A Wizard of Earthsea

A very nice, very familiar book about a boy wizard's coming of age.

This is categorized as YA, but I think most teens would be bored by the slow pace and lack of action. It's a shame because it is a cool book with more philosophical depth than the average sword/sorcery fantasy novel is going to touch.

It was written in 1968 and as such, I can give it a lot of leeway. That's 15 years before David Eddings started his Belgariad, 20 years before Jordan started The Wheel of Time, and over 30 years before J. K. Rowling started the magical adventures of Harry Potter. I'm sure the book and its sequels would feel much more unique if not more successful followers.

It was also made into a moderately awful SyFy TV adaptation.

A beautiful coming of age story.

Ged is a fascinating character and I think his story is developed very well. From curious child to gifted student to arrogant teen to humble adult, Ged feels relatable in a way that few characters I've read ever achieve.

Le Guin's writing is incredible, and I'm excited to read future entries in this series.

4.5 stars

i honestly did put this down for a while... not because i didnt like it, but because i have the huge illustrated edition and the sheer size of it was just kind of intimidating. it was just hard to bring around with me and i got lazy for a little bit.

a wizard of earthsea is relatively short though, and i really enjoyed it all the way through. the prose has a sort of nostalgic feeling to it (TO ME) and i really loved it. this is definitely one of the fantasy books of all time

I'm not someone who grew up on western SFF canon and didn't even know that LoTR books existed before the movies released. So, it's no surprise that I only got to know about the legendary Ursula K. Le Guin and the Earthsea cycle last year during a discussion about famous female SFF authors. I've heard a lot about this series being the HP before Harry Potter existed, so I tried a lot not to view it through that lens but I quickly realized it wasn't gonna be that difficult. And this felt like such a new experience for me.

The writing style felt odd and took a while for me to get used to, but it's quite beautiful and poetic, and probably how the old style fantasy books were written. The magic system is not really detailed, with vague descriptions, just making us feel the power behind it all. The book has the usual tropes - a prophecied powerful wizard, a hero's journey, and a magical academy - but what was missing was what made this a unique story. There is not necessarily a big bad here, the hero has to learn about his powers not to fight some evil villain but to find more about himself and be a better person, and this journey really takes him through all kinds of emotions. I found it to be so interesting with such personal stakes, but still never feeling any less epic.

To conclude, this was a nice beginning to a young wizard's tale and has piqued my interest enough that I may continue. And I think it's wonderful that I'm finally getting to know one of the genre's most prominent legends. I was also glad (and a bit sad too) to read the author's note where she mentions how she had to incorporate a majority POC cast in a way that it was able to pass the traditional publishing gatekeeping. Do give this a try if you are also unfamiliar with SFF history just like I am, but are open to exploring the roots.

An amazing book, indeed. All that issues regarding the power of naming people, animals and things were just amazing, hiding a powerful message about the language and Linguistics. In a land where the real or true names are so precious, the “magic power” only can be the power of... naming the world around us, giving meaning to our surroundings from the moment we are born until we die! That's awesome, somehow and indirectly a beautiful homage to the Levi Strauss' Structuralism or, perhaps more important, a beautiful homage to the Language itself.

I love almost everything ABOUT this book — a non-white hero, an emphasis on introspection instead of battle, a non-traditional hero quest, a novel and coherent take on how magic “works” and the power of names — but I just didn't enjoy the book itself. The pacing was odd, with long sections of build-up to resolutions that just suddenly happen, because magic. I'm happy that this book exists and is such a highly-regarded classic; I just didn't get anything out of it, and I doubt I would have even if I'd read it when I was the target age.

This is known far and wide as one of the best high fantasy novels of all time, and it probably does live up to that claim. It's gorgeously written, lyrical, eloquent, and the author is adept at making her characters real without having the reader dwell in their every waking thought; that said, it didn't catch my interest enough to go pick up the other books in the series. Or maybe it's just not for me right now. Either way, it's seriously well written.

4.5 stars. The biggest questions that came to mind after reading this were: how is this not already a major movie franchise? Why isn't this a bigger thing in mainstream pop culture?

The Wizard of Earthsea feels like part-Tolkien and part-Enid Blyton. It tells about a precocious boy, known to most people as Sparrowhawk, who begins his tutelage under a mage after learning that he has a capacity for magical prowess that has rarely been seen. Pride, however, is Sparrowhawk's downfall and it unleashes a shadow that begins to hunt him down.

This is my first time reading Le Guin and, boy, people weren't kidding when they said her writing was beautiful. There's just something so whimsical and entrancing about the way she writes. It's reminiscent of Tolkien, except less dense and easier to follow - this is a book expressly written for teenagers after all.

This is surely a precedessor to modern icons like Name of the Wind and even Harry Potter. The magic system in this one places heavy emphasis on the concept of naming as a way to wield magic power over something or someone. To tell someone your true name is to show ultimate trust in them, for it gives them power over you. In Sparrowhawk's sojourn at the School for Wizards, we see an unexpected glimpse of the magic boarding-school element popularised by Rowling, complete with Masters (or teachers) and its principal, the Archmage, being one of the most powerful wizards in the world.

It's a simplified version of the common quest trope, but it is by no means watered down. While our hero is, as usual, powerful, precocious, and talented, he is not flawless. In fact, the entire driving force of the book is how the hero suffers a downfall, not from external circumstances like being thrown into the dumps by the villains, but because of his own internal flaws. He is brought down by his own youthful pride, the sense that he is invincible because he is both young and strong - something that I think a lot of teenagers can resonate with. The downfall triggers a domino effect, and Sparrowhawk is brought on a physical and mental journey that is so refreshing in its tenets and its eventual resolution.

Unlike so many popular books with a similar storyline, Le Guin's world doesn't harp on power, strength, and control. In fact, the most powerful wizards in this book preach about balance, empathy, and a lively appreciation for one's surroundings. Sparrowhawk's first and original teacher, Ogion, is almost monastic in the way he sits for hours in silence in the rain. One of Sparrowhawk's teachers in school advocates kindness to all living things, and not committing the usual human folly of thinking ourselves superior and apart from everything else in nature. It almost feels like we're learning about yin and yang, and zen.

From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later year he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from eyes of animals, the flights of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of this book (and why this isn't a straight up 5 star review) is in its representation of female characters, something that I've read that Le Guin regretted in later life. Female characters in this book are absent, unimportant, incompetent, or malicious. Furthermore, it seems like the major systems of magic can only be practised by men. The magic-wielding females in this book are all witches, and it was implied multiple times throughout the story that witches' magic is inferior and frivolous compared to those practised by mages, wizards, and sorcerors - who are all men. Normally, this is something that might make or break a book for me, but after finding out about Le Guin's reflection about her writing, and also being bowled over by the rest of the book, this is probably something I could close one eye about, especially since Le Guin has since contributed a ton of feminist literature.

It's getting late so I'll just summarise this whole review in a short and simple line: If you love fantasy at all, this is absolutely a must-read.

Short and sweet, but its a bit boring on account of its age. The narration is extremely direct and leaves little to the imagination. The themes are blindingly clear. Characters are mostly leaden.

Magic was cool but also not. Mechanics mostly unexplained but the air of mystery was good.

I feel bad giving it a 3 star when it was quite enjoyable and I'm about to start the next one but yeah, it's not a 4 star.

« A Wizard of Earthsea » est le premier roman du cycle Earthsea d'Ursula K. Le Guin (traduit en cycle de Terremer en français, me semble-t-il).

Derrière un récit d'apprentissage en apparence très classique en fantasy se cache en réalité un texte poétique, plus profond et original qu'il n'y paraît à première vue. Je me suis laissé emporter par les aventures et les rencontres de son jeune héros, sans totalement comprendre ce qui me plaisait tant. La post-face de l'autrice est à ce titre très éclairante : elle y explique l'origine de ce roman et ce qu'elle a voulu en faire. Pour moi, l'objectif est clairement atteint.

Je vais enchaîner directement avec le deuxième tome du cycle, en espérant qu'il me plaise autant que celui-ci.

I had to think about this one. I loved that the magic system is influenced by folklore and that the consequences of Ged's actions follow him throughout the whole story. And boy are there consequences. There's no easy moral victory, and he has his fair share of growing pains throughout. I found the pre-Harry Potter “How do old, grey-haired, long-bearded wizards become who they are?” quite interesting. The classic style takes a bit of focus if you're just coming off a fast-paced thriller or YA fantasy, but it's worth the effort.

This book (the first of a quartet) tells the story of Ged, a young boy who grows up to learn he has magical abilities. His talent is identified by his aunt, who teaches his simple magics, until he is taken on as apprentice to a stronger magician on his home island of Gont. Eventually he decides to leave his home and attend a wizarding school on the island of Roke. He shows great aptitude with magical abilities, and is quick to learn. He makes both friends and enemies, which shape his destiny. One he has completed his time at school he ventures out into the world to act as a wizard. He faces dragons and demons as he learns about his own powers during his adventures and travels through the archipelago of Earthsea.

I have to say I actually really enjoyed reading this book, though it took me a little while to get used to the writing style. The prose is absolutely lovely to read, but it has a very different feel from most of the stories I have been reading lately. The tale of Ged almost feels a bit like The Odyssey - a long string of events being told by a narrator. We aren't told what Ged is thinking or feeling during the course of the story, we are just allowed to view his actions. The writing gives the reader enough clues to project their emotional experiences onto Ged, without having to sit through pages of teen angst and drama. I found that I was able to understand Ged and his actions without needing every nuance of his behavior or personality explained to me in detail.

I ponder if I would have appreciated reading this story more as a child - it has a sense of childlike wonder about it, and at times the writing almost feels like something you would read to a child at bedtime. Another part of me wonders if I would have really appreciated it at a younger age - would I have had the experienced to connect with Ged? Or would I have thought his story to be really boring? I suppose it doesn't really matter at this point - I read it and I enjoyed it, which is the more important thing. I don't know if I am going to jump into the sequels right away, as I have a stack of half-finished books I sort of want to power through before starting another, but I do intend to read them at some point in the future. I find the story to be quite refreshing - it deals with serious topics that are covered in many fantasy books, but in a subtle way that allows the reader to explore their own thoughts and feelings about issues like friendship, honor, and death.

Overall I have to say I highly recommend this book. I don't know if I would call it one of my favorite fantasy novels - I tend to prefer the really heavy books with detailed magic systems - but I do think it is an important foundation in the genre. I think the prose is beautiful and well worth reading, and I think the content is appropriate for a wide audience. I expect some people will find it too simplistic, but there is an elegance to that simplicity that I can really appreciate. It is a lovely book, definitely worth the read.