First book that I read about fantasy. I loved Ged and what happened to is life to make him who he is. It's a beautiful tale, amazing in many thing.

If someone can explain the weird cover, I would like to know !! -_-' ( )

It's difficult to overestimate the precisely emotional brilliance of these three books; I have read them many, many times over the past two decades; they are individually short works but the style is so direct, simple and poetic (in the sense that each phrase or sentence caries a greater relative weight of import, compared to prose), that after each one you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd read something far more extensive in wordage terms.
Le Guin paints for us here the human psyche in the same detached, exact, effortless yet seemingly intuitive and dynamic way as an oriental calligrapher seems to create examples of their own penmanship.
Some may see them as sentimental and mawkish but for me, they have stood the test of their passage through personal time far better than other celebrated works of fantasy fiction in their ability both to remain true to one's mundane experiences and to appear as a fresh, startling revelation of the fundamental mechanics of the pristine human soul each time you pick them up. ( )

One of the best and strongest young adult fantasies ever written. ( )

[grabbed from Amazon.com]

Ursula LeGuin is as talented a writer as one could hope to find. She has a deft hand at science fiction and fantasy, but she also layers her work with adult themes of self-discovery and personal evolution, relationship to self and to others, isolation vs. connection, and cross-cultural communication and understanding. In the most thoughtful, interesting, and entertaining ways, she plays with race, gender, age, etc. as social constructs, creating critiques of real-world countries and cultures in the process. But none of this comes off as pedantic or condescending - just fascinating, and sometimes heartbreaking and tragic. In these ways, Ms. LeGuin transcends the genres she writes in.

If the Chronicles of Narnia are the quintessential children's fantasy series, the Lord of the Rings the quintessential contemporary heroic fantasy series, and Harry Potter the quintessential populist fantasy series, then the Earthsea Trilogy is the quintessential adult fantasy series. For maximum enjoyment, you will have to work a bit as you read - moreso than with LOTR. Enjoy the sparse, concise language, the atmospheres packed with meaning both explicit and ethereal, the things she *doesn't* say. Savor the books slowly. Jump backwards and re-read parts that gain more portent the more you progress.

The Earthsea Trilogy isn't beyond the young adult reader, but older readers will appreciate it too - and glean more from it. When you are done with Earthsea, don't stop. Get the fourth book in the series written years later, "Tehanu." Find "The Winds Twelve Quarters" and "The Compass Rose" (short story collections) at a used bookstore/ web site. Read "The Left Hand of Darkness." ( )

I love the magical system of names! If you read this, you will definitely like The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. ( )