A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by the small press Parnassus in 1968. It is regarded as a classic of children's literature and of fantasy, within which it is widely influential. The story is set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea and centers on a young mage named Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. He displays great power while still a boy and joins a school of wizardry, where his prickly nature drives him into conflict with a fellow student. During a magical duel, Ged's spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows Ged's journey as he seeks to be free of the creature.
The book has often been described as a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, as it explores Ged's process of learning to cope with power …
A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by the small press Parnassus in 1968. It is regarded as a classic of children's literature and of fantasy, within which it is widely influential. The story is set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea and centers on a young mage named Ged, born in a village on the island of Gont. He displays great power while still a boy and joins a school of wizardry, where his prickly nature drives him into conflict with a fellow student. During a magical duel, Ged's spell goes awry and releases a shadow creature that attacks him. The novel follows Ged's journey as he seeks to be free of the creature.
The book has often been described as a Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, as it explores Ged's process of learning to cope with power and come to terms with death. The novel also carries Taoist themes about a fundamental balance in the universe of Earthsea, which wizards are supposed to maintain, closely tied to the idea that language and names have power to affect the material world and alter this balance. The structure of the story is similar to that of a traditional epic, although critics have also described it as subverting this genre in many ways, such as by making the protagonist dark-skinned in contrast to more typical white-skinned heroes.
A Wizard of Earthsea received highly positive reviews, initially as a work for children and later among a general audience. It won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award in 1969 and was one of the final recipients of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1979. Margaret Atwood called it one of the "wellsprings" of fantasy literature. Le Guin wrote five subsequent books that are collectively referred to as the Earthsea Cycle, together with A Wizard of Earthsea: The Tombs of Atuan (1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), Tehanu (1990), The Other Wind (2001), and Tales from Earthsea (2001). George Slusser described the series as a "work of high style and imagination", while Amanda Craig said that A Wizard of Earthsea was "the most thrilling, wise, and beautiful children's novel ever".
I'm giving this a solid 4 stars. There was a lot I liked about this book. I cannot help but compare it to the Inheritance Cycle (IC), which I read before this. Primarily the magic system, which is similar to a degree that I'm inclined to think IC plagiarized it. The difference is that I was pretty annoyed with the magic in IC, and in this book it just feels natural. Like IC, this book also is a coming of age story, but the protagonist Greg a really profound evolution of character, which is absent in IC. I don't think it's ever happened to me that reading a book has made me think so much less of another. I recommend this as a nice quick read, and I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.
I enjoyed reading this. With her thoughtful writing style, the author did a wizardly job in creating the perfect mood for this slow-paced, sombre, yet hopeful adventure. I could feel Ged's unease and determination as if I had been with him.
I was enchanted by the interesting concept of magic in Earthsea.
And I also liked that we accompany Ged, of whom we know from the start that he will be a great wizard, from his very beginnings of his magical journey, when he was still inexperienced and short-tempered.
The cherry on top was the world building, which was a real charm! On Ged's voyage, I often could grasp the feeling of being on the open sea, a remote island or at the edge of the world.
Introduserer leseren for et episk univers, der magi og makt ligger i å vite tings sanne navn. Vi følger en ung trollmann på en dannelsesreise fra barndom i fattige kår til uteksaminert trollmann. Selv om boken ble skrevet for barn og ungdom så er den aldri barnslig og passer vel så godt for voksende. Anbefales!
There is a great deal to love in this book. There is wisdom, there is compassion, there is (particularly for its time) a considerable broadening of the scope of what a story of this type can be. Overall I am very fond of it. There are mainly two things that hold it back from being a five star read for me. The first is harm to a companion animal. The second is the fact that the writing style partakes of the heroic legend form of story telling, which is far from my favorite style. Still, unquestionably a novel that I would recommend.
There is a great deal to love in this book. There is wisdom, there is compassion, there is (particularly for its time) a considerable broadening of the scope of what a story of this type can be. Overall I am very fond of it. There are mainly two things that hold it back from being a five star read for me. The first is harm to a companion animal. The second is the fact that the writing style partakes of the heroic legend form of story telling, which is far from my favorite style. Still, unquestionably a novel that I would recommend.
This is the second time reading this cycle, and I have to say that revisiting this over the last two months--which is how long it took me to read all four books--has been a revelation. I appreciate that to say what she needed to say, at the time she said it, Le Guin needed the books to be very male centred, yet this culminates in the final book, Tehanu--to a story of survival, trauma and women's power. So grateful now that I am an older woman, to have these books
I did really enjoy reading this, and will almost certainly go on to read the other Earthsea books.
I came to Earthsea after reading several of Le Guin's Hainish cycle books and short stories, including some of the earliest ones like Rocannon's World. I can see similarities with the earliest Hainish cycle works, from around the same time - an emphasis on male characters, for example - which I am sure would have been handled differently by the same author had she written them later on. But there are still a lot of great ideas here, and it is far more open-minded than most fantasy literature of its era.
This was a nice, almost Tolkienesque read. I love the fact that Le Guin deliberately made the main characters non-white, because she despised the good=white, black=evil trope.
Uuuhm. I enjoyed it, and for a "men doing things while talking in a complicated way" fantasy story this is very very good. Still... I asked myself why a few times.
I generally listen to fantasy and sci-fi while I work. This was a wonderful short book that had interesting magic. I loved The Name of The Wind and I feel like this work inspired Mr. Rothfuss. The nature of this world and the magic of naming seems so similar to NOTW. The story's pace was good. I normally do not select works this short but I think I need to reconsider. It was very well written and had good prose. Not as serious as the other famous works by the author, but I like a nice and fun adventure as much as a serious commentary on human nature or society. I look forward to reading everything in the series.
A captivating tale of a young wizard. I was especially taken by the form that magic takes in this world, and it seems like there's lessons and insights there that can apply to our world also. I can't wait to find out what happens to Ged next.
Lo he disfrutado muchísimo! Sobretodo a partir de la mitad. Creo que ahí es donde coge fuelle el conflicto principal y empieza a entenderse por dónde nos quiere llevar. No suelo leer fantasía, de entrada no me llama nada. Este libro fue un regalo y además había leído cosas muy buenas acerca de Ursula K. Le Guin, así que le di una oportunidad y fue una buena decisión. Bajo el marco de la fantasía, este libro es un coming of age (de mis cosas favoritas en literatura) y también, un poco, libro de viajes. Me ha alucinado la geografía de Terramar, su originalidad, el dibujo del mapa, las descripciones de los territorios y sus gentes. Los conceptos alrededor del conflicto principal del personaje, de la magia y los nombres, son muy buenas.
Por último, en esta edición hay un epílogo en el que la autora reflexiona sobre la escritura del …
Lo he disfrutado muchísimo! Sobretodo a partir de la mitad. Creo que ahí es donde coge fuelle el conflicto principal y empieza a entenderse por dónde nos quiere llevar. No suelo leer fantasía, de entrada no me llama nada. Este libro fue un regalo y además había leído cosas muy buenas acerca de Ursula K. Le Guin, así que le di una oportunidad y fue una buena decisión. Bajo el marco de la fantasía, este libro es un coming of age (de mis cosas favoritas en literatura) y también, un poco, libro de viajes. Me ha alucinado la geografía de Terramar, su originalidad, el dibujo del mapa, las descripciones de los territorios y sus gentes. Los conceptos alrededor del conflicto principal del personaje, de la magia y los nombres, son muy buenas.
Por último, en esta edición hay un epílogo en el que la autora reflexiona sobre la escritura del libro y me parece, sinceramente, una tía de puta madre.
