Like many audiobooks of its day, the narration is... sleep-inducing. This makes it difficult to appreciate just how wondrous a world Le Guin crafted, and how complex a character the protagonist is.
However, as other reviewers have mentioned, even without my issues with the narration, it is a bit of a slog. And it just sortof... ends. There is suggestion of tales to follow, but I don't really feel excited by the time I get there.
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 …
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 wizard who doesn't even rescue any damseled girls, she was already pushing tropes as far as she felt she could if she wanted to get published.
And that seems all fair and reasonable given the historical context. But unfortunately, I'm not sure historical context makes for a good read.
Like I said, I think I would've liked this better in middle school, when I was a much less critical reader and much more prone to getting swept up in adventure.
I did enjoy the ending. It was satisfying in a way that I wasn't expecting. It might've been that I was too distracted by the things that annoyed me to notice the foreshadowing (no pun intended) but I feel like Le Guin held her cards very close to her chest on this one. And it pays off instantly the moment you get there, so I'm glad that I didn't give up on it. I just wish some of the journey to get there had be a bit less tedious.
This was a very appealing, enchanting story, and it ended happily. I was in the mood for an optimal ending, and will certainly read the rest of the trilogy in the not too distant future.
