A Wizard of Earthsea

This is one of the kind of books that people shudder when they think of fantasy. To be fair, it is one of the precursors of this kind of stories.

It is a children's book and offers nothing worthwhile reading, just some standard young magic boy tropes.

Read 0:58 of 7:09 / 14%

There was nothing new in this book for me. Themes I've encountered before and the same old uber-powerful hero. On top of it all, everything felt rushed. A bit of a disappointment, this one.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Le Guin's writing is beautiful – lyrical and powerful. I love how she makes all of her words count. They are all necessary, there's no fluff or redundancy – it's simple, natural, alive, and vivid. Her understanding of different people and cultures (her father was an anthropologist and her mother was a psychologist) enhances her ability to create imaginative, creative, and believable characters and worlds. When you step into Earthsea, you feel like you're in a real world with real people. It's deep and engrossing right from the start. And did I mention that the writing is beautiful?

This is the original boy-finds-out-he's-a-wizard-and-goes-to-wizard-school story and it's highly enjoyable for both adults and kids. And some of them are available on audiobook or Audible.com download – Hooray! (Those created by Fantastic Audio are particularly entertaining). Read more Ursula Le Guin book reviews at Fantasy literature.