Tehanu, the fourth of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books, is set almost immediately after the conclusion of The Farthest Shore but was written many years later. Le Guin's interest in and awareness of gender issues has grown in the intervening years, as can be seen in her books The Left Hand of Darkness and Always Coming Home. Tehanu revisits the world of Earthsea with this more mature sensibility and explores questions such as why women can't be wizards, why some men think they are superior to women, and what happens to heroes after their quests are over.
Tenar, the heroine of The Tombs of Atuan, is a major character in Tehanu, as is Ged, the hero of A Wizard of Earthsea.
The style of Tehanu is the sparser, more poetic style of Le Guin's later writing, and the book may be more difficult than the first three Earthsea books for younger readers. In many ways, however, it is the most rewarding.
Tehanu was originally subtitled The Last Book of Earthsea, but Le Guin has admitted that she was premature in making that claim, and has continued the series in Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind.
