A Wizard of Earthsea
A Wizard of Earthsea is the first of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea
books. It's also the first YA book she ever wrote, according to a note
at the end of the book, which may explain some of the issues I had with
the pacing of the story.
The book follows Ged, a boy who is born with a talent for magic. Over the course of the story he begins to study magic, heads off to a university for sorcerers, graduates, and faces some initial challenges. I think the rest of the series follows the remainder of his life, but the first book is really about him growing up.
While the plot is a bit cliched at this point, I imagine it was fairly fresh when LeGuin wrote it back in the 60s. And I really enjoyed the world building. A country made of hundreds of islands isn't something I'm used to, and it was neat that sailing played such a large part in the story. Although there were parts when the sailing went on so long that I felt like I was playing Windwaker.
I also really like the way magic works in this world. Everything is tied to names, which seems to be tied to energy (at least the way I interpreted it). Names give sorcerers power over others, and because of this they only reveal their true names rarely.
All in all I think this book was decent, perhaps it's been marred by the imitators that have come in the decades since it was printed. I found the plot to be highly predictable, but I bet it was novel when it first came out. The world is interesting enough to leave me excited for the future books.
The book follows Ged, a boy who is born with a talent for magic. Over the course of the story he begins to study magic, heads off to a university for sorcerers, graduates, and faces some initial challenges. I think the rest of the series follows the remainder of his life, but the first book is really about him growing up.
While the plot is a bit cliched at this point, I imagine it was fairly fresh when LeGuin wrote it back in the 60s. And I really enjoyed the world building. A country made of hundreds of islands isn't something I'm used to, and it was neat that sailing played such a large part in the story. Although there were parts when the sailing went on so long that I felt like I was playing Windwaker.
I also really like the way magic works in this world. Everything is tied to names, which seems to be tied to energy (at least the way I interpreted it). Names give sorcerers power over others, and because of this they only reveal their true names rarely.
All in all I think this book was decent, perhaps it's been marred by the imitators that have come in the decades since it was printed. I found the plot to be highly predictable, but I bet it was novel when it first came out. The world is interesting enough to leave me excited for the future books.
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