A Wizard of Earthsea

, #1

by

English language

Published Aug. 12, 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

ISBN:
978-0-547-85139-6
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
772100697

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(410 reviews)

A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.

76 editions

reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle, #1)

Review of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' on 'Storygraph'

Enjoyed rereading this brought me back to seventh grade. I remember the whole concept of the shadow and it’s something that has always stayed with me.

Now that I’m older I think some parts are over explained and others aren’t setup. For example what is Ged going to do after wizard school. It’s never talked about or hinted and the choice is random and unimportant seemingly in the overall narrative.

reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

I suppose

Prose is slim and considered, the imagery vivid without being exhausting, but I did not feel engaged with Ged, personally, philosophically, etc.

I appreciate how concise and capable a novel this is; that it is in its way rubbing against the grain of what, in 1969 especially, are the expectations of a fantasy novel and setting.

But I read it today, in a different cultural milieu. While Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed still felt compelling and relevant, Wizard of Earthsea is something I can only imagine once having a greater potency.

reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

Review of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' on 'Storygraph'

we all have parts of ourselves that we run from, that we hate. this book is helping me with the torturous work of reconciling with my own shadows. if you're struggling to see yourself as a whole and complete human being, you aren't alone. i struggle. ged does too. but we can begin healing, one step at a time.

be safe out there.  

reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle, #1)

Review of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' on 'Storygraph'

Felt less like reading a book and more like being told a fantasy epic from a world slightly adjacent to ours over a campfire. I only wish I'd read it earlier.

reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle, #1)

Review of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' on 'Goodreads'

What a charming story. This very much reads as classic fantasy, but at the same time, quite distinct from other classic fantasy powerhouses of the era. It is structured more like a folktale, and really succeeds in that regard. The story is comprised of quite a few smaller stories and challenges, similar to something like the Odyssey. Each of these smaller narratives paint a larger story that simultaneously builds the world around it. This was probably my favorite aspect. Seeing the main character grow and develop as aspects of the world become clearer to the reader, but also feeling like you're reading a classic hero's tale.

However I found the writing style to be very... of its time. It is very disconnected from the characters and frequently and randomly shifts between an omniscient narration to limited omniscient narration based on a character's perspective. The prose was stuffy, making it feel …

reviewed A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle, #1)

Review of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' on 'Goodreads'

I have no idea how this book eluded me as a kid. Reading it feels like righting an old wrong though. It's a wonderful introduction to the world of Earthsea, and I imagine my child self would have been hooked.

Coming in as an adult who has loved many other Ursula Le Guin books, this also felt like part of an ongoing conversation. Her reflections in the afterword are thoughtful as always, particularly her mingled pride (in stealthily deploying non-white primary characters) and regret (for writing a man's world where women are secondary).

Social/meta-concerns aside, this is a beautiful world full of wonder and I want to spend more time there!


All power is one in source and end, I think. Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man's hand and the wisdom in a tree's root: they all arise together. My …

reviewed Czarnoksiężnik z Archipelagu by Ursula K. Le Guin

Review of 'Czarnoksiężnik z Archipelagu' on 'Goodreads'

Fabularnie to zwykła pospolita podróż bohatera, ale styl trudny do określenia. Dostrzegalne ulotne feministyczno—ekologiczne wpływy (niczym u „Nausicaä z Doliny Wiatru”), choć kobiet jak na lekarstwo, bohater jest trochę jak z „Mrocznej Wieży” Kinga. Na to wszystko magiczna warstwa, kontynentalna wersja „Harry'ego Pottera”. Intrygująca, pięknie napisana historia, która wiele zyskała dzięki zacnemu przekładowi Barańczaka.

reviewed Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea Cycle, #1)

Review of 'Wizard of Earthsea' on 'Goodreads'

While I do wish I had encountered this book while growing up, even now I can‘t help but give it 5 stars. As Le Guin herself states in the afterword, this book was at once familiar in its usage of old fantasy tropes yet at the same went so far beyond that.
The story is still epic in scale, yet the cast is much smaller than would be expected. No wars stand at the center of the plot, but instead the main character‘s growth and self discovery. Le Guin makes her observations about the different characters with clear-eyedness and poetry. She writes like an anthropologist in that she withholds prejudice for different cultures, skin colors etc., seeing merit in all of them. She in fact manages to turn a surface level story of the battle between light and darkness into a rich study of grays.

The same skilled observations are …

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