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A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle Series Book 1) by [Ursula K. Le Guin]

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Ursula K. Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Ursula K. Le Guin (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

5,742 ratings

Book 1 of 6: The Earthsea Cycle

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The first novel of Ursula K. Le Guin's must-read Earthsea Cycle. "The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream." (Neil Gaiman)

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world.

This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

With stories as perennial and universally beloved as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of The Rings—but also unlike anything but themselves—Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea novels are some of the most acclaimed and awarded works in literature. They have received accolades such as the National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, the Nebula Award, and many more honors, commemorating their enduring place in the hearts and minds of readers and the literary world alike.

Join the millions of fantasy readers who have explored these lands. As The Guardian put it: "Ursula Le Guin's world of Earthsea is a tangled skein of tiny islands cast on a vast sea. The islands' names pull at my heart like no others: Roke, Perilane, Osskil . . ."

The Earthsea Cycle includes:

A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore
Tehanu
Tales from Earthsea
The Other Wind

Reading age

11+ years, from customers
Print length

210 pages
Language

English
Grade level

7 - 9
Lexile measure

1150L
Publisher

Clarion Books
Publication date

September 11, 2012
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ISBN-13

978-0547722023
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But need alone is not enough to set power free: there must be knowledge.
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Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light?
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“Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky.”
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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The beloved author Ursula K. Le Guin was awarded a Newbery Honor for her second novel in the Earthsea Cycle, The Tombs of Atuan. Among her other distinctions are the Margaret A. Edwards Award, a National Book Award, and six Nebula Awards. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit her at www.ursulakleguin.com.

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Inside Flap

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

From the Paperback edition. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream."—Neil Gaiman, author of The Sandman

"New and longtime Earthsea fans will be drawn to these impressive new editions."—Horn Book —

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was born in 1929; her parents were the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and the writer Theodora Kroeber. She writes both poetry and prose, including realistic fiction, science fiction, fantasy, young children's books, books for young adults, screenplays, essays, verbal texts for musicians, and voicetexts for performance or recording. She has published five books of poetry, seventeen novels, over a hundred short stories (collected in eight volumes), two collections of essays, eleven books for children, and two volumes of translation. Several of Le Guin's major titles have remained continuously in print for over thirty years. Her best known fantasy works, the first four Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in America and England, and have been translated into sixteen languages. Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and among the many honors her writing has received are the National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula awards, the Kafka award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Award. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

WARRIORS IN THE MIST

The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards. From the towns in its high valleys and the ports on its dark narrow bays many a Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wander working magic from isle to isle of all Earthsea. Of these some say the greatest, and surely the greatest voyager, was the man called Sparrowhawk, who in his day became both dragonlord and Archmage. His life is told of in the Deed of Ged and in many songs, but this is a tale of the time before his fame, before the songs were made.

He was born in a lonely village called Ten Alders, high on the mountain at the head of the Northward Vale. Below the village the pastures and plow lands of the Vale slope downward level below level towards the sea, and other towns lie on the bends of the River Ar; above the village only forest rises ridge behind ridge to the stone and snow of the heights.

The name he bore as a child, Duny, was given him by his mother, and that and his life were all she could give him, for she died before he was a year old. His father, the bronze-smith of the village, was a grim unspeaking man, and since Duny's six brothers were older than he by many years and went one by one from home to farm the land or sail the sea or work as smith in other towns of the Northward Vale, there was no one to bring the child up in tenderness. He grew wild, a thriving weed, a tall, quick boy, loud and proud and full of temper. With the few other children of the village he herded goats on the steep meadows above the river-springs; and when he was strong enough to push and pull the long bellows-sleeves, his father made him work as smith's boy, at a high cost in blows and whippings. There was not much work to be got out of Duny. He was always off and away; roaming deep in the forest, swimming in the pools of the River Ar that like all Gontish rivers runs very quick and cold, or climbing by cliff and scarp to the heights above the forest, from which he could see the sea, that broad northern ocean where, past Perregal, no islands are.

A sister of his dead mother lived in the village. She had done what was needful for him as a baby, but she had business of her own and once he could look after himself at all she paid no more heed to him. But one day when the boy was seven years old, untaught and knowing nothing of the arts and powers that are in the world, he heard his aunt crying out words to a goat which had jumped up onto the thatch of a hut and would not come down: but it came jumping when she cried a certain rhyme to it. Next day herding the longhaired goats on the meadows of High Fall, Duny shouted to them the words he had heard, not knowing their use or meaning or what kind of words they were:

Noth hierth malk man

hiolk han merth han!

He yelled the rhyme aloud, and the goats came to him. They came very quickly, all of them together, not making any sound. They looked at him out of the dark slot in their yellow eyes.

Duny laughed and shouted it out again, the rhyme that gave him power over the goats. They came closer, crowding and pushing round him. All at once he felt afraid of their thick, ridged horns and their strange eyes and their strange silence. He tried to get free of them and to run away. The goats ran with him keeping in a knot around him, and so they came charging down into the village at last, all the goats going huddled together as if a rope were pulled tight round them, and the boy in the midst of them weeping and bellowing. Villagers ran from their houses to swear at the goats and laugh at the boy. Among them came the boy's aunt, who did not laugh. She said a word to the goats, and the beasts began to bleat and browse and wander, freed from the spell.

"Come with me," she said to Duny.

She took him into her hut where she lived alone. She let no child enter there usually, and the children feared the place. It was low and dusky, windowless, fragrant with herbs that hung drying from the crosspole of the roof, mint and moly and thyme, yarrow and rushwash and paramal, kingsfoil, clovenfoot, tansy and bay. There his aunt sat crosslegged by the firepit, and looking sidelong at the boy through the tangles of her black hair she asked him what he had said to the goats, and if he knew what the rhyme was. When she found that he knew nothing, and yet had spellbound the goats to come to him and follow him, then she saw that he must have in him the makings of power.

As her sister's son he had been nothing to her, but now she looked at him with a new eye. She praised him, and told him she might teach him rhymes he would like better, such as the word that makes a snail look out of its shell, or the name that calls a falcon down from the sky.

"Aye, teach me that name!" he said, being clear over the fright the goats had given him, and puffed up with her praise of his cleverness.

The witch said to him, "You will not ever tell that word to the other children, if I teach it to you."

"I promise."

She smiled at his ready ignorance. "Well and good. But I will bind your promise. Your tongue will be stilled until I choose to unbind it, and even then, though you can speak, you will not be able to speak the word I teach you where another person can hear it. We must keep the secrets of our craft."

"Good," said the boy, for he had no wish to tell the secret to his playmates, liking to know and do what they knew not and could not.

He sat still while his aunt bound back her uncombed hair, and knotted the belt of her dress, and again sat cross-legged throwing handfuls of leaves into the firepit, so that a smoke spread and filled the darkness of the hut. She began to sing. Her voice changed sometimes to low or high as if another voice sang through her, and the singing went on and on until the boy did not know if he waked or slept, and all the while the witch's old black dog that never barked sat by him with eyes red from the smoke. Then the witch spoke to Duny in a tongue he did not understand, and made him say with her certain rhymes and words until the enchantment came on him and held him still.

"Speak!" she said to test the spell.

The boy could not speak, but he laughed.

Then his aunt was a little afraid of his strength, for this was as strong a spell as she knew how to weave: she had tried not only to gain control of his speech and silence, but to bind him at the same time to her service in the craft of sorcery. Yet even as the spell bound him, he had laughed. She said nothing. She threw clear water on the fire till the smoke cleared away, and gave the boy water to drink, and when the air was clear and he could speak again she taught him the true name of the falcon, to which the falcon must come.

This was Duny's first step on the way he was to follow all his life, the way of magery, the way that led him at last to hunt a shadow over land and sea to the lightless coasts of death's kingdom. But in those first steps along the way, it seemed a broad, bright road.

When he found that the wild falcons stooped down to him from the wind when he summoned them by name, lighting with a thunder of wings on his wrist like the hunting-birds of a prince, then he hungered to know more such names and came to his aunt begging to learn the name of the sparrowhawk and the osprey and the eagle. To earn the words of power he did all the witch asked of him and learned of her all she taught, though not all of it was pleasant to do or know. There is a saying on Gont, Weak as woman's magic, and there is another saying, Wicked as woman's magic. Now the witch of Ten Alders was no black sorceress, nor did she ever meddle with the high arts or traffic with Old Powers; but being an ignorant woman among ignorant folk, she often used her crafts to foolish and dubious ends. She knew nothing of the Balance and the Pattern which the true wizard knows and serves, and which keep him from using his spells unless real need demands. She had a spell for every circumstance, and was forever weaving charms. Much of her lore was mere rubbish and humbug, nor did she know the true spells from the false. She knew many curses, and was better at causing sickness, perhaps, than at curing it. Like any village witch she could brew up a love-potion, but there were other, uglier brews she made to serve men's jealousy and hate. Such practices, however, she kept from her young prentice, and as far as she was able she taught him honest craft.

At first all his pleasure in the art-magic was, childlike, the power it gave him over bird and beast, and the knowledge of these. And indeed that pleasure stayed with him all his life. Seeing him in the high pastures often with a bird of prey about him, the other children called him Sparrowhawk, and so he came by the name that he kept in later life as his use-name, when his true-name was not known.

As the witch kept talking of the glory and the riches and the great power over men that a sorcerer could gain, he set himself to learn more useful lore. He was very quick at it. The witch praised him and the children of the village began to fear him, and he himself was sure that very soon he would become great among men. So he went on from word to word and from spell to spell with the witch till he was twelve years old and had learned from her a great part of what she knew: not much, but enough for the witchwife of a small village, and more than enough for a boy of twelve. She had taught him all her lore in herbals and healing, and all she knew of the crafts of finding, binding, mending, unsealing and revealing. What she knew of chanters' tales and the great Deeds she had sung him, and all the words of the True Speech that she had learned from the sorcerer that taught her, she taught again to Duny. And from weatherworkers and wandering jugglers who went from town to town of the Northward... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Amazon.com Review

Often compared to Tolkien's Middle-earth or Lewis's Narnia, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea is a stunning fantasy world that grabs quickly at our hearts, pulling us deeply into its imaginary realms. Four books (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu) tell the whole Earthsea cycle--a tale about a reckless, awkward boy named Sparrowhawk who becomes a wizard's apprentice after the wizard reveals Sparrowhawk's true name. The boy comes to realize that his fate may be far more important than he ever dreamed possible. Le Guin challenges her readers to think about the power of language, how in the act of naming the world around us we actually create that world. Teens, especially, will be inspired by the way Le Guin allows her characters to evolve and grow into their own powers.

In this first book, A Wizard of Earthsea readers will witness Sparrowhawk's moving rite of passage--when he discovers his true name and becomes a young man. Great challenges await Sparrowhawk, including an almost deadly battle with a sinister creature, a monster that may be his own shadow.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Publisher

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, but once he was called Sparrowhawk, a reckless youth, hungry for power and knowledge, who tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

Ellison's narration absorbs the listener into the imaginary realm of Roke Island where Ged grows from a reckless, awkward boy to become the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea. Besides offering a coming-of-age saga, Le Guin challenges listeners to consider the power of language: Ged's naming of things in the world creates that world. Harlan Ellison sounds like the guy next door, and his approach adds a touch of reality to this youthful fantasy story. Ellison's excellent pacing, volume, and use of dramatic pauses help weave a spell of enchantment and magic. Teens will find the way Le Guin allows Ged to grow into his power inspiring. S.C.A. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008T9L6AM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Clarion Books; Reissue edition (September 11, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 11, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 10901 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 210 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,500 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2 in Children's Coming of Age Fantasy Books
- #3 in Teen & Young Adult Classic eBooks
- #8 in Teen & Young Adult Coming of Age Fantasy eBooks

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Ursula K. Le Guin

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Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (US /ˈɜːrsələ ˈkroʊbər ləˈɡwɪn/; born October 21, 1929) is an American author of novels, children's books, and short stories, mainly in the genres of fantasy and science fiction. She has also written poetry and essays. First published in the 1960s, her work has often depicted futuristic or imaginary alternative worlds in politics, the natural environment, gender, religion, sexuality and ethnography.

She influenced such Booker Prize winners and other writers as Salman Rushdie and David Mitchell – and notable science fiction and fantasy writers including Neil Gaiman and Iain Banks. She has won the Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Locus Award, and World Fantasy Award, each more than once. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. Le Guin has resided in Portland, Oregon since 1959.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Tory Anderson

Magic With Consequences

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 17, 2016

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Earthsea’s approach to magic deeply intrigued me. Like most human beings I find the idea of magic fascinating. To be able to wave my hand or a wand, say a word, and have what I want to happen is a very seductive daydream. However, I find that it usually accompanied by a bitter aftertaste. The bitterness stems from where magic meets reality. Rarely are there any solid attempts (or any attempts at all) to explain how magic works, what rules there are to using it, and the consequences of using it. While I can read books that involve magic, and enjoy them, I have a greater appreciation for those books where the author treats the magic as more than mere entertainment for the reader. Usula Le Guin does a remarkable job in A Wizard of Earthsea: Book 1.

Instead of giving in to the readers’ magical fantasies by having her hero use fantastic powers in battle for the purposes of shock and awe, she moves the opposite direction. We see little magic from Ged throughout the book even though one powerful wizard has foreseen that Ged will become the most powerful among them. Unlike Harry Potter where magic is used at every turn for the delight of the reader, Le Guin shows magic sparingly even though her world is full of it. For me that is a refreshing twist.
Ironically Ged, when he learns he has a propensity for magic, dreams like any of us would of all the things he will do with his magic when he learns how to use it. The day comes when a wizard takes him on as an apprentice. Ogion subtly showed great power by easily bringing Ged back from a near-death state that had been brought on by Ged’s overextending what little power he then had to save his village from attackers.

Ged is soon disappointed by this Ogion’s hesitancy to use magic. He won’t even use it to stop the rain so that they can sleep dry while traveling through the forest.

But Ogion let the rain fall where it would. He found a thick fir-tree and lay
down beneath it. Ged crouched among the dripping bushes wet and sullen,
and wondered what was the good of having power if you were too wise to use
it, and wished he had gone as prentice to that old weatherworker of the Vale,
where at least he would have slept dry.

I was impressed by Le Guin’s responsible approach toward magic. I was happy at how she carried out this restraint throughout the book, successfully using the restraint to keep my attention and not boring me.

Ged is unhappy with his tutelage by Ogion as it seems nothing more than learning how to live with nature. He doesn’t understand, or perhaps he just doesn’t have enough patience, to accept that this oneness with nature is the source of Ogion’s great power. Even after seeing a terrifying display of Ogion’s power, once more to save Ged’s life:

The door was flung wide. A man entered with a white light flaming about him, a
great bright figure who spoke aloud, fiercely and suddenly. The darkness and the whispering ceased and were dispelled.

Ged jumps at the chance to leave his apprenticeship under Ogion and go to the great wizarding school on the island of Roke.

But even on Roke, where Ged excels in his studies, the wizards, masters of magic, teach restraint in using it. I found I bought in wholeheartedly to Le Guin’s magical philosophy taught through these wizards.

To change this rock into a jewel, you must change its true name. And to do that, my son,
even to so small a scrap of the world, is to change the world . . . To light a candle is to cast a shadow.

Yes! A world of magic that has teeth. Using magic in this world has consequences.

Ged progresses in magic faster than he is emotionally mature and this, of course, leads to the conflict. Through pride and carelessness he calls something into the world that has no name and thus cannot be controlled by any wizard, let alone the young Ged. The rest of the book is about Ged surviving while learning how to face this dark power he has unleashed.

Ged, a young wizard who gets little respect and who is struggling for his life still lives as a hero. While confronting a dragon, and very possibly death, Ged is given a great temptation. The dragon, in a bid to save itself has a proposition:

“Yet I could help you. You will need help soon, against that which hunts you in the dark.”

Ged stood dumb.

“What is it that hunts you? Name it to me. . . . If you could name it you could master it, maybe, little wizard.
Maybe I could tell you its name, when I see it close by. And it will come close, if you wait about my isle.”

If Ged makes the deal he may save himself, but at the cost of the village who has hired him to save them.

Le Guin’s book reads like most novels you’ve read, but in tone it feels like a story being told around a campfire.

"So bolstering up his pride, he set all his strong will n the work they gave him, the lessons and crafts and histories and skills taught by the grey-cloaked masters of Roke, who were called the Nine."

The world she creates has great detail while at the same time displaying a sparseness that a story of the oral tradition might have. This bothered me a little, falling short of the Tolkien complexity of details, and yet intrigued me as a legitimate, polished style she consciously chose.

If you are a serious fan of fantasy, but haven’t read A Wizard of Earthsea, you ought to. You may not like Le Guin’s style as opposed to how writers are writing today, but it is serious book, very readable, that will give good contrast to the other books of magic you may come across and make your reading experiences more pleasurable. Jacob and Lace

39 people found this helpful

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Grabast family

Read in youth understood in age, forever a mage

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 31, 2022

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When I first found this book it lit my imagination and fueled a reality I longed to understand. Over the years it has fueled my imagination more and been a light for the reality I still long to understand but know that reality will never be understood while one lives in it. Though a work of fiction the words ring as true as any history known. A simply put... Must read book and series. My thanks to an author that fed meaning to a life I was so uncertain of.

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Fredrik Malcus

Earthsea the beginning

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2023

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So much joy starts with this. Remarkable, inventive, world builder, nature loving, people seeing, dragon friend and not without danger.

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Gerokee

Leaves a lot of gaps in the story, still well worth a read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 22, 2022

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In newer literature, this book would span thrice the amount of pages. Lots of things remain unexplained or are only hinted at. The system of magic remains quite arbitrary, for most of the time the reader is left wondering why not more of our is used. "Equilibrium" is the intangible answer. Islands are enumerated, touched and left behind so fast they do not leave a memory imprint. The main antagonist unexpectedly disappears from the story almost entirely (unless I missed a hint). The protagonist is the only character which has development, and even that is limited to a few major events. The climax is very short, quite uneventful, and precedes the end of the book by just a few paragraphs. No concepts or style elements seem very unique, but this could be true from today's perspective only, and maybe there was a lot of originality back when the book was written.

And yet it's a very enjoyable read. The slightly stilted language creates an air of dignity, the speed of the story is taking the reader for a breathless ride which makes it hard to put the book down, the scenes are vivid without needing long descriptions.

2 people found this helpful

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PlantBirdWoman

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin: A review

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 19, 2016

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How is it that I have been a constant reader all these mumble, mumble years and I've never read any of Ursula K. Le Guin's work? It defies comprehension. How many other wonderful writers have I overlooked along the way?

I was reminded of Le Guin recently when I was reading an article about influential women writers and her name was on the list of ten presented by the author. It seemed like a kick in the pants that I needed to stick one of her books into my reading queue and finally make her acquaintance. I decided to start with the Earthsea Cycle, her series of fantasy adventures. A Wizard of Earthsea was the first in the series.

Earthsea is Le Guin's equivalent of Middle Earth or the Seven Kingdoms - a fantastical world where sorcerers, wizards, witches, and dragons hold sway. A Wizard of Earthsea introduces us to young Sparrowhawk, a child who early on shows that he possesses the powers of a wizard. He is sent to apprentice with a master called Ogion, and his true name, Ged, is revealed. But at a certain point, the impatient Ged comes to feel that Ogion is holding him back. He's teaching him foundational stuff but what the youth wants is to learn "real magic."

Ogion offers Ged the opportunity to go to a place called Roke where there is something like an academy of wizardry that has an advanced course of learning. There, Ged makes a friend, Vetch, but he also makes an enemy, Jasper. He and Jasper are consumed by jealousy of each other and they engage in schoolboy dares, each trying to best his opponent.

In response to one of Jasper's dares, Ged summons the spirit of a long dead woman, but when the spirit comes, there also comes a shadow that is loosed on the world. That shadow becomes Ged's nemesis. It hunts him to annihilate him. The rest of the story tells of Ged's quest to master the shadow and destroy it before it destroys him. As he becomes the hunter rather than the hunted, he is joined by his friend, Vetch.

Ged is a flawed character, a stereotypical cocky adolescent who thinks he knows it all. Even though he is a wizard of formidable talent, he screws up time and again and must spend much of his time trying to rectify his mistakes. He seems, in other words, altogether human.

The story reminds the reader of many others that concern the hero's journey. Most obviously, perhaps, is The Lord of the Rings with the perilous journey of Frodo and Sam. But it also has clear connections to the Arthurian legends and the struggles of the Knights of the Round Table against evil in the world. This is a much slimmer volume than those tales and much of it is taken up with exposition of Ged's childhood and adolescence, background material for the rest of the series.

It's interesting that there are no armies, no wars here and not much bloodshed - unless you count the blood of the six dragons that Ged kills. In an afterword to the Kindle edition which I read, the author makes the point that this was deliberate. She set out to write a fantasy featuring the struggle between good and evil that was not drenched in blood. In her telling of that struggle, the key turns out to be to know yourself and to remain true to that self. Another important key is to know the true name of the evil you are wrestling. To know a thing's true name is to know its nature and to be able to gain power over it.

Also, in the afterword, Le Guin makes a point that her heroes in the story are people of color, a refreshing change from most contemporary fantasies or sci-fi of the time this book was published in which the heroes are almost always white guys. Even though she didn't make a big point of the characters' color in telling the story, this was her subtle bit of subversion back in 1968.

17 people found this helpful

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Max Speed

I read this 40 years ago - a joy to rediscover it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2020

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This book, the first of a trilogy, has inspired so many other authors, from Neil Gaiman to Ian Banks, or even underpinning the world of Harry Potter. A must read of the magical fantasy coming of age genre, complete with a magical school.

I first read this when I was 11 or 12 years old, I’ve just now re-read it, and, nostalgia aside, it is an amazing work. I was struck now by the quality of the writing, beautifully formed sentences, built from unusual and evocative words. And in this book, words have real power, naming a creature or object is what gives magical power over it.

So if you enjoy fantasy, magic & self-discovery, this is a must read to discover the author who inspired so many after her.

8 people found this helpful

Randal

and I like reading on kindle these days

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 11, 2017

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I still have my hardback copy of this bought back in 1971, but I wanted to read it again, and I like reading on kindle these days, hence I bought the electronic version. This is the first in a fabulous trilogy. (I'm less keen on the fourth book written some years later. Stick with the trilogy!) One of the best books/trilogies ever on the consequences of magic, and about taking responsibilities for our actions. Deep characterisation and a beautifully drawn world. Also a thrilling adventure. I can't recommend it highly enough.

20 people found this helpful

Tommye (The Fantasy Review)

The world in feels full, magical, and exciting!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 27, 2023

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A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin was a wonderful read. I love classic fantasy for the simplicity. It differs greatly to modern fantasy as it ‘tells’ much of the story rather than ‘showing’ it, but this is not a weakness of the novel.

The world in A Wizard of Earthsea feels full, magical, and I wasn’t left feeling like nothing much happened as there is so much travelling involved.

The Plot is Simple:

The hero of The Wizard of Earthsea, Ged, trains as a magician and goes into the world to face a dark force. Nothing too complicated – a nice, easy read.

After reading The Wizard of Earthsea, I saw where authors like J. K. Rowling and Patrick Rothfuss got their wizard-school inspiration. Kvothe in The Name of the Wind is surprisingly similar to Ged in this fantasy book.

The only reason this book is not 5 stars is because of the ending. I felt like it was a little rushed – Ursula K. Le Guin could have wrapped it up over a longer time.

That being said, I’m looking forward to reading the next book, The Tombs of Atuan soon!

Peter James West

An interesting story told with great skill

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 12, 2019

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This is the first Ursula K. Le Guin story I have read. It was written in 1968, pre-dating my birth. The story is about a young boy who becomes a mage, learns his trade and makes some pretty terrible mistakes along the way.

A large part of the book features the boy Ged searching for a mysterious entity that he has unwhittingly unleashed upon the world.
For a while I thought he might have been looking for a consistent point of view because it certainly wandered all over the place, roaming between multiple characters and the omnipresent voice often within the same scene. In a modern novel this would be frowned upon but I guess in 1968, authors were playing with a very different rule book.

Luckily this author handled the odd style well and enriched the story with many beautiful details about the characters and settings. Some of the description added real depth to the story. I enjoyed this story quite a bit.

5 people found this helpful

E. Hart

Never heard of it but such a gen

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 11, 2022

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This is truly perfect book from towards the end of classics fantasy. This book he's written with an unusual style. Third person omnipotent. But this tells the story of how a young boy becomes a wizard and his growth as a person.

Open till halfway through the book actually hated the main character; proud and arrogant. But then halfway through the book something happened which changes and leads him on a quest to the rest of the novel. This book is like a meditation.

This is a story of a young boy who finds out he is a powerful wizard, who goes to a magical School goes on the quest to confront an enemy that is hunting him but has to die in order to defeat that enemy. This is not the story of Harry potter but the story of sparrow hawk. Was published in 1968. Although TH White introduce the idea of a wizard School, it's actually the author of this book that develops into a proper concrete idea. This is the progenitor of wizard school novels.

Although this book reads like an anthology there is a definite through line of learning of history one of the greatest wizards of earthsea.

Best fantasy book I have ever read.

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