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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
Duny is just an ordinary boy of the Earthsea archipelago, born and raised as a goatherd in the small village of Ten Alders on Gont Island. That is until he discovers his powers, first to manipulate beasts to do his will, then to do much, much more. Trained by his aunt, the village witch, and by the silent mage Ogion, he becomes Ged, one of the most talented students at the school of wizardry on the Island of Roke. But with power comes ego and pride, leading him to unleash mortal peril upon himself. His story is a great lesson of humility, and a warning to all those who wield power without knowledge, as beautifully said by Archmage Gensher:
This is the kind of book you can read multiple times without feeling like you already know what you had to know. The world and the characters that Le Guin created are fascinating and mysterious: I understand so well why Studio Ghibli artists thought this universe suitable for one of their enchanting animated adaptations. I really enjoyed reading it for the second time, and I'm sure I will re-read it one day.
Some might say that this book is quite conventionally sexist: women are barely mentioned and play very minor roles, as is often the case in older fantasy works. Le Guin recognizes it herself. However, knowing that this book was published in 1968, I'm really impressed by the fact that it breaks many other conventions that are still accepted today. Le Guin developed a fantasy saga in her own way, against expectations and norms.
First, she stepped away from the usual pattern depicting "men battling men, good against evil" to tell a more complex adventure. She highlights it in the afterword:
Very well said!
Second, she decided to make most of her characters dark-skinned, which at the time and to this day in the fantasy world, is extremely rare. See Robin Hobb's trilogies for a more recent exception.
It seems like such a little thing to do, but she says it herself in the afterword: many book covers of A Wizard of Earthsea depicted Ged as a white man until recently, showing that having dark-skinned heroes was unthinkable.
I admire Le Guin for her daring attitude and I look forward to reading the next books in this saga.
About the complete edition: beautiful, huge book that really forces you to make yourself comfortable and focus on what you're doing. The paper, font style and general design are very pleasant. The illustrations, so far, have been sadly underwhelming. Le Guin's story is beautiful, dark, and deep, and the illustrator chose a more childish style that, in my opinion, does not reflect Earthsea's spirit. Too bad!
Spoiler
You have great power inborn in you, and you used this power wrongly, to work a spell over which you had no control, not knowing how that spell affects the balance of light and dark, life and death, good and evil. And you were moved to do this by pride and by hate. Is it any wonder the result was ruin? You summoned a spirit from the dead, but with it came one of the Powers of unlife. Uncalled it came from a place where there are no names. Evil, it wills to work evil through you. The power you had to call it gives it power over you: you are connected. It is the shadow of your arrogance, the shadow of you ignorance, the shadow you cast. Has a shadow a name?"
This is the kind of book you can read multiple times without feeling like you already know what you had to know. The world and the characters that Le Guin created are fascinating and mysterious: I understand so well why Studio Ghibli artists thought this universe suitable for one of their enchanting animated adaptations. I really enjoyed reading it for the second time, and I'm sure I will re-read it one day.
Some might say that this book is quite conventionally sexist: women are barely mentioned and play very minor roles, as is often the case in older fantasy works. Le Guin recognizes it herself. However, knowing that this book was published in 1968, I'm really impressed by the fact that it breaks many other conventions that are still accepted today. Le Guin developed a fantasy saga in her own way, against expectations and norms.
First, she stepped away from the usual pattern depicting "men battling men, good against evil" to tell a more complex adventure. She highlights it in the afterword:
"But there are no wars in Earthsea. No soldiers, no armies, no battles. None of the militarism that came from the Arthurian saga and other sources and that by now, under the influence of fantasy war games, has become almost obligatory. [...] My mind refuses to limit all the elements that make an adventure story and make it exciting – danger, risk, challenge, courage – to battlefields. A hero whose heroism consists of killing people is uninteresting to me [...]. By reducing the choices of action to "a war against" whatever-it-is, you divide the world into Me or Us (good) and Them or It (bad) and reduce the ethical complexity and moral richness of our life to Yes/No, On/Off. This is puerile, misleading, and degrading. In stories, it evades any solution but violence and offers the reader mere infantile reassurance."
Very well said!
Second, she decided to make most of her characters dark-skinned, which at the time and to this day in the fantasy world, is extremely rare. See Robin Hobb's trilogies for a more recent exception.
I was bucking the racist tradition, "making a statement" – but I made it quietly, and it went almost unnoticed.
It seems like such a little thing to do, but she says it herself in the afterword: many book covers of A Wizard of Earthsea depicted Ged as a white man until recently, showing that having dark-skinned heroes was unthinkable.
I admire Le Guin for her daring attitude and I look forward to reading the next books in this saga.
About the complete edition: beautiful, huge book that really forces you to make yourself comfortable and focus on what you're doing. The paper, font style and general design are very pleasant. The illustrations, so far, have been sadly underwhelming. Le Guin's story is beautiful, dark, and deep, and the illustrator chose a more childish style that, in my opinion, does not reflect Earthsea's spirit. Too bad!
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can definitely see why this series is famous/popular. Having somewhat-accidentally read [b:Tales from Earthsea|13659|Tales from Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #5)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309202073s/13659.jpg|65982] (book "5" of the series, which is actually a volume of short stories, and set chronologically before this book, but intended to be read after book 4) first, it was definitely bittersweet to re-encounter Ogion.
არ მომეწონა, მშრალი იყო, იმედია გაუმჯობესდება შემდეგ წიგნებში.
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16.08.2022
იმსახურებს ოთხ ვარსკვლავს. უნიკალურია აბსოლუტურად.
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16.08.2022
იმსახურებს ოთხ ვარსკვლავს. უნიკალურია აბსოლუტურად.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
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
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes