Kailana said:
my professor chose this as one of the novels for the class
The line above was what had me confused about which book you actually meant.
But now that I know, I agree with Thadlerian. The
Tales were a bit disappointing -- and yes, rather dull -- but I have loved the original trilogy over many years and many readings.
Even though the stories in that volume do provide background to the novels, as with
Tehanu and
The Other Wind she also used them to take much of the Earthsea history we thought we knew and pull it to pieces -- and I think in
Tales and
Wind the agenda gets in the way of the storytelling. (Well, actually, I think it does in
Tehanu, too, but I'm willing to overlook that because I consider it an important book, and there are things in that one that needed to be written. Only once she got that off her chest, I wish she had stopped there and left well enough alone.)
There are no political agendas in the first three books, just inspired world-building, simple but beautiful prose, and sympathetic characters. There are certainly meaningful themes, but no overt axe-grinding. To me, it feels like those three came from the heart, and the others (certainly written from a more mature perspective) are more cerebral and self-conscious.
I always hesitate to say of any book, "Yes, you will like it," because individual taste in fiction is so personal and variable, so I'll just say this: It's quite possible that even though you found
Tales from Earthsea boring you could enjoy the other books very much. Particularly (in my opinion) the three YA novels, which are classics of the genre.