A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) (original 1968; edition 1984)

This was the first Le Guin I've read, and it didn't really live up to my expectations. I think part of the problem was that it was written in third person. I need connection with the characters that third person just doesn't offer. ( )

I was surprised to find this book was as profound as it is; the label ‘young adult’ keeps leading me astray… all a book needs to fit the genre is a young protagonist and an uncluttered storytelling style, but I keep expecting a negative aspect, a lack of gravitas…not here, in A Wizard of Earthsea; Le Guin deftly explores such notions as balance and knowledge and power through the initially ambitious and impetuous young wizard, Ged, who, in his desire to outshine a rival school-fellow, releases a shadow upon the world for which he must claim responsibility and somehow destroy.

The author creates a world that is as much seascape as landscape, being the archipelago of Earthsea… perfectly suited to fantasy-world mapping, which happens to be one of my favourite aspects of high fantasy; the geography of world-building. Ged’s quest leads him from island to island as he looks for the wisdom he instinctively knows he needs to battle his shadow. I also loved the principles of the magic of the world, the naming and balance, and the characters that Ged encounters as a boy and on his journey.

That said, there’s something slightly distancing about Le Guin’s telling the story as a legend recounted; it’s as though we’re reading about Ged rather than experiencing the quest with him; not that there aren’t some wonderfully immersive parts, but I did not feel as involved in the story as I might have with a different narrative approach… that wouldn’t stop me recommending the book to anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction, especially YA fantasy, as I’m pretty sure it’s a quirk of the reader’s rather than a flaw of the writer’s. ( )

After reading 'The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed I was expecting much more from this story. Given the popularity of the Earthsea trilogy I must have missed something. Maybe I should re-read it. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1864673.html ( )

A fantasy classic.The story of how a young man known as Sparrowhawk became Ged, a master mage. He went from talented and cocky young apprentice to someone who saw what bravado could do to damage a person and did everything in his power to set things right, and find himself along the way.

In the magical tradition of ancient cultures, common themes included the idea that knowing a person's name gave you power over them, as well as the idea that words themselves held power. This book is a great introduction to these ideas, along with being a wonderful story to pull you in without needing hundreds of pages to do so. ( )

I came back to this book after a long bout of urban fantasy and dystopian novels in my read pile, and I must admit it was a bit jarring. I read this book for the first time as a young girl, so to be fair to the book, I feel like my review is a combination of my feelings from both times I read the book.

A Wizard of Earthsea is a true fantasy book distilled to its purest form. LeGuin does not use many words, and does not waste time with fluff. The me now found this a jarring transition because I find that most of the modern books I read are very descriptive, and focus more on the showing of events and worlds than the telling of the story. At some times, the lack of pronounced downtime and character development felt a tad tedious. Younger me, I felt, had more of an imagination to feel in the gaps. I really do enjoy the story itself. I like that in the Earthsea novels, magic doesn't come from the elements, or pseudo-Latin words, but from holding the power of a things true name. I think that is one of the things I find appealing about faerie mythology, so I enjoy seeing the theme here in a different light. One of the things I like most about this novel, both now and in the past, is it a parable that warns of the consequences of having power and of abusing that power.

I'd recommend it if you have a good imagination (or don't mind terser books) and like true fantasy books (wizards, magic, dragons). ( )

The first book in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle should be deem as a bildungsroman style novel. Ged Sparrowhawk starts out as an immature power and fame hungry mage-prentice. As the story unfolds, Sparrowhawk faces the choices he made as a child and teenager and tries to find confidence in himself and within his power.

This is a truly wonderful fantasy novel for both young adults and adults alike. ( )

It's a well-written children's/young adult fantasy novel. Coming at it as an adult, it's far less impressive, but had I encountered this when I was 10 I would have certainly have devoured the book and its sequels feverishly. ( )

Count me among the stupid ones. Although I read and enjoyed most of Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction in my younger days, I apparently decided to not read her fantasy. Or perhaps I had just moved on to something different. That was not a smart move. I started "A Wizard of Earthsea" thinking it would be a quick light fantasy read, something different from my usual. It turned out to be a much better book than I expected. I'm more than a little annoyed with myself for not having read this sooner.

It is a coming of age story for a young boy who has a talent for magic, in a land where magic is fairly common. The book is very well written with a strong central character, the boy nicknamed Sparrowhawk. Ged is his true name given to him by a wizard who becomes his early mentor. It really turned out to be a journey of redemption and finding oneself and facing the dark side of the force long before there was Star Wars. There are lessons in this book, such as the temptations of evil, the value of true friendship and the consequences of foolishly losing one's temper, but one is not preached to at all.

I can certainly recommend this to younger readers as well as all readers. I plan to read further books in the earthsea series. ( )

No time for an in depth review... I did enjoy this, and think that LeGuin did a better job with this than many of the random fantasy books do out there. The writing is well crafted, the characters are deep enough to be interesting, and it is generally just a lot of fun! ( )

After reading The Telling by Ursula Le Guin, and really liking it, I really wanted to read some of her classics. A Wizard of Earthsea was recommended to me by one of my LT friends, and I wasn't disappointed. This book is all fantasy, dealing with witches, wizards, mages, magic, dragons and quests. But for me, it had none of the standard fantasy stuff, and it was a great fast paced read.
Ged is a smith's son, who turns out to have a talent for magic. He chooses to be trained in Roke, but in his pride he goes too far with a spell and unleashes something on the world. The rest of the book is his quest to rid the world of the shadow he brought into it.
I have seen the Studio Ghibli movie, but while I didn't like that, I loved this book, I loved Ged, and I loved the story. I can't wait to find and read other parts of the Earthsea cycle. I have nothing more to say, this was a five out of five star read for me. ( )

Earthsea feels like a classic, in that good old sword 'n' sorcery style. Ged (but that's his true name, so don't drop it in mixed company)is a promising young wizard who gets into a sticky wicket when he summons a dead spirit, and with it, a shadow that plagues him across the land. LeGuin is regrettably prone to long, long patches of description in which very little happens, and her tone is remarkably devoid of any of the sparkle which mitigates Tolkien's more serious text, but this is a fine, stripped-down tale of magic at its most basic and primal.

In this young adult fantasy, a young wizard releases an unnamed evil into the world of Earthsea during a spell that goes wrong and comes of age in a quest to defeat it.

Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawk’s flight
on the empty sky.

–from the Creation of Éa

I’m sure I read A Wizard of Earthsea as a young adult, although I didn’t remember it very well. But like the best novels written for young people, it holds up excellently in this second reading as an adult.

In Earthsea, Le Guin has fully realized a land of islands, where people live as much on the sea as on the land, where there are dragons and wizards and magic. As a young boy, Sparrowhawk discovers his talent for magic when he protects his village from invasion by creating an obscuring fog. He is apprenticed to a wizard on his home island, then goes to the school for wizards across the sea, where his powers become evident. But his hubris gets the better of him, and in attempting a dangerous spell, he looses a nameless shadow in the world, which is bound to him and determined to possess him.

The rest of the story describes Sparrowhawk’s coming-of-age quest to learn how to defeat the shadow, and to learn who he is. Le Guin’s simple but evocative prose brings her imaginary world of Earthsea to life, and while reading this short book, I felt like I was traveling along with Sparrowhawk among the islands’ rocky cliff faces, desolate moors and heaving oceans. Whether rediscovering Earthsea or visiting it for the first time, the trip is worthwhile. ( )

Feb11:

Well, there's a classic I sure missed out on.

Characters: Lead is amazingly solid for the age of this book. The support characters are good enough as well.

Plot: A good pass at a redemption plot. Many great adventures along the way.

Style: High fantasy, without being boring like Tolkein. I'd almost say action fantasy in many ways. Great stuff! ( )

I've finally read Le Guin's classic tale, and found it thoroughly satisfying. However, it is true that between its initial publication date of 1968 and now, I've read what seems like a hundred other fantasy novels. I'm sure if I'd picked it up when it was new, it would have made a much stronger impression. In 1968, I hadn't even read Tolkien. Anyway, I'll probably go on to read the next installment about our hero Ged. ( )

A classic in the fantasy genre, and an example of fine writing besides. Ged of Gont is a powerful young wizard, perhaps the most powerful sorcerer Gont has ever produced. Just as great as his power is his pride. Ged is taken from his childhood home to study with the mage Ogion, but when he is too impatient for Ogion's deep wisdom, his mentor sends him to study on the mage island Roke. Here, Ged's skill advances in leaps and bounds. Yet his pride becomes his downfall when he is pushed by the taunts of a rival wizard, Jasper, to work a spell well beyond his mastery, and inadvertently unleashes a shadow bent on Ged's destruction. Now Ged is bound to flee or fight his created shadow, until one or both are destroyed.

One of the themes of this novel is power and the responsibility it confers on the user. Ged's quest and his struggle with his shadow illustrates that power actually narrows the path one treads in life, rather than broadening it. Once he thought that with his strength he could set the balance in life however he chose, but that thinking is what led Ged to release his shadow, eventually limiting his path to only one. Le Guin's message is clear: even those who want to use their power recklessly will eventually be forced into a recognition of their responsibility, sometimes with drastic consequences. This concept of power ties in to her theory of balance: great power is balanced by great responsibility.

A deep analysis, but Le Guin's masterly writing demands a close reading of the themes she incorporates in to her plot and characters. The message and transformation of character are far more central to the novel than any fantasy elements, though the book has its fair share of those, too. The characters are rounded, each with his or her own share of good traits and flaws. Even the dragon is complex - and did I mention there is a dragon? I love fantasies with an interesting dragon present. The depth of the book, couple with Le Guin's lovely writing style and the coherent fantasy world she creates, makes this a fantastic read that is foundational to stories that followed, in the fantasy genre and beyond. I highly recommend it. ( )

(Book 1 of 4 of The Earthsea Quartet)
Le Guin, U. (1991). A wizard of earthsea. London, England: Penguin
I have recently read a book called ‘Ishi in two worlds: a biography of the last wild Indian in North America’ written by Theodora Kroeber about her anthropologist husband Alfred Kroeber’s work with a man called Ishi. He was the very last survivor of the Yahi Yana tribe who after living in the Californian area for over 3000 years, had been decimated by white settlers and became extinct on Ishi’s death in 1916. It was interesting to note on the author information for A wizard of earthsea that Ursula Le Guin is their daughter and I wonder what influence this anthropological upbringing had on her writing, especially when I see her protagonist in this book described as having ‘red-brown’ skin (Le Guin, 1991, p. 51).

Ursula Le Guin’s story is about a young boy called Sparrowhawk, born in a poor mountain village in Gont, part of the richly developed mythical world of Earthsea. His aunt is the village witch and teaches him the rudimentariness of magic. Sparrowhawk becomes an apprentice to the wizard Ogion, the great Mage, after saving his home village from marauding invaders by creating a magical mist. With Ogion he begins his training by learning some of the true names of all things, but runs out of patience at the slow pace of his teaching. ‘Ged’s (Sparrowhawks true name) nature is built up gradually, through action and reaction, and because we learn to know him in this way, we accept him fully’ (Sutherland, 1997, p. 235). Ged is reckless and proud seeking only the power and glory that he feels is due him and as such parts ways with Ogion and travels to the isle of Roke to attend the wizard’s school there. He becomes the best pupil there although he had a tendency to show off.

During his training, vanity and arrogant rage lead him to loose a nameless evil into the world. ‘And through the bright misshapen breach clambered something like a clot of black shadow, quick and hideous, and it leaped straight out at Ged’s face’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 74). In fighting this off he is horribly scarred and the school’s Archmage dies after trying to undo the evil unleashed. ‘You have great power inborn in you, and you used that power wrongly, to work a spell over which you had no control, not knowing how that spell affects the balance of light and dark, life and death, good and evil. And you were moved to do this by pride and by hate, is it any wonder the result was ruin?’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 79). Ged is followed by this shadow and cannot escape it until he realises he cannot avoid it and must turn and face it head on. ‘It is light that defeats the dark’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 135). He battles dragons, ancient evil stones and other powers during the journey. Helped by his true friend Vetch he chases the shadow and learns its true name when he struggles to reunite it with his own true self. ‘It is the shadow of your arrogance, the shadow of your ignorance, the shadow you cast’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 79).

I enjoyed reading this book. It reflects the battle that we all have with our inner selves. ‘A man who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 199). The maps of Earthsea were very helpful and extremely detailed. While I shook my head at young Sparrowhawk’s foolishness, this was an important part of the character development and his growing maturity is well described by the author. ‘Part of Le Guin’s power as a storyteller lies in her style - serious, spare, precise’ (Sutherland, 1997, p. 235). ( )

I expected a lot more out of this book. Everything I read about Ursula LeGuin was wonderful and I thought she could help me with my distaste for fastasy. I was wrong/

Ged, a sorcerer, isn't a well developed character and I lost interest easily. Imagination is supposed to be a key element in a fantasy, but I wasn't surprised at any point. ( )

You know those books you feel like you should enjoy, just because they have a great rep and have been compared to LOTR and Narnia, but you just didn't like it? Yeah, this was one of those books. I thought it was terrible and each page felt like torture to me. Basically it follows this wizard, Ged. He rides around in a boat and doesn't have anyone interesting like Richard Parker (the tiger from Life of Pi) to talk to. The characters seem pretty one-dimensional. The writing is slow. Certain things I expected to pan out and be really interesting and keep me glued to the book did not pan out. I really think this book does not deserve comparison to Narnia or LOTR at all, those books were eloquently written and kept me hungering for the next page, A Wizard of Earthsea did not. ( )

*Please note:this review contains spoilers*

I was really looking forward to reading this: it’s written by Ursula Le Guin, and it’s become a classic of YA fantasy, if not children’s literature in general. Unfortunately, I was disappointed, finding it mostly dreary and uninspiring.

At the start, the novel seemed very promising. Ged’s raw talent made for a tense and exciting battle between his village and the invaders, but this turned out to be this high point of the story for me. It slowed down and even Ged’s later battle with the dragons did not carry the same sense of adventure.

Read the rest of the review: http://violininavoid.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/review-a-wizard-of-earthsea/ ( )

This book is one of my childhood favourites. I don't think I ever realised it was a YA book however. My mother had the first three books of the trilogy in one giant book, I think at that time there were only three books either intended or released. It was one of my old favourites I would pull out every couple of months and re-read. After the travesty that was Earthsea the miniseries, I had to immediately go track down my own copy of the books. I struck it lucky and managed to find the first three books online very cheap with the 1973 covers (they're fabulous). I marched my way through book one A Wizard of Earthsea this week and fell in love all over again.I'm not usually one to fall for a male lead in a sci-fantasy series unless there's significant interaction with a female character that I like, however Sparrowhawk has always been the exception to the rule. Usually I love the side character, or the maligned bad guy, but if the interactons between the hero and a female character that I love are interesting and slightly off kilter then I fall in love. Sparrowhawk however is such an interesting character that I can't help loving him right from the start. He's such an arrogant git to begin with, which is of course the reason he ends up having to deal with all the darkness and evil things that come after him in his life, however he grows and matures, which is often a problem in books like this.If you read sci-fantasy and haven't read at least this book, then shame on you. This truly belongs on a list of some of the greatest sci-fantasy worlds of all time. Le Guin has such an amazingly clear and well developed world, and despite the YA status of the book and it's ease of reading, the plot is so well developed and leaves you guessing and thinking right to the very end ( )

Part 1 of the Earthsea Cycle. A short but wonderful fantasy book that is not a Lord of the Rings derivative. The story of a young boy who commits a great sin and seeks redemption A must read for all fantasy buffs. ( )

One of my all time favorites. Great writing. ( )

The first of a young adult series by a writer mostly celebrated for her science fiction--and I've read and loved a lot of those by her--The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction classic and a favorite. I remember loving the Earthsea trilogy in my teens. (It's now a "cycle" because it's grown to five books.) I reread this first book to see if it still holds up, and it emphatically does.

I've read that this is in its way a Taoist allegory the way Narnia is Christian, although it doesn't feel preachy to me. Beautifully written omniscient narrative, with a lyrical prose style and a lot of memorable lines, it's a short, fast-paced read. The novel features a vivid archipelago setting and imaginative system of name magic that somehow is more that just a device but a theme. And there be dragons in this one! And Ged--a young wizard certainly as memorable as Harry Potter. (And not white--a notable rarity for a protagonist in fantasy.) I liked how Le Guin ties in his growth of character to the events and themes of the story. In that regard the quiet resolution is masterful. (And there are dragons! OK, OK--well, I like them, OK?)

If I have any complaint, it's that at times the narrative felt just a bit too sketchy and spare--too tell, not show--even if that fits the book's mythic feel. The Earthsea novels have won various awards including a Nebula and a Newberry Medal. ( )

somber. psychological. ( )