A review by eyeowna
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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

Le Guin in her afterward (Libby ebook edition): “To be the man he can be, Ged has to find out who and what his real enemy is. He has to find out what it means to be himself. That requires not a war but a search and a discovery. The search takes him through mortal danger, loss, and suffering. The discovery brings him victory, the kind of victory that isn’t the end of a battle but the beginning of a life.”

This is Fantasy. Cold seas and warm hearths, friendship and hate, a psychological coming of age, subversive of the genre and yet reads like a well-worn old myth. I can’t believe it took me so long to get around to reading this.