Just Finished Reading Ursula K. Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan

Three days ago I wrote about science fiction & fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin's book A Wizard of Earthsea, the first in her Earthsea Cycle series.  Now I've just finished reading the second volume, titled The Tombs of Atuan.  The setting is the Earthsea Archipelago on our fantasy make-believe planet, on the northeastern island of Atuan, controlled and populated by the vicious Kargish...analogous to our Vikings.  A young girl is taken from her family according to the traditionally held belief that when the Priestess of the Tombs dies, she is reincarnated into the body of another female.  And the Priestess has just died and an investigation ensues across the land to find another born at the moment of her death.  It is poor Tenar who is chosen to live her life among the dark and foreboding tombs in the middle of the desert...

The Tombs of Atuan continues on with Tenar after a few years...she is now called "nameless" or "Arha"...a seeming contradiction of terms.  She learns of the secret underground in the tombs, including a long and tricky labyrinth that contains a treasure room somewhere within.  And in that treasure room is half of the Ring of Atuan, which generations earlier a hero fighting the Kargish lost there.  The other half's fate is unknown, but legend tells that a family in the area may be hiding it.  Why is this important?  In the first book, A Wizard of Earthsea, it is told that protagonist wizard Ged would successfully get the ring and return it to its people.  Predictably, Ged does make his appearance in this second book, although under inauspicious circumstances.  And that's where I'll leave you, the potential reader of this series, to go see for yourself what happens...

In the realm of fantasy literature, there aren't too many female protagonists.  Tenar is a compelling character worth following.  Unlike with Ged in the first book, hers is a life of physical hardship and restrictions with little or no opportunity given for growth or glory.  Her spirit fights against these limitations...while Ged, in the face of his opportunities, had foolishly spurned them...

So now I've read two books in this series, and each one has its own main protagonist.  I wonder what Ursula K. Le Guin...who incidentally lives in Portland, Oregon...has to offer us in the third one.  Guess I'll just have to read it and find out...