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

Media:	Mass Market Paperback
Author:	Ursula K. Le Guin
Publisher:	Spectra
Release date:	28 September, 2004
Our price:	$7.99

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

Average rating: Stars

To Name is to Command

This book is about the coming of a very powerful wizard, named Ged. I read this book when I was a child, but I found it much more interesting as an adult. Le Guin creates a world with it's own definition of magic, where the highest power is commanding something by wielding its true name. one of Ged's classes is simply learning the names of everything, and I found this simple but powerful. Some people will compare this Harry Potter. Potter is more detailed and comprehensive while Earthsea is more thematic and brief. I recommend reading them both.

A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1) - Ursula K. Le Guin

A Poor Man's Harry Potter

I tried to get through this first book but just couldn't manage it. I was bored to tears. I presume Rowling was familiar with the basic idea of a young man going to wizard school and finding out who he really was, but Rowling did it brilliantly while Le Guin was just plain awful. I presume it was so popular when written because there just wasn't a lot of fantasy for fans of the genre. I'm amazed that it's still in print.

Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)

A decent start...

Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea books are hailed by many as an outstanding example of the fantasy genre. I am personally going to withhold judgment on that until I have had the opportunity to read the other two books in the original trilogy because while I enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea I felt that there were some things missing that could have made it a much better book. My hope is that those missing pieces will be filled in by The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore and that together the three books will make one outstanding tale.

My first thought upon finishing A Wizard of Earthsea was, "That's it?" I really felt that it was far too short. I enjoyed the story a lot, but it seemed as though I was just getting into it and things were really just beginning to happen when all of a sudden things were being wrapped up and before I knew it, the book was done.

One thing I would like to have read about is more of the magic theory of the world. There was lots of talk about classes in magic, but nothing that gave me a glimpse into how the magic really worked. There were enough different branches and classes to imply that there is a magic theory, but it was never elaborated upon. I would also have liked to know what differentiated the wizards from the sorcerers. I know that they touched on it in the book, but I never truly understood the difference. That is definitely one thing that I hope will be expounded upon in the later books.

Actually, I hope just about everything, including characterization, will be expounded upon in the later books. Like just about everything else in A Wizard of Earthsea, I felt that there was a good start on characterization, but that it could and should have gone a little farther for it to be truly complete. The only character I felt that I knew at all well was Ged, but there were a few, like Vetch and Ogion, who I felt as though I should have known better than I did, because they were important to Ged. In addition, I felt that the squabbles Ged had with some people would perhaps have had more meaning if I had known more about the people involved.

The only thing that I didn't really like about A Wizard of Earthsea was was Ged's reaction to what I thought should have been a traumatic event. I felt as though the whole incident was rather pointless because it didn't really affect Ged at all. He didn't really mourn as far as I can tell, and though it was mentioned that he was upset, I didn't see any signs of Ged being more than somewhat disappointed. Perhaps that was due to the fact that I didn't know him as well as I would have liked, but it did seem odd that I was more upset than Ged was.

Other than that, however, I found A Wizard of Earthsea to be a very enjoyable book. I wished that it was longer and that there was more to it, but that was because I was enjoying the book. I was sorry to see it end, and I'm looking forward to reading the other books in this series.

Consumer Bookstore