Reviews and Comments

This was a fabulous read.

The tension and the depiction of the characters were gripping me all the way through, the inner workings and the suspense of the protagonist Oliver were almost touchable for me. The denouement remained effectively open until the end, though I had some suspicions that turned out to be partly true. Still I was again and again surprised by the developments.

The idea of setting this at a theatre school and making the characters all theatre students that were practicing and performing for their plays was genius. Their performances wonderfully blended in into the rest of the story and the author did a superb job in bluring the borders between their acting and their genuine actions, whereby it was never certain what was real and what was only part of the plays.

I also appreciated the plenty insights into theatre school and acting practices, which was a world previously unknown to me.

I enjoyed reading this. With her thoughtful writing style, the author did a wizardly job in creating the perfect mood for this slow-paced, sombre, yet hopeful adventure. I could feel Ged's unease and determination as if I had been with him.

I was enchanted by the interesting concept of magic in Earthsea. And I also liked that we accompany Ged, of whom we know from the start that he will be a great wizard, from his very beginnings of his magical journey, when he was still inexperienced and short-tempered.

The cherry on top was the world building, which was a real charm! On Ged's voyage, I often could grasp the feeling of being on the open sea, a remote island or at the edge of the world.

I really should focus on one book again, I'm spreading out over too many.

The book felt to me like there were some ideas that weren't properly followed through, because constantly new aspects were introduced that ended up at a loose end without making something out of them and that also didn't really contribute to the story. The usual "ah, now all this stuff from before makes sense" moment that I know from other books stayed absent. Example: The eponymous Library of the Dead was rather a sideshow and made up only a very small fraction of the story. Besides, the narrative style didn't hook me, but that's just a taste issue, I can imagine other readers enjoying it.

Luckily in about the last third, the plot finally became more coherent which made it more intriguing and it also took some speed, and thus for at least some time the book became a pageturner for me.

The end, however, I found a little too predictable and clichéd.

This is sort of the story of Hercules, but also not really, since it's told from the perspective of and as expercienced by everyone else who was part of his life. Be it parents, siblings, cousins, nephews, lovers or enemies. And they're not all praising him as the hero that he was; a lot of them rather tell about his vulnerable, annoying and first and foremost sinister sides.

The narrative perspective makes this story interesting, because it makes you feel like an observer, sometimes like one of Herc's companion and often like someone who just heard about his adventures through the grapevine. Especially the latter made for an immersive experience, because this is how I immagine myths and stories did spread through ancient Greek.

What's more is that Phoenicia Rogerson not only depicted the characters, their traits, attitudes and feelings unique and convincingly, but also has a fantastic narrative style and a beautifully droll humour. A wonderful read and a recommendable book that btw also contains a lot of queerness and feminism.