A Wizard of Earthsea

Refreshing. Compared to a lot of modern fantasy, this book was much more ethereal and almost poetic. Incredible prose centered around internal conflict. Optimistic, adventurous, and doesn't rely on any kind of war or dystopia to set the stage. Recommended for anyone looking for an influential fantasy classic.

I may very well be missing something, but I feel like most of the story just went over my head.

The style in the book is more descriptive than dialogue-heavy, but even then things moved very fast and were not given time to settle (so. much. travelling.). At times I didn't even know where we were or who certain characters were. Ged also seemed to be very accepting of everything that happened to him and I had trouble relating to him as a character.

I did like the story, in theory, and the last few pages were beautiful, but also abrupt, and I was surprised to see it was over already. I find the prose also very good, but maybe not for me personally.

On a sidenote, I have no idea where the Harry Potter comparisons are coming from? The wizard school is featured in maybe 2-3 chapters and not even very similar? The world and characters are also totally different? But alas.

“The hunger of a dragon is slow to wake, but hard to sate.”

What a wonderful journey! Mages, spells, dragons and much more. Coincidentally, this book was published the same year as Panshin's “Rite of Passage”, my previous read.
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Being a reckless, powerful mage can lead to unexpected consequences: he will upset the balance of the world. But he will learn from his mistakes, he'll grow into a more cautious, wary wizard, one that will refuse even a promise of greater power and will face his own shadows for the sake of Equilibrium. There's a school of wizards where apprentices learn the Arts (e.g., summoning, healing, naming, patterning, binding, etc.), I wonder what potterheads think of this book...⠀
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This was originally conceived as a bildungsroman for “older kids” but let's take labels out of the equation because the result is a timeless story just for everyone. Reading the Grand Mistress' fantasy was a gratifying experience. Her stories age very well and she had this amazing talent for worldbuildings, I think she specially excels at culture-building. I'm sure she has influenced a lot of writers over the years but I couldn't stop thinking about Rothfuss' The King Killer Chronicles, the “true name” of things and the power it gives you over them. I wish I knew the true name of my elder son because, guess what, he never listens to me! ⠀
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M̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶f̶u̶l̶ Mistressful

I cannot believe it took me this long to finally read this book. (I feel like I'm at risk of losing my credibility as a lifelong YA fantasy fan!) But now that I have read it, I definitely understand the hype.

A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA is the coming-of-age story. It is quiet and lush and intelligent. It is full of wonder, but does not flinch from the horrible.

Gifted with incredible magic, young Ged makes a mistake–a proud, thoughtless mistake, a child's mistake–which is magnified because of his power. He spends much of the rest of the book seeking to atone, and to track down the terrible, nameless thing unleashed by his actions.

The world-building is exquisite. Ged's journey, his search for atonement always interwoven with his discovery of the shape and nature and name of things, is deeply compelling.

I will confess to some surprise at the lack of female characters–the only one I recall being positively portrayed was a fourteen-year-old who seemed to know her place, who dutifully took care of her household–but I have hope that will be remedied in later books.

If, like me, you have managed to miss this classic, I advise giving it a read as soon as possible.

This is about the third time re-reading this series and my first review of it online. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, very well written and with a brilliant writing style.

I felt real emotions and could really empathise with the fall of Ged on Roke Island and his emotional state leading towards the end of the book - brilliant finish!

I still own my 1979 copy of this book (first published in 1968) and needing another read-aloud book for my daughter, decided to revisit this one. This marks the third time I've read it. My daughter enjoyed it but then again she enjoys being read to, period. She's been reading plenty on her own these days too, a lot of reading in fact. When I mentioned to her that she's been busy reading to herself and maybe I would stop reading to her, she said no, I need to continue reading to her. So I've been reading to my kids for over thirteen years now. (You didn't really expect an actual review of this, did you? It's not exactly fresh material. It stands up to the test of time though. That's all you need to know.)

I think the idea behind this story is a great one. A young wizard struggles to learn more and his pride causes him to make a huge mistake which he spends a lot of his life trying to fix and coming to terms with. However, the way the story is written seemed a bit bland to me. I didn't feel an arch in the story and when he came face to face with his problem it was very anticlimactic for me. The whole story just seemed a bit monotone to me.

Besides that I do think it has some great messages, it just needed to be more climactic for me.