zoeelizabethk's Reviews (642)

In her afterword to my edition, Le Guin writes that, for the time, this novel was both conventional and a new beginning. She wanted true fantasy, which at the time was not the popular, massive industry of today’s world. But to me, A Wizard of Earthsea is all the best of true, classic fantasy. The book is told almost like a lay or a ballad and breathes magic and poetry and timelessness. This is not an action fantasy book, there are no real battles, and I will admit that, while I loved the prose, it took me longer to read than I expected. But the story is in no way stagnant. It deals with the action of Ged’s heart and how it is important to fight our own darkness, not just a vague evil. So maybe A Wizard of Earthsea is a coming-of-age tale. But if it is, then we are all coming of age, because it speaks of the battles we must fight everyday, from childhood to the end of our lives.

This book was haunting. I thought I’d read it before, but if I had, then it was a long time ago and I’d mostly forgotten it. Definitely a very good book, and I loved the character development and narrative aspects. You can even feel Death’s attitude change during the telling of The Book Thief. I did feel it dragged a bit in places. It was very good but it was not one of those books that just captured me and I read it quickly. I had to push myself to get through it but it really pulled me in the last two or three books. Four stars.

Great little story. It was a little bizarre to read it after finishing the whole series but it was also neat to see how well planned some aspects of the series were planned out.