A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)

Audio Cassette

English language

Published Jan. 6, 1997 by BBC Pubns.

ISBN:
978-0-563-38916-3
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
45969044

View on OpenLibrary

2 stars (1 review)

5 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

  • Fantasy
  • Radio
  • Audio: Juvenile