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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
I just finished reading this book to my little kids (7 and 9) - a book I have read myself literally hundreds of times - I didn't expect them to love it as much as I did, but they did enjoy it more than I expected, and my 7 year old even understood a little of the Tenar/Arha struggle (in terms of "being like Star Wars" - Tenar "kills" Arha in much the same way Vader "kills" Anakin, a conceit repeated throughout the original Star Wars and now (2022) in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series in which Vader himself basically says, "You didn't kill Anakin! *I* did!"). OK, so - Tombs of Atuan is set in Earthsea. A young girl named Tenar is taken and dedicated to the Dark Powers under the Earth, and symbolically "eaten" to become Arha - "the Eaten One." She lives a life in service to evil, inflicting casual cruelty and herself suffering cruelty of others, until a wizard shows up in the Tombs of which she is the priestess and guardian. The wizard turns out to be Ged/Sparrowhawk from the first book. He gives her back her name that was eaten - Tenar - and makes her realize that she should escape, that a life in service to darkness and evil is hollow and empty, and helps her find the courage to break free (I guess that's a bit of a spoiler, if you haven't read it before, but honestly, you can see that's where it's going - the fun is in HOW). This edition even has sone notes from LeGuin about how a part of her wanted to make Tenar a feminist icon, and break free on her own without the help of a man, but she just couldn't force the story that way, and then she herself realized that liberation is almost always a collective, communal effort - few of us live in a vacuum, without the community of others. So. Great book, great edition, and I was happy my kids enjoyed it.
Didn't like it as much as Wizard of Earthsea, but a nice continuation of the series.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is the second Earthsea book. I read the first book about 10 years ago. I like the magic system that Le Guin came up with. I am totally going to steal this plot and use it as a dungeon crawl adventure.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great!
Book Two: The Tombs of Atuan (finished 12/03/2019)
I love the old-world, almost dreamesque quality to the writing and the atmosphere Le Guin creates in these stories. Written in the 70s but they feel as though they could be old sagas. This tale is an interesting look at old religion, and believing in things because it always has been believed it - but not necesserily because it is so.
The Tombs of Atuan are in a desert where there are temples above ground and many priestesses to pray to the gods and keep things running. Most work for the godking and his luxurious temple. The godking being literally what it says; the ruling family of the group of islands who put themselves into god status a few generations back and put themselves higher than the old religion. On the site there is also a crumbling temple to the nameless ones, who exist in the darkness down in the caverns and labyrinths beneath the ground. This temple is managed by the ultimate high priestess, who is pretty much on her own here. When she dies the other priestesses go about the island looking for a baby girl born the moment the priestess dies. And this child is taken from its family at the age of five to be trained and serve this religion and these dark shadowy gods.
The story follows a little girl, Tenar, who is taken from her family and in the ceremony, essentially "eaten" so that she herself is gone, now known as Arha ("the eaten one") and her sole purpose is to serve her nameless gods. Which all sounds very noble and spiritual, but of course they are all real people living at this site, so there are jealousies and plotting and a bit of back stabbing. And although in theory she is no longer herself, Arha struggles with growing up and the fact that she is still a person with her own thoughts.
Only the priestess can go into the labyrinth, many rooms of which may never have light in them. One day she goes down and is horrified to discover a strange light in one such cavern. Worse still, a stranger is there - and a man. The sacriledge just keeps building up. She locks the door and makes sure he is trapped within the labyrinth. According to the religion she ought to have him killed, but her compassion stops her, and she finds herself sneaking down to find out who this person is. And here was I thinking this was a completely seperate story of Earthsea, but our favourite wizard, Sparrowhawk/Ged has turned up again on a mission.
Really enjoyed this story. Perhaps not the most fast paced or dramatic but very evocative and thoughtful.
I love the old-world, almost dreamesque quality to the writing and the atmosphere Le Guin creates in these stories. Written in the 70s but they feel as though they could be old sagas. This tale is an interesting look at old religion, and believing in things because it always has been believed it - but not necesserily because it is so.
The Tombs of Atuan are in a desert where there are temples above ground and many priestesses to pray to the gods and keep things running. Most work for the godking and his luxurious temple. The godking being literally what it says; the ruling family of the group of islands who put themselves into god status a few generations back and put themselves higher than the old religion. On the site there is also a crumbling temple to the nameless ones, who exist in the darkness down in the caverns and labyrinths beneath the ground. This temple is managed by the ultimate high priestess, who is pretty much on her own here. When she dies the other priestesses go about the island looking for a baby girl born the moment the priestess dies. And this child is taken from its family at the age of five to be trained and serve this religion and these dark shadowy gods.
The story follows a little girl, Tenar, who is taken from her family and in the ceremony, essentially "eaten" so that she herself is gone, now known as Arha ("the eaten one") and her sole purpose is to serve her nameless gods. Which all sounds very noble and spiritual, but of course they are all real people living at this site, so there are jealousies and plotting and a bit of back stabbing. And although in theory she is no longer herself, Arha struggles with growing up and the fact that she is still a person with her own thoughts.
Only the priestess can go into the labyrinth, many rooms of which may never have light in them. One day she goes down and is horrified to discover a strange light in one such cavern. Worse still, a stranger is there - and a man. The sacriledge just keeps building up. She locks the door and makes sure he is trapped within the labyrinth. According to the religion she ought to have him killed, but her compassion stops her, and she finds herself sneaking down to find out who this person is. And here was I thinking this was a completely seperate story of Earthsea, but our favourite wizard, Sparrowhawk/Ged has turned up again on a mission.
Really enjoyed this story. Perhaps not the most fast paced or dramatic but very evocative and thoughtful.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first book of Earthsea was an epic, almost like Beowulf, leaping across countries and years and decades, sometimes over the course of a paragraph or two. It made for a beautiful but strangely distant read.
This book, in stark contrast, is dark, cramped, pained, and furious. I was entranced.
The juxtaposition of the two books is really something. Both Ged and Tenar are powerful, damaged, and arrogant, but it's in such vastly different ways. Tenar is the victim of a vicious and oppressive upbringing, the queen of nothing but darkness and decay. Her frustration and fury claw into you as you read, but the moments of freedom and release she has are such an incredible reprieve.
Le Guin wields descriptions of the natural world like a scalpel--they are brief, sparing, and exact. Nothing is wasted.
This book, in stark contrast, is dark, cramped, pained, and furious. I was entranced.
The juxtaposition of the two books is really something. Both Ged and Tenar are powerful, damaged, and arrogant, but it's in such vastly different ways. Tenar is the victim of a vicious and oppressive upbringing, the queen of nothing but darkness and decay. Her frustration and fury claw into you as you read, but the moments of freedom and release she has are such an incredible reprieve.
Le Guin wields descriptions of the natural world like a scalpel--they are brief, sparing, and exact. Nothing is wasted.