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pocketspine 's review for:
A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Book Information:
I read a physical copy of A Wizard of Earthsea. It’s a classic 205-page fantasy, coming-of-age/bildungsroman novel about the main character Ged as he grows from a young boy with a talent for and interest in magic to a man that must learn how to deal with the consequences of a pride-fueled mistake he made in his youth.
Potential book trigger warnings: animal injury and death; blood; dead parent; death/murder; gore (light to medium); physical assault; spirit possession; violence
Potential review trigger warnings: N/A
Other book content of note: animal companion/familiar; dragons; magic (name magic, shadow magic); magic school; magic with a price; map illustrations; rivals
Other review content of note: spoilers (hidden as necessary)
(Let me know if I should add anything)
Style & Content:
Personally, I did not find the book particularly easy to read. Some of the grammar and punctuation choices made it difficult for me to read, which took me out of the story and stopped me from connecting to the characters more than I already was struggling to. I’m not sure if this is due to the time it was written (which was not that long ago) or just choices made by LeGuin in her writing of this book, but either way it negatively affected my reading experience. One thing that bothered me specifically was that the story is told in past tense, but occasionally switches to present tense when discussing aspects of the world. I have figured out that this is because the narrator seems to be telling the tale as if they live in that world currently and are recounting it as a tale from the past. That said, as I did not figure that out until I was most of the way through the book, the occasional and seemingly meaningless switch in tense bothered me significantly as I was reading.
One other aspect of the writing that I noticed that could be bothersome to readers (including myself) is that some book-specific terms were never defined. For example, throughout the book “werelights” are mentioned. However, it never explains what a werelight is, which made me unsure of what to visualize anytime they were present in a scene. This may not bother some readers, but I prefer books to define or at least better describe concepts that they are inventing (or renaming) so I can feel confident in my understanding of the scenes and their contents.
Unrelated to the writing, this book has a good amount of worldbuilding throughout it. This is fun and I generally enjoy that in my books. In this book, the fact that it wasn’t always plot-relevant was a bit bothersome (especially in the beginning) since I was already dealing with not vibing with the writing and wasn’t sure how much I should’ve been paying attention to some of the mentioned aspects of the world.
The book is very character-focused/driven as it follows Ged as he grows, learns, makes mistakes, and figures out how to deal with those mistakes. There is no plot to the story outside of Ged’s journey (though that journey is not void of its own plot), which could not be to the taste of some readers.
I think the goal of this book was to present an interesting story of a boy growing up and having to figure out how to make up for the mistakes he made in his youth out of arrogance and pride. I think it succeeds in this goal and tells an interesting tale of magic and its consequences while doing so.
Satisfaction:
Overall, I’d say I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting tale and I enjoyed many different aspects of it. Something I very much enjoyed was the magic; I liked how it was described in enough detail to understand things such as how it was being cast without needing to go into all of the details and I liked that the magic in this world came with a price. Another aspect of the book I liked was the friendship between Ged and Vetch. It’s very sweet and I enjoyed it greatly.
When it comes to aspects of the book I had a harder time with, there are a few things that come to mind. First are the maps. Initially I enjoyed the maps as I think it’s fun when a fantasy world gives the readers a way to visualize it. However, a few times throughout the novel, there are maps that take up pages of the book and I wish they were changed or removed. Those maps are positioned as if to help the reader understand better what was going on in the nearby scenes. However, as they were no more detailed than the map at the beginning of the book, I did not find them helpful and wished they could’ve instead been more detailed maps of particular islands instead of just zoomed in portions of the larger map.
The aspect of the book that I disliked most was the main character. -Spoilers: Ged’s Character Arc-
That all said, Ged does not stay arrogant and prideful the entire book. His pride causes him to make a grave mistake, trying to utilize magic he is not experienced enough to control, completely humbling him. After this turning point, I enjoyed Ged’s character more. As he fought to overcome his struggles and figure out what his life was going to be after his mistake, he felt more human and reading his journey became much more enjoyable for me. -End of Spoilers- If I were to reread the book now, I think I would enjoy it and him more as I am now aware of the journey he goes on and his character arc throughout it. The first time I read it though, I had been tempted to put down and stop reading the book due to my dislike of Ged at the beginning of the story.
Audience:
I think anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre has a chance at enjoying this book, especially if they like character-focused stories. Looking online, it appears that the intended audience is adolescents. Other than potentially some problems dealing with some of the grammatical/punctuation choices (unless for some reason I’m an outlier in being bothered by that), I think that kids of that age range could definitely enjoy this book. It’s also something that adults could find enjoyable as well.
Author:
Ursula K. Le Guin was a very influential author with very well-loved books, including her Earthsea fantasy series (of which A Wizard of Earthsea is the first). I do not know anything more about her or her work.
Rating:
3.5-3.75/5 stars (rounded to a 4 for the goodreads rating system)
I read a physical copy of A Wizard of Earthsea. It’s a classic 205-page fantasy, coming-of-age/bildungsroman novel about the main character Ged as he grows from a young boy with a talent for and interest in magic to a man that must learn how to deal with the consequences of a pride-fueled mistake he made in his youth.
Potential book trigger warnings: animal injury and death; blood; dead parent; death/murder; gore (light to medium); physical assault; spirit possession; violence
Potential review trigger warnings: N/A
Other book content of note: animal companion/familiar; dragons; magic (name magic, shadow magic); magic school; magic with a price; map illustrations; rivals
Other review content of note: spoilers (hidden as necessary)
(Let me know if I should add anything)
Style & Content:
Personally, I did not find the book particularly easy to read. Some of the grammar and punctuation choices made it difficult for me to read, which took me out of the story and stopped me from connecting to the characters more than I already was struggling to. I’m not sure if this is due to the time it was written (which was not that long ago) or just choices made by LeGuin in her writing of this book, but either way it negatively affected my reading experience. One thing that bothered me specifically was that the story is told in past tense, but occasionally switches to present tense when discussing aspects of the world. I have figured out that this is because the narrator seems to be telling the tale as if they live in that world currently and are recounting it as a tale from the past. That said, as I did not figure that out until I was most of the way through the book, the occasional and seemingly meaningless switch in tense bothered me significantly as I was reading.
One other aspect of the writing that I noticed that could be bothersome to readers (including myself) is that some book-specific terms were never defined. For example, throughout the book “werelights” are mentioned. However, it never explains what a werelight is, which made me unsure of what to visualize anytime they were present in a scene. This may not bother some readers, but I prefer books to define or at least better describe concepts that they are inventing (or renaming) so I can feel confident in my understanding of the scenes and their contents.
Unrelated to the writing, this book has a good amount of worldbuilding throughout it. This is fun and I generally enjoy that in my books. In this book, the fact that it wasn’t always plot-relevant was a bit bothersome (especially in the beginning) since I was already dealing with not vibing with the writing and wasn’t sure how much I should’ve been paying attention to some of the mentioned aspects of the world.
The book is very character-focused/driven as it follows Ged as he grows, learns, makes mistakes, and figures out how to deal with those mistakes. There is no plot to the story outside of Ged’s journey (though that journey is not void of its own plot), which could not be to the taste of some readers.
I think the goal of this book was to present an interesting story of a boy growing up and having to figure out how to make up for the mistakes he made in his youth out of arrogance and pride. I think it succeeds in this goal and tells an interesting tale of magic and its consequences while doing so.
Satisfaction:
Overall, I’d say I enjoyed this book. It was an interesting tale and I enjoyed many different aspects of it. Something I very much enjoyed was the magic; I liked how it was described in enough detail to understand things such as how it was being cast without needing to go into all of the details and I liked that the magic in this world came with a price. Another aspect of the book I liked was the friendship between Ged and Vetch. It’s very sweet and I enjoyed it greatly.
When it comes to aspects of the book I had a harder time with, there are a few things that come to mind. First are the maps. Initially I enjoyed the maps as I think it’s fun when a fantasy world gives the readers a way to visualize it. However, a few times throughout the novel, there are maps that take up pages of the book and I wish they were changed or removed. Those maps are positioned as if to help the reader understand better what was going on in the nearby scenes. However, as they were no more detailed than the map at the beginning of the book, I did not find them helpful and wished they could’ve instead been more detailed maps of particular islands instead of just zoomed in portions of the larger map.
The aspect of the book that I disliked most was the main character. -Spoilers: Ged’s Character Arc-
Spoiler
At the beginning of the book, Ged is very confident in his abilities, which makes him very full of himself. This is not helped by the fact that for a while, he is proven right as he does appear to be above average at magic and he is not shown to be even theoretically wrong about his own abilities. The only time at the beginning of the book that he is shown to be flawed in any way beyond pride is on page 73 when he’s mentioned to have a “black temper” that comes out “at the least hint of slight or insult”. That said, though that is told to us, we are never shown it.That all said, Ged does not stay arrogant and prideful the entire book. His pride causes him to make a grave mistake, trying to utilize magic he is not experienced enough to control, completely humbling him. After this turning point, I enjoyed Ged’s character more. As he fought to overcome his struggles and figure out what his life was going to be after his mistake, he felt more human and reading his journey became much more enjoyable for me.
Audience:
I think anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre has a chance at enjoying this book, especially if they like character-focused stories. Looking online, it appears that the intended audience is adolescents. Other than potentially some problems dealing with some of the grammatical/punctuation choices (unless for some reason I’m an outlier in being bothered by that), I think that kids of that age range could definitely enjoy this book. It’s also something that adults could find enjoyable as well.
Author:
Ursula K. Le Guin was a very influential author with very well-loved books, including her Earthsea fantasy series (of which A Wizard of Earthsea is the first). I do not know anything more about her or her work.
Rating:
3.5-3.75/5 stars (rounded to a 4 for the goodreads rating system)