The Farthest Shore – Part 5

The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin — Part 5 Audiobook | Calming reading for sleep

Tonight's reading is free. Over 500 more — and every new one first — are on Sleepbound Premium. Free for 7 days, cancel any time.
→ Supercast: sleepboundstudios.supercast.com
→ Patreon: patreon.com/c/SleepBound

Our other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:
→ Sleepbound Nights — original cosy bedtime stories for grown-ups: Apple Podcasts
→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts

The silk island of Lorbanery should hum with looms and colour — but Ged and Arren find it hollowed out, the dyes running false, the crafts forgotten, the people drifting through their days like sleepwalkers stripped of purpose. In a quiet, sorrowful scene, Ged visits the mad dye-mistress Akaren — unable to heal what has been broken in her, but able to offer something gentler: a new name, a soft gesture of rebirth, and one brief moment of stillness in the ruin of her mind. He weeps when he leaves her. And then her son Sopli, wild-eyed and muttering of an immortal place, falls into step behind them on the road — and against all caution, Ged lets him come. Tonight's reading is full of grief held gently, of beauty draining from the world, and of a wizard who knows the limits of his power. All Sleepbound readings are calm, unhurried, and made for quiet listening at night. ☾ Listen ad-free & get early access: → Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/SleepBound → Website: https://headphonesaudiobooks.com/sleepbound/ ☾ More from Sleepbound: → Original Sleepy Stories: https://www.youtube.com/@SleepBoundNights → Ambient Sleep Music: https://www.youtube.com/@sleepboundsoundscapes ☾ About this audiobook The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin is the third volume of the Earthsea cycle — a quiet, elegiac fantasy in which the Archmage Ged and the young prince Arren sail to the edges of the world to find the source of a great unravelling. Its slow, oceanic pacing and deep emotional weight make it one of the most naturally soothing works in the fantasy canon — a book that reads like a long, thoughtful exhale. Sleepbound brings classic and contemporary stories to life with calm, unhurried narration — perfect for sleep, relaxation, or quiet evenings.

What is Sleepbound (free)?

Bedtime audiobooks for grown-ups — read slowly enough to fall asleep to.

Classic literature, read softly through the long quiet hours: Austen and Wilde, Grimm and Le Guin, ghost stories and country houses and long sea voyages. No music. No drama. Just the page, the voice, and somewhere warm to lie down. Nothing bad happens. That's deliberate.

Episodes run long on purpose — an hour, four hours, sometimes a whole book in one sitting — so the thing doesn't end and wake you.

Want the rest of it? Over 500 readings across our three shows, ad-free, with new members-only episodes every week:

→ Supercast — all three Sleepbound shows in one app. Free for 7 days, cancel any time:
https://sleepboundstudios.supercast.com
→ Patreon — the same readings, plus the community:
https://www.patreon.com/c/SleepBound

Just me and Ian and the writers. Recorded gently, for sleep.