A review by studiomikarts
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This was my first time reading the second book in the Earthsea series. At first I was put off by how much worse the animal exploitation was (lots of religious animal sacrifice on top of the use of their body parts for other purposes already established in the previous book) but it was soon shown that humans were also being cruelly used by this society. The writing was just as good as the last book, so that made it easy to keep reading despite the upsetting material. Indeed, it became my theory that the animal exploitation was purposefully increased in order to create a harsh world for our protagonist to inhabit.
Once Arha and Ged finally met was the point where I actually began enjoy the book.
Until then, it was just the good writing and fast pace that kept me from giving up. Toward the end, I realized that my experience reading Ursula K. Le Guin's fantasy writing after being so disappointed in Diana Wynne Jones' feels just like when I read Alexandre Dumas after being disappointed in Victor Hugo. After being let down by a popular writer, reading a similar writer who lives up to their reputation is heartening. With this book, it eventually got so good that I couldn't help reading a chapter or two at a time, even when it made me late for whatever else I was supposed to be doing. Some elements I particularly enjoyed were reading a story from the point of view of the enemies from the previous book, seeing the environment I actually live in (sagebrush steppe) immortalized in a fantasy world, and getting a sort of behind-the-scenes look at the genesis of the Earthsea series in this edition's afterword. I didn't think I'd feel this way when I was reading the first chapters, but now that I've finished, I'd definitely read this book again. Here's a line I particularly loved, to end this review:

 Living, being in the world, was a much greater and stranger thing than she had ever dreamed. 
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