A Wizard of Earthsea

, #1

Paperback

Published Jan. 12, 1991 by Bantam Books.

ISBN:
978-99931-837-0-9
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4 stars (5 reviews)

A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.

45 editions

reviewed A wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)

Satisfying ending, but kind of a slog to get there

2 stars

I think I would've liked this more when I was 14.

I don't know what I was expecting with this, but I guess it wasn't a pretty bog standard fantasy wizard novel with all the trimmings, and more than a few tired tropes.

I suppose you could point out that this novel was written at a time when modern fantasy novel basically meant Lord of the Rings, when a lot of these tropes were new, and with this book Le Guin literally invented the young wizard coming of age subgenre.

You might even excuse the patriarchal society of Earthsea — including the shockingly unchallenged assertion that "women's magic" is weaker than "men's magic" — as a reflection of the patriarchal 1960's US society Le Guin wrote it in. Certainly, in the afterword of the edition I read, Le Guin talks about how she felt writing about a young brown-skinned teen …

Subjects

  • YA: Grades 7-9
  • Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)