Reviews - A Wizard of Earthsea

9.8k reviews for:

A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula K. Le Guin

3.89 AVERAGE

cottonwood's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous inspiring reflective fast-paced

caca_uete's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging reflective 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

kylarkylar's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Little slow and lost me a little 3/4 of the way through but I liked the ending and the emphasis on loving male friendships!

mcconk's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

A work of pure, modern mythweaving, delivered in gorgeously lyrical prose. Once this book gets off the ground, it soars. Episodic, yet also a complete hero's journey, both classical and new, grounded in our own history of symbol and legend, and also in the richness of its own setting. The thing in its entirety feels like a case study in universality: Le Guin's defiant rebuke to the dominance of light skin and European iconography in high fantasy. She deftly proves that even the most fundamental of our stories, songs and monsters reach across all people. Dragons are included.

fudgecake10's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jasonben10's review against another edition

3.0

Interesting book. I recently re-read The Name of the Wind and there were some definite similarities but worlds of difference. Rothfuss is an eloquent little turtle and Le Guin is a monk with ADHD. She fires through this sucker, unconcerned with building out the magic systems, creating a rich world, or spending much time at all in any single place. I don't mean it as a criticism, the book felt extremely traditional but also fresh.

This has to be the least dialogue I've ever read in a fantasy. Every character is beyond reticent. Ged shares maybe 40 words total with his master. Perhaps 3 exchanges with his nemesis. Even his bff there's like a page and a half worth? I get the feeling Le Guin was intentionally avoiding exposition, maybe to make it easier for the reader to reflect their own humanity/experience/perspective onto Ged.

It was in the end a YA fantasy, seemingly the blueprint for many following it. Incredibly simple - a shotgun home type of story. There weren't really any climaxes at all. BAM dragon problem figured out in 2 lines. BOOM the ending happened in half a page. Very different to something like Wheel of Time.

In fact, fantasy elements were barely present, except to move the story along. Ged beats a couple of enemies with his staff instead of casting some type of spell. Most of the magic was building boats and moving wind. The end he grabs the shadow and re-appears in a bit. I kept wanting him to go avatar mode and go nuts and I think that's the point. I'm intrigued to read more of her books.

rachjtx's review against another edition

4.0

I read this book a long time ago, but I just finished reading it to my kids. It's not the fastest moving book ever, but it's a great story about the light and dark that exist in all of us and our quest to understand both sides.

This is my favorite bit: "A man who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life's sake."