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A review by eowyns_helmet
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.0
This is a very thrifty story. Le Guin gets us right into a coming-of-age story involving a young wizard in this archipelago called Earthsea. Le Guin establishes his character with a few sure strokes, then takes us on a very believable journey. Some really lovely writing:
All at once he saw the shadow for a moment not far from him. The world's wind had been sinking, and the driving sleet of the storm had given way to a chill, ragged, thickening mist. Through this mist he glimpsed the shadow, fleeing somewhat to the right of his course. He spoke to the wind and sail and turned the tiller and pursued, though again it was blind pursuit: the fog thickened fast, boiled and tattering where it met with the spellwind, closing down all around the boat, a featureless pallor that deadened light and sight. Even as Ged spoke the first word of a clearing-charm, he saw the shadow again, still to the right of his course but very near and going slowly. The fog blew through the faceless vagueness of its head, yet it was shaped like a man, only deformed and changing, like a man's shadow. Ged veered the boat once more, thinking he had run his enemy to the ground: in that instant it vanished, and it was his boat that ran aground, smashing up on shoal rocks that the blowing mist had hidden from his sight.
Some elements may seem hackneyed, but of course that's mainly because Le Guin was first and 10,000 fantasy writers have come behind to use them. I have some quibbles -- he defeats the Pendor dragons too easily and the Lady of O also; but the rest is engaging, fast-paced and still highly readable.
JK Rowling does owe a lot to her -- essentially, the Harry Potter series is the first third of this book, with Ged in school. This is no ding on Rowling -- school is filled with many stories, which Le Guin passed through perhaps too quickly. Le Guin herself has praised Rowling for giving the "whole fantasy field a boost..." But she's also lamented that Rowling "could have been more gracious about her predecessors. My incredulity was at the critics who found the first book wonderfully original. She has many virtues, but originality isn't one of them. That hurt." (interview in The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/17/booksforchildrenandteenagers.shopping).
All at once he saw the shadow for a moment not far from him. The world's wind had been sinking, and the driving sleet of the storm had given way to a chill, ragged, thickening mist. Through this mist he glimpsed the shadow, fleeing somewhat to the right of his course. He spoke to the wind and sail and turned the tiller and pursued, though again it was blind pursuit: the fog thickened fast, boiled and tattering where it met with the spellwind, closing down all around the boat, a featureless pallor that deadened light and sight. Even as Ged spoke the first word of a clearing-charm, he saw the shadow again, still to the right of his course but very near and going slowly. The fog blew through the faceless vagueness of its head, yet it was shaped like a man, only deformed and changing, like a man's shadow. Ged veered the boat once more, thinking he had run his enemy to the ground: in that instant it vanished, and it was his boat that ran aground, smashing up on shoal rocks that the blowing mist had hidden from his sight.
Some elements may seem hackneyed, but of course that's mainly because Le Guin was first and 10,000 fantasy writers have come behind to use them. I have some quibbles -- he defeats the Pendor dragons too easily and the Lady of O also; but the rest is engaging, fast-paced and still highly readable.
JK Rowling does owe a lot to her -- essentially, the Harry Potter series is the first third of this book, with Ged in school. This is no ding on Rowling -- school is filled with many stories, which Le Guin passed through perhaps too quickly. Le Guin herself has praised Rowling for giving the "whole fantasy field a boost..." But she's also lamented that Rowling "could have been more gracious about her predecessors. My incredulity was at the critics who found the first book wonderfully original. She has many virtues, but originality isn't one of them. That hurt." (interview in The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/17/booksforchildrenandteenagers.shopping).