Paperback, 205 pages
French language
Published May 22, 1991
Ici, il y a des dragons. Il y a des enchanteurs, une mer immense et des îles. Ged, simple gardien de chèvres sur l'île de Gont, a le don. Il va devenir au terme d'une longue initiation, en traversant nombre d'épreuves redoutables, le plus grand sorcier de Terremer, l'Archimage.
Es genial el concepto de magia asociada al verdadero nombre y cómo lo desarrolla
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.
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 …
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 more like you were reading an objective account of the events that happened rather than feeling like you're hearing about the journey from a storyteller, which I feel would lend itself better to the style of story.
All in all, I did enjoy this quite a bit. I'm excited to pick up the next few of them pretty quickly considering they're so short. I'm particularly excited to dive into the more recent three books. I'm eager to see how her writing style matured after 30 years of being one of the most skilled science fiction authors of all time.
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 …
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 name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is spoken by the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name.
Fun and short. I could see quite enjoying this when I was younger as well.
That afterword took a good book to a truly great one.
A bit cliché, but it seems like maybe it established some of its cliches rather than just following them, so that can be forgiven.
Definitely aimed at a teenage-reader crowd, but still an enjoyable read; Le Guin's style of writing lends more of a mythical feel to the story.
Fine fantasy quest, childish feelings tempered to balance and self-confrontation, and well done for that. I'm feeling LeGuin's own regrets about how male-dominated her first books are, however.
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.
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 …
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 made for the world and magic system. Descriptions are beautiful, yet not overly flowery. Instead there is a certain understatedness that gives the imagination more than enough to make the world feel alive, while never detracting from the actual action going on. Rather, certain omissions and unexplained terms indicate that the world has more secrets hidden everywhere, just waiting to be discovered by the reader.
The Wizard is understated while still feeling grand. It is beautifully crafted by a true master of the genre and will invite the reader to revisit Earthsea time and time again, be it through the other Earthsea books or inevitable rereads.
This is rightfully considered a classic I would recommend to anyone not fully scared away by a bit of magic.
Refreshing to realize high fantasy doesn't have to be laid out in tomes and be riddled with vuolence. This book is short, entertaining and thoughtful. And Le Guin writes well.
Immense storytelling and really subversive for the genre when it was written.
A Wizard of Earthsea is a masterpiece in worldbuilding, a miracle of economical storytelling, an endlessly quotable novel, LeGuin's lyrical prose style at its most beautiful. The "saga" mode of writing makes this feel like a book out of a real Earthsea, constantly hinting at a fully existing history and cultural corpus. I also love the writings around it, reading the collected novels edition I'm surrounded by introductions, essays and afterwords from LeGuin herself that make me appreciate the text even more and show what a great human being she always was.
Fun and quick read. This was a perfect respite after reading way too many research papers and other weighty nonfiction.
This is a timeless classic I had read before. It is the story of the early years of the most famous wizard of Earthsea and how his early years formed him. Earthsea is a place of a thousand islands far away and yet somehow familiar.
I first read this in 2011 and rated it 3. I was unimpressed with the book and its sequels and couldn't understand why it was supposed to be so good. I didn't see it.
Now on re-reading, I can finally appreciate the timeless quality of its beautiful language and the clear, recognizable plot that still does not feel cliched or dated at all. And I can see how this must have inspired so many other books I have read. (I am looking at you [b: Name of the Wind|186074|The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)|Patrick Rothfuss|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1515589515s/186074.jpg|2502879]).
Coming here and seeing my own …
This is a timeless classic I had read before. It is the story of the early years of the most famous wizard of Earthsea and how his early years formed him. Earthsea is a place of a thousand islands far away and yet somehow familiar.
I first read this in 2011 and rated it 3. I was unimpressed with the book and its sequels and couldn't understand why it was supposed to be so good. I didn't see it.
Now on re-reading, I can finally appreciate the timeless quality of its beautiful language and the clear, recognizable plot that still does not feel cliched or dated at all. And I can see how this must have inspired so many other books I have read. (I am looking at you [b: Name of the Wind|186074|The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)|Patrick Rothfuss|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1515589515s/186074.jpg|2502879]).
Coming here and seeing my own 3 rating from just 7 years ago shows how much context means to reading books. My reading habits have changed and my enjoyment of this book is a completely different one.
