Ursula K. Le Guin: A Wizard of Earthsea (Paperback, 1990, Bantam Books)
Mass Market Paperback
English language
Published Dec. 13, 1990 by Bantam Books.
A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.
Gainontzekoak irakurri ostean iruzkinduko dut istorio osoa, baina labur esanda: itzela izan daiteke!
I first read these books when I was actually in the target age group, but I have re-read them countless times since then, they are timeless and ageless. "A Wizard of Earthsea", with its superb world-building and archetypal story of shadow and light. "The Tombs of Atuan", with its marvelous sexual imagery and tentative exploration of female themes. And "The Farthest Shore", where Ged takes on life and the afterlife.
Ursula le Guin was like the leader of my tribe. I regret not seeing her in person, she was a regular a SF conventions, but she left behind a superb body of work which I am still discovering.
A must-read in the collection of fantasy classics
Prose is slim and considered, the imagery vivid without being exhausting, but I did not feel engaged with Ged, personally, philosophically, etc.
I appreciate how concise and capable a novel this is; that it is in its way rubbing against the grain of what, in 1969 especially, are the expectations of a fantasy novel and setting.
But I read it today, in a different cultural milieu. While Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed still felt compelling and relevant, Wizard of Earthsea is something I can only imagine once having a greater potency.
