A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) (1968)

Re-reading this trilogy I remember loving a long time ago... Le Guin is a wonderful storyteller, with a mastery of language that allows her to create complete, believable worlds you can immerse yourself in. But her tales are never cheap or easy - there is a lot of wisdom and lightly hidden truths for our hard, real world in her fantasy writing. Still love it probably 20 years later. ( )

Having just read Elenium, it was hard not to read Sparrowhawk as Sparhawk... I did get quite attached to him however, once he stopped being a little brat that is. I have started the Tombs of Atuan, but so far it's a bit slow. Admittedly I am only a couple of chapters in, but I'm holding out hope that Sparrowhawk will show up and the whole thing will pickup! ( )

Undoubtedly one of the great works of fantasy! In fact, it is unusual in the descriptive passages for the wizardry scenes. Many things are treated with a fresh approach, in fact. What I do question is whether libraries here in the UK are correct in placing this in the Childrens section! ( )

I've always loved A Wizard of Earthsea. I think it was my very first exposure to Ursula Le Guin, although that might also perhaps have been The Telling. In any case, I didn't know anything about Ursula Le Guin at that time. The first time I read it, I picked it up randomly in the library and read it aloud in the space of an evening. I read it to my teddy, Helen, and it was well worth reading aloud. Ursula Le Guin's writing can be very lyrical and lovely, and it definitely is in the Earthsea books. It's one of the few books that has a 'taste' I remember long after reading it, that I can taste that thing in real life and think of the book immediately. The words themselves are like that, and the descriptions more so: you can smell the smoke, the herbs, the fish. You can hear Ogion's silence, feel the cold in the Court of the Terrenon. Or I could, anyway.

(Helen loved it too, by the way. She wasn't complaining, at least.)

I actually prefer it to the rest of Le Guin's writing, really. It's quite short, and I found it easy to read, although my sister couldn't get past the first page, and I've read a couple of reviews saying it's difficult. I think reading it aloud helped, to catch the rhythms of it.

I don't really know where to start, talking about the plot and the characters. When I think about it, I feel quite distant from the characters -- I don't feel as if I get inside Ged's mind or Vetch's mind or anything, but I still get to care about them. And you do get to know them in some ways. You know that Vetch is a very good guy, if not very complicated. You know that Jasper is rather weak in reality. You know that Ged is very, very proud. It's almost like a hamartia in him, actually: a fatal flaw that brings his fate down on himself. He's a sympathetic character despite the pride: he works very hard, is willing to work for what he wants. He's just young and impatient and slow to learn the things that he most needs to learn. When he's older and sadder and scared and just muddling through life, he's even more sympathetic a character.

There are some very touching events/moments/chapters: for example, anything involving Vetch or Hoeg, Murre and Ged observing each other, and of course, the child-adults on the little island Ged is wrecked on.

The whole story weaves together very well, and prepares the way for the other books of the sequence too. Things that happen early in the book -- for example, Ged bringing up the mist when the Kargs attack Gont -- are used later, the witch-girl shows up again later, everything is linked and everything has a purpose. It's very neat writing. Take notes, writers of modern epics! A satisfying story need not span four volumes!

Some people find the ending anti-climatic. I think it was clearly telegraphed throughout: that it would be less a big showdown than Ged facing himself. Which is one of the scarier things I can actually think of. The text itself says that what he does is "embrace his own death", after all. ( )

It's definitely a time for me to revisit old favourites. I felt like looking in on Earthsea again, so when I had a quiet evening to myself, I dived right in. I normally read in smallish chunks, broken up by class or crochet or sleep or whatever, but I reread this in two great gulps. Which was lovely, actually.

There are some unsatisfying things about it, mostly because I just want more (some of which later books of the series provide). I want to know what happens to Jasper: he's the instigator, essentially, of Ged's biggest mistake. But he just fades out less than halfway through. And I wish the otak didn't have to die. And, of course, it's a world not greatly populated by women, and those who are in it are suspect. (But if that's bothering you, carry on reading the series -- Le Guin deconstructs and examines those assumptions beautifully.)

I wanted more of Vetch and Yarrow, too. Yarrow is one of the few (perhaps the only?) "good" female character, but she has little part to play. And Vetch is just Vetch, faithful and clever, with an emotional balance that Ged doesn't have.

I first got this series for Christmas when I was in my early teens. I reread the first two books over and over, and they've never lost their magic. ( )