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bookmarc_nl 's review for:
A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. Le Guin
While I do wish I had encountered this book while growing up, even now I can‘t help but give it 5 stars. As Le Guin herself states in the afterword, this book was at once familiar in its usage of old fantasy tropes yet at the same went so far beyond that.
The story is still epic in scale, yet the cast is much smaller than would be expected. No wars stand at the center of the plot, but instead the main character‘s growth and self discovery. Le Guin makes her observations about the different characters with clear-eyedness and poetry. She writes like an anthropologist in that she withholds prejudice for different cultures, skin colors etc., seeing merit in all of them. She in fact manages to turn a surface level story of the battle between light and darkness into a rich study of grays.
The same skilled observations are made for the world and magic system. Descriptions are beautiful, yet not overly flowery. Instead there is a certain understatedness that gives the imagination more than enough to make the world feel alive, while never detracting from the actual action going on. Rather, certain omissions and unexplained terms indicate that the world has more secrets hidden everywhere, just waiting to be discovered by the reader.
The Wizard is understated while still feeling grand. It is beautifully crafted by a true master of the genre and will invite the reader to revisit Earthsea time and time again, be it through the other Earthsea books or inevitable rereads.
This is rightfully considered a classic I would recommend to anyone not fully scared away by a bit of magic.
The story is still epic in scale, yet the cast is much smaller than would be expected. No wars stand at the center of the plot, but instead the main character‘s growth and self discovery. Le Guin makes her observations about the different characters with clear-eyedness and poetry. She writes like an anthropologist in that she withholds prejudice for different cultures, skin colors etc., seeing merit in all of them. She in fact manages to turn a surface level story of the battle between light and darkness into a rich study of grays.
The same skilled observations are made for the world and magic system. Descriptions are beautiful, yet not overly flowery. Instead there is a certain understatedness that gives the imagination more than enough to make the world feel alive, while never detracting from the actual action going on. Rather, certain omissions and unexplained terms indicate that the world has more secrets hidden everywhere, just waiting to be discovered by the reader.
The Wizard is understated while still feeling grand. It is beautifully crafted by a true master of the genre and will invite the reader to revisit Earthsea time and time again, be it through the other Earthsea books or inevitable rereads.
This is rightfully considered a classic I would recommend to anyone not fully scared away by a bit of magic.