the hate she gets is very, very gross.
Yes. It's alarmingly vitriolic and can now say having read the book that I don't see how on earth it's warranted. I wonder, though, if it has something to do with betrayed expectations. So much American entertainment is predicated on sparking audience outrage, and I wonder if some of her readers feel let down or unfulfilled because she genuinely wants to help people, without mocking them for their failings first.

I have a complicated relationship with Earthsea, but I finished this book this morning and found it the best of all of them.

And Beauty!! I've read it too many times to count. Everything about it is just so good--the prose, the character growth and plot development...I just love it to pieces. And I have to consciously let time elapse between each reading, so that some of it can be new to me again when I next pick it up. :D