Sarah Monette rewrites the last scene from Lord of the Rings, replacing Tolkien’s worldview with that of Ursula K. Le Guin’s. Frodo refuses Gandalf and the elves’ offer of immortality and respite from pain.
It’s a Buddhist telling, where Frodo accepts that life is suffering, instead of a particular kind of Christian faith where suffering in this life is recognized in the next.
Le Guin’s stories and novels touch on the consequences of refusing to accept mortality. Go back to A Wizard of Earthsea, and remember what happens when Ged attempts a resurrection.
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Everyone can imagine good ending for this book.