Ranked #266 in the official ranking.

How the ranking works →

Why explore this universe?

Well rated · 5 books · Complete · 746k ratings · Ranks #266 overall

Good choice if you want a quick, low-commitment epic fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.

Reading order

Publication order (5 Core Canon books)

  1. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
  2. The Tombs of Atuan (1971)
  3. The Farthest Shore (1972)
  4. Tehanu (1990)
  5. The Other Wind (2001)

Awards (verified against the official Le Guin awards page)

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Suggestions computed from what Earthsea Cycle and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.

Official resources

Research details

Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.07 across 746,325 ratings on 5 Core Canon books. 1 additional Core Canon book hasn't been rated yet, so it isn't counted here. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.

How do we know this?

Admission: Earthsea Core Canon accepted 2026-08-04

Sources: (see source tier definitions)

Last reviewed: 2026-08-06

Rule: Tales from Earthsea is a collection, therefore Expanded Canon, but it is continuity-essential reading between Tehanu and The Other Wind ("Dragonfly" bridges the two novels), and the official Le Guin site numbers it as the fifth title of the cycle.

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