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A review by sgbrux
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.0
Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light? This sorcery is not a game we play for pleasure or for praise. Think of this: that every word, every act of our Art is said and is done either for good, or for evil. Before you speak or do you must know the price that is to pay!
I know I'm a few decades late getting into Ursula K Le Guin, but better late than never? For being published in 1968 and written by an American woman, I thought the first book was fairly progressive for its time. I remember reading Janny Wurts's To Ride Hell's Chasm a few months ago, which features a dark-skinned man as its main hero, and thinking that, sadly, was ahead of its time (pub. 2002), but Le Guin had her beat by over 30 years!
Overall, I found A Wizard of Earthsea to be a wholesome, classic fantasy story. It's pretty PG, not graphic at all, but I think I was reading how Le Guin had set out to write something appropriate for teens, which this definitely foot the bill. Though the resolutions with the dragon and the shadow were predictable, this was a solid story and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.
One of my favorite stories is The Princess and the Goblin written by George MacDonald in 1872, and there were many times while I was reading A Wizard that its narrative voice and style reminded me of that. It's this sort of detached fairy tale-storytelling voice that can make a couple hundred pages feel longer—a bit light on the character dialogue itself and heavier on the exposition. I did feel like there were some pacing issues with the book. When we meet the main character he's 12, and by the end, he's over 18 and drinking ale, and the book is only 200 pages to begin with.
Le Guin fast-forwards through Ged's years at magic school in Roke, which was a bummer for me. I love academia settings, and it left me wanting more, however we do get a few scenes with Ged's friend Vetch and his school rival Jasper. There are adorable little creatures and dragons and other magical happenings, which makes the story enjoyable.
I actually didn't like Ged in the first chunk of this book. I found him very jealous/egotistical and unlikeable. I was relieved when some bad things happened to him so he could get the chance to grow, which he did.
I definitely see the sphere of Ursula's influence with Earthsea, even some of her own influence from LOTR. I did catch flashes of Harry Potter with the whole wizard school setting and even Ged's less than ideal upbringing with his aunt. And I certainly saw influence in Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle with the Nine Masters of Roke (Windkey, Hand, Herbal, Chanter, Changer, Summoner, Namer, Patterner, & Archmage), the true names of things having power over them, and some other parallels.
The poetry of this quote really highlighted those similarities for me:
From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.
All in all, very glad to have started Earthsea! It's important to understand how fantasy has been influenced, art inspiring art, and this was a really cool example of that.
Here are more excerpts I appreciated:
"When you know the fourfoil in all its seasons root and leaf and flower, by sight and scent and seed, then you may learn its true name, knowing its being: which is more than its use. What, after all, is the use of you? or of myself? Is Gont Mountain useful, or the Open Sea?” Ogion went on a half mile or so, and said at last, “To hear, one must be silent."
The wise don’t need to ask, the fool asks in vain.
You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard’s power of Changing and of Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
If the Isles of Earthsea were all made of diamond, we’d lead a hard life here. Enjoy illusions, lad, and let the rocks be rocks.
Ged did not stop to think why Jasper might hate him. He only knew why he hated Jasper.
And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.
The hunger of a dragon is slow to wake, but hard to sate.
Since the night on Roke Knoll his desire had turned as much against fame and display as once it had been set on them. Always now he doubted his strength and dreaded the trial of his power.
Heal the wound and cure the illness, but let the dying spirit go.
He had almost yielded, but not quite. He had not consented. It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.
The longer a man stays in a form not his own, the greater this peril.
Light is a power. A great power, by which we exist, but which exists beyond our needs, in itself. Sunlight and starlight are time, and time is light. In the sunlight, in the days and years, life is.
I know I'm a few decades late getting into Ursula K Le Guin, but better late than never? For being published in 1968 and written by an American woman, I thought the first book was fairly progressive for its time. I remember reading Janny Wurts's To Ride Hell's Chasm a few months ago, which features a dark-skinned man as its main hero, and thinking that, sadly, was ahead of its time (pub. 2002), but Le Guin had her beat by over 30 years!
Overall, I found A Wizard of Earthsea to be a wholesome, classic fantasy story. It's pretty PG, not graphic at all, but I think I was reading how Le Guin had set out to write something appropriate for teens, which this definitely foot the bill. Though the resolutions with the dragon and the shadow were predictable, this was a solid story and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.
One of my favorite stories is The Princess and the Goblin written by George MacDonald in 1872, and there were many times while I was reading A Wizard that its narrative voice and style reminded me of that. It's this sort of detached fairy tale-storytelling voice that can make a couple hundred pages feel longer—a bit light on the character dialogue itself and heavier on the exposition. I did feel like there were some pacing issues with the book. When we meet the main character he's 12, and by the end, he's over 18 and drinking ale, and the book is only 200 pages to begin with.
Le Guin fast-forwards through Ged's years at magic school in Roke, which was a bummer for me. I love academia settings, and it left me wanting more, however we do get a few scenes with Ged's friend Vetch and his school rival Jasper. There are adorable little creatures and dragons and other magical happenings, which makes the story enjoyable.
I actually didn't like Ged in the first chunk of this book. I found him very jealous/egotistical and unlikeable. I was relieved when some bad things happened to him so he could get the chance to grow, which he did.
I definitely see the sphere of Ursula's influence with Earthsea, even some of her own influence from LOTR. I did catch flashes of Harry Potter with the whole wizard school setting and even Ged's less than ideal upbringing with his aunt. And I certainly saw influence in Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller Chronicle with the Nine Masters of Roke (Windkey, Hand, Herbal, Chanter, Changer, Summoner, Namer, Patterner, & Archmage), the true names of things having power over them, and some other parallels.
The poetry of this quote really highlighted those similarities for me:
From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.
All in all, very glad to have started Earthsea! It's important to understand how fantasy has been influenced, art inspiring art, and this was a really cool example of that.
Here are more excerpts I appreciated:
"When you know the fourfoil in all its seasons root and leaf and flower, by sight and scent and seed, then you may learn its true name, knowing its being: which is more than its use. What, after all, is the use of you? or of myself? Is Gont Mountain useful, or the Open Sea?” Ogion went on a half mile or so, and said at last, “To hear, one must be silent."
The wise don’t need to ask, the fool asks in vain.
You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard’s power of Changing and of Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow.
If the Isles of Earthsea were all made of diamond, we’d lead a hard life here. Enjoy illusions, lad, and let the rocks be rocks.
Ged did not stop to think why Jasper might hate him. He only knew why he hated Jasper.
And the truth is that as a man’s real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do.
The hunger of a dragon is slow to wake, but hard to sate.
Since the night on Roke Knoll his desire had turned as much against fame and display as once it had been set on them. Always now he doubted his strength and dreaded the trial of his power.
Heal the wound and cure the illness, but let the dying spirit go.
He had almost yielded, but not quite. He had not consented. It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.
The longer a man stays in a form not his own, the greater this peril.
Light is a power. A great power, by which we exist, but which exists beyond our needs, in itself. Sunlight and starlight are time, and time is light. In the sunlight, in the days and years, life is.