Tehanu

Loved this book. Following in the theme of Earthsea as subversion of fantasy trope I like that we're following around a middle aged woman. Who has no particular visible power of her own, nor agency, nor even any hero's story. She's raising a crippled orphan girl, and she knows some famous people. (And yeah, she's famous herself, but no one remembers that now). She's rejected being in any sort of heroic role.

Also loved the dwelling on women's magic, and women's work, and the world of women. Not a simplistic feminist take on "women can be heroes like men!" but rather "the way women have been for centuries has its own power and dignity". I'm not sure it exactly goes anywhere in the book, but I like how she explores it.

I'm let with one big worldbuilding question; why exactly is it that only men can be mages? Why don't they teach women at Roke? She never really explains it. Women have magic powers, and teaching women is an imagineable thing (as we learn in this book). Is it tradition? Sexism? Does it end badly for some magical reason? I'm hoping the last books explore this.