Synopsis: The beginning of the saga of Ged, a young prodigy in a world where knowledge of the Old Speech gives wizards power over their environment and one’s true name is their most vulnerable secret.
Review: Le Guin published this novel in 1968, and I worry that a lot of what I found dull here was original at the time and has since been done to death. The most off-putting example was a chapter about one year of Ged’s education at a renowned magic school. Students are sent to an isolated tower, with a professor who barely speaks except to deliver one profound quote and monitor the students’ assignments—they will spend the year memorizing tens of thousands of true names, a mind-numbingly dull task that will nonetheless make them almost instinctive experts. I still found this idea really cool, but it would’ve hit harder if I hadn’t previously read basically the same chapter in Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, published in 2009.
So the correct interpretation ought to be that Earthsea has an inventive language-based magic system and an approach to wizard education that will tickle any Harry Potter fan. However, I wish I’d seen more of it. The narrator takes an overt storytelling stance at the beginning and end, and that telling-not-showing tone keeps insidiously cropping up throughout the book. Events also happen rather quickly, with climactic encounters taking no more than a handful of pages. A Wizard of Earthsea told me a worthwhile story from the rocking chair opposite mine, but other authors have encouraged me to hold fantasy to the standard of living these stories, while Le Guin was content to keep some distance.
Strengths:
Ged is fighting against an evil that he himself is largely responsible for, which was refreshing in a high fantasy good vs. evil novel. This antagonist also had a very interesting nature that Le Guin utilized well.
Sentient dragons are hard to mess up, but Le Guin nonetheless created a fun secondary antagonist with a unique voice.
Weaknesses:
Though the novel lacks a love interest, the other archetypes for female characters are as well developed as you might expect from a ‘60s fantasy novel.
A wizard transforming into an animal for the first time should not have enough mastery over his body to defeat real versions of that animal in combat.
Rating: 16/20 improvised boats
Ideal Setting: Read this just after you mistakenly get scared by a shadow.
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