A good, slightly old fashioned, fantasy book. First in a series, but does stand alone. Lends itself to Ghibli, although their version is not the same. ( )

“To hear, one must be silent."

I had not read this before, when I was young. To read it just now at 60, it makes me feel so wonderfully young. There is freshness and Zen wisdom condensed so beautifully in these pages. ( )

Le Guin was already famous as an adult science fiction and fantasy writer when her publisher asked her to consider a young adult novel. This is the result, and led to several novels about Earthsea, a complicated collection of islands in the world sea, that the inhabitants consider all of the world. We meet the hero, Ged, as an orphan in a small, backward town on an island a the edge of the archipelago. He finds his powers when he hides the villagers in a magical fog during a raid, and is adopted by Ogion, the wizard of the island. Ged is impatient and ambitious, and Ogion sends him to a school for wizards. He develops a hatred for an older, arrogant boy, challenges him to a forbidden magical duel, and unleashes a shadow of death in the world. The rest of the book is his quest, ultimately successful, to rid himself and the world of this shadow. The characters are deep, and the world building is elaborate, and I plan on continuing in the series.
Copyright in 1968; this edition has an afterword written by Le Guin in 2012 ( )

One of the best books I've ever read. Easily on par with the fantasy works of Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Gaiman. ( )

well written and engaging, but I don't understand the ending :/ ( )