Review: A Wizard of Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the book I was looking for when I accidently came across The Lathe of Heaven. I enjoyed it when I read it as a teenager. I still enjoyed it when I re-read it as a grown-up.

I did get annoyed a couple of times at the poor teaching methods employed by wizards (a problem shared by Hogwarts... but that's a rant for another time.):

Though a very silent man he was so mild and calm that Ged soon lost his awe of him, and in a day or two more he was bold enough to ask his master, 'When will my apprenticeship begin, Sir?'

'It has begun,' said Ogion.

There was a silence, as if Ged was keeping back something he had to say. Then he said it: 'But I haven't learned anything yet ! '

'Because you haven't found out what I am teaching,' replied the mage…

I got annoyed at Sparrowhawk for being an arrogant, impatient teenager (but on reflection, I wasn't the best of teenagers myself):

… for the most part he was all work and pride and temper, and held himself apart. Among them all, Vetch being absent, he had no friend, and never knew he wanted one.

I also got a bit annoyed by what happened to the otak and the sudden resolution at the end of the book.

But, these minor annoyances are overshadowed by how much fun I had re-reading this story. It is thrilling, fun, scarey, and at times poignant:

At daybreak, as grey light welled up in the east from the sea, the two young men set forth in Lookfar from the harbour of Ismay, raising a brown, strong-woven sail to the north wind. On the dock Yarrow stood and watched them go, as sailors’ wives and sisters stand on all the shores of all Earthsea watching their men go out on the sea, and they do not wave or call aloud, but stand still in hooded cloak of grey or brown, there on the shore that dwindles smaller and smaller from the boat while the water grows wide between.

Very much looking forward to reading the rest of the series.


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