The Tombs of Atuan

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

The Tombs of Atuan is very different from A Wizard of Earthsea. It focuses on a young woman who has spent her life cloistered in the tombs of gods who she serves but doesn't know. Just as the reader feels completely miserable at the state of this disillusioned young lady, Ged (who nobody would describe as particularly cheerful or up-beat), arrives and brings with him a much-needed ray of sunshine, even though he spends most of the book under the earth. After Ged's arrival, things start to slowly make more sense to Tenar and it is interesting to watch her well-developed character gradually move from darkness to light.

This is a slow-paced book. There's not a lot of action until the end, but Ged's quest in the tombs is related to the rest of the Earthsea series, so it's valuable in that sense. And, of course, an Ursula Le Guin is always a pleasure to read and this audiobook version is very good. Read more Ursula Le Guin book reviews at Fantasy literature.

I enjoyed this. It felt like an original world-setting, it was nice to encounter a fantasy world that didn't lean on well established tropes. I want to learn more about the world, so I'll probably read the other 2 books at some point. The story was quite... limited? Felt like a short story more than a full novel. Not that it felt like it was dragged out, but just that it was a very simple plot.

But that makes way for good themes, setting, and the development of the main character. LeGuin packs in a sense of time passing and emotional maturing to this short novel. There's a tender and realistic demonstration of what loss of hitherto-unshakable faith is like, and mixed into that a critique of dogma and religion as well. It's nice to see deeper themes like this in YA fiction.

As well as being, to a lesser extent, a journey of events, people, and places, it's also an emotional journey from darkness into light, with Tenar ending up a very different person at the end; less sure of herself, wounded by her past, but free and more whole. One thing I really love to see is complex, flawed characters, and Tenar feels real and alive in this book. It's my first time reading LeGuin, but I can tell already they have a way of capturing the human spirit, and I look forward to exploring more of their work.

This story is simple (in fact, it's for kids) but like the first EarthSea book it filled up my heart. Something about it rang true. I'll return to this story and it's many images when I need a reminder of how and why we climb up out of the dark.