A Wizard of Earthsea

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.