Yuffie's Book Reviews

A Wizard of Earthsea - by Ursula Le Guin

A Wizard of Earthsea is a timeless classic, and there's not much to critique. Actually, since it's one of the mothers of modern fantasy, a lot of the ideas and plots in it are "seemingly" cliche, but it could also be what SPAWNED the cliches in the first place. Chicken or the egg. So it's hard to really say anything negative about this book.

So with that disclaimer out of the way, I'll try to analyze it anyway.

THE PLOT

It's about this goatherder kid named Ged who finds out he can work magic. He learns from the local sorceress for several years. Turns out he's a freaking prodigy at it and when a bunch of evil people attack his town, he casts a mega fog/illusion spell, which ultimately lets his people chase away the baddies.

Word spreads about this powerful mage boy, and an old wizard named Ogion comes and takes on Ged as his apprentice. He's really silent all the time and trying to teach Ged patience, but a 12-year-old boy is anything but patient. So he decides to ditch Ogion and enroll in an actual magic school.

The culture shock is pretty... shocking. He quickly forms a rivalry with one of the older boys, who's a douche. After a few years where Ged is excelling at magic here, his rival disses him, so Ged proudly (and stupidly) tries to raise the dead to prove he's a better sorcerer (or whatever the term is. I forget). It backfires, of course, and Ged accidently lets loose THE DARKNESS, a thing called a gebbeth.

The ensuing fight left Ged traumatized in mind and body, and he spent many months in the hospital. Once he recovers, he's now much more cautious and his ego is shot. He travels around searching for the darkness he unleashed on the world and trying to defeat it before it does evil things.

It's a typical fantasy plot, but like I said, I can't know if it was original when it was written, and all the similar plots of modern times were inspired by this.

It was well-structured, and the succession of events went well. The pacing dragged in the middle when Ged was just traveling and sailing and roaming around. But the beginning and ending were great. I especially loved the first 1/3 of the book when Ged was growing up and learning magic and fighting his rival. (it's a really short book, less than 200 pages, so this wasn't tedious or dragging at all). The pace was quick enough to hold my interest. We cover over a decade of time within 100 pages.

THE CHARACTERS

Fabulous characterization. The pov was very distant so we didn't get deep into anyone's head, but the characters we saw on the surface were well crafted, playing on each other's strenghts and weaknesses. Ged starts the story proud and arrogant, and he ends it calm and wizened beyond his 19 years.

The change in Ged after the darkness attacked him was great. He was completely humbled and traumatized and guilty at what he'd done, and it shaped him into a scared, cautious person. Eventually he found his strength and confidence, though the transition was slow and that was fantastic.

The side characters were all starkly different from each other. Ogion being the patient, silent, wise old mentor, the evil rival not being so in-your-face douchy. It was subtle, just a snide remark here and there from the rival to show he might be a douchebag. He wasn't a caricature, and I loved that.

THE WRITING

This was where the book shined. The style is so different from anything published today (that I've read). It's an extremely distant omniscient pov. The rhythm created by the long, flowing sentences is beautiful, and it painted such a gorgeous picture of the world and characters and story. It was very calming and soothing because Le Guin used longer sentences, and her mastery of vocabulary and word choice was evident. They weren't rambly sentences, and the words had this surreal, haunting, deep soul to them at times.

This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it definitely clicked with me. I'd picked up this book last year when I was in my height of DEEP POV IS THE BEST. DOWN WITH DISTANT POVS. But now that I'm a better read and wiser Yuff (sorta...), I admired Le Guin's prose, and I gained a new appreciation for omniscient povs. It just has a very different feel to it than mainstream books of today, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

THE WORLD BUILDING

Enchanting! Ged's land is a series of islands, an archipelago, so he was always sailing from place to place. It was a unique setting. Le Guin added a lot of details that made the world pop, and the magic system was pretty unique and creative with the use of true names, but not everything's name is known. Wizards can figure out the true names of things by feeling it and understanding it, which is a really ... warm and fuzzy way to go about it. I loved the idea, and it didn't feel farfetched.

Overall, it's a lovely book. It's got a great message at the end that resonated with me and stuck with me. I can't give this book a full 5 points because the middle really dragged, but maybe on a reread I'll have a better appreciation for it. I'd read it late at night when I was already tired, so that might have something to do with it. It wasn't the most mind-blowing and interesting book I've ever read, but it had a lot of great elements that I really appreciated. There's no wonder why it's such a beloved novel by so many people.

4/5 stars