Reviews with content warning for Death - Os Túmulos de Atuan

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Os Túmulos de Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

23 reviews

saucy_bookdragon's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

3.5

"To be reborn one must die, Tenar. It is not so hard as it looks from the other side."

The Tombs of Atuan is pretty different from its predecessor. Unlike the first book, it has a continuous plot and it is darker. It's also notable for having been a high fantasy book with a female protagonist published at a time that was rare.

I liked how this one was deeper than the first book, dealing with ideas of power and redemption as our heroine questions the only life she has ever known. I wish that it was a little longer and that we'd gotten more from the side characters and these themes. I found it a bit too sparse, though well written. I can see why Earthsea series is considered a classic fantasy and one that still holds up well today, notable for it's great writing, deep themes, and surprisingly inclusive cast.

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onalark's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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woweewhoa's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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steveatwaywords's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Le Guin's second of the original trilogy, like the first, is an odd narrative: don't enter her stories looking for a swashbuckling hero tale or one with clean ideas of good and evil, a tale of adventure magic or grand monsters. The antagonisms here are more subtle, and one protagonist (Ged) plays, in his mature years, a character of quiet gravity and humility. Instead, read it for the psychological play with the development of a young girl, with the assumptions we make of loyalties and tradition, with missed opportunities in relationships and the untraveled roads Frost recalls.

A bridge novel to the final work of the original trilogy, as carefully and patiently paced as it is, its singular pleasure is in the very absence of traditional adventure: Le Guin shows us that the real world of disorder and responsibility and consequence also apply to realms of fantasy, perhaps more so.

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crowcore's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Themes/motifs: gender & power; religion & power; yin/yang symbolism; coming of age & escaping abuse

Favorite scene: the entire last chapter

Favorite quote:

""He died because he loved me, and was faithful. He thought he was protecting me. When I was little he was kind to me when I cried-" She stopped again, for the tears rose hard in her, yet she would cry no more. Her hands were clenched on the black folds of her dress. "I was never kind to him," she said. "I will not go to Havnor. I will not go with you. Find some isle where no one comes, and put me there, and leave me. The evil must be paid for. I am not free."

The soft light, greyed by sea mist, glimmered between them.

"Listen, Tenar. Heed me. You were the vessel of evil. The evil is poured out. It is done. It is buried in its own tomb. You were never made for cruelty and darkness; you were made to hold light, as a lamp burning holds and gives its light.""

Tenar my beloved 💗💗💗😭😭😭
An examination of gender, religion, nationalism, & power from the point of view of a teenage girl growing up in a nationalist cult. Fascinating additions to the Earthsea series' lore and a compelling & relatable main character. Still definitely more of a YA book than Tehanu, but as I said I my review of the first Earthsea book, it's necessary groundwork for the perfection of the fourth one.

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toffishay's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

It's interesting for the second book in a series to focus primarily on a character totally unconnected to the main hero, but it was really interesting to hear the perspective of a group separate from the main world and with a warped ideology. I also appreciate having race discussed in a fantasy series in a way that is not theoretical. Ged and many others in the world are specifically brown-skinned and Kargads are white and distrust others in the world based on skin-color and ideology. I also like the journey of Tehar. She has to work against a world that took her from all that she knows and gave her some power, but power that is ulimately empty and built on nothing. But it is also all that she knows and she has to rely on Ged and herself to fight for a different, more open, but a more free life.

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