On his boat Lookfar, they sail south to Hort Town, where they encounter a drug addled wizard called Hare.

They realize that Hare and many others are under the dream-spell of a powerful wizard who promises them life after death at the cost of their magic, their identity, and all names, that is, all reality.

Ged and Arren continue southwest to the island of Lorbanery, once famous for its dyed silk, but the magic of dyeing has been lost and the local people are listless and hostile.

In the Dry Land, Ged manages to defeat Cob and closes the breach in the world, but it requires the sacrifice of all his magic power.

Arren has fulfilled the centuries-old prediction of the last King of Earthsea: "He shall inherit my throne who has crossed the dark land living and come to the far shores of the day."

In 1990, seventeen years after the publication of The Farthest Shore, Le Guin opted for the second ending when she continued the story in Tehanu.

The story is told mostly from the point of view of Arren, who develops from the boy who stands overawed in front of the masters of Roke, to the man who addresses dragons with confidence on Selidor, and who will eventually become the first King in centuries and unify the world of Earthsea.

He is no longer the impetuous boy who had himself opened a crack between the worlds in A Wizard of Earthsea, or the supremely confident young man who sailed the Dragon's Run and went alone into The Tombs of Atuan.

Reviewing the novel for a genre audience, Lester del Rey reported that it was "fantasy with a logic of execution that is usually found only in science fiction ... rich in ideas, color and inventions".