Rating: 
Summary: Simple, but deeply interesting and fun.
Review: This book, along with "The Black Cauldron", and "Dragondrums" was one of my favorites as a child. As an adult, I still deeply enjoy sitting down with it for a re-read. Fundamentally a simple story, we look into the life of a young orphan "Sparrowhawk", who discovers that he is a wizard with the true-name of Ged. Through his arrogance and pride, he accidentally releases a supremely dangerous and powerful force, that even the greatest of wizards cannot destroy. He must find a way to make right what he has done.I've always loved this story because of its characters, and its world. I have found with fantasy books that most authors tend towards the stereotypical "man wearing a black cape releases ball of fire" motif. This world has a clear philosophy on the use of its magic, and a whimsical, "fairy-tale" feel throughout. The characters are strong, and empathatic. Overall, one of the best books of its kind. I give it a four only because I reserve my five's for books of such depth and complexity as Dune. Out of 100, I would give it an 85.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: The series of Earthsea is great! I enjoyed the first book one of my teacher lent me, and now I'm working on the third, having completely enjoyed the second. I love Ursula K. Le Guin's writing and have fallen in love with the Earthsea series. I plan to read the rest of the books in the series and move onto her other books. I recommend you buy this book, but I must warn you, you're going to get hooked on it!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Book, Do Not Waste Your Time!
Review: Very slow, dull, predictable, and wholly uninteresting. At no point does anything that happens come as even the slightest surprise. The battle sequences are very slow moving and would not interest anyone. It is a small book but it still took me over 3 weeks to drudge my way through this garbage. Afterwords I used it to start my fireplace, a task I am not sure its even worthy of.
Rating: 
Summary: A good beginning was partially lost somewhere along the way
Review: Not too many fantasy series really impress me. Of this date,there have only been two: Pullman's His Dark Materials and TolkiensLOTR. This book, and series, come close, but i found them wanting. AWizard of EarthSea has its own appeal, in the style that marks theseries. The story has the air of a saga, and one gets the feeling thatimportant things might happen with Ged. People have called it HighFantasy, which is fine. This book is thoughtful and insightful, butthere a few problems. First of all, although great things seem to bein store for Ged, they are not apparent in this book. The sense ofdestiny that was created in the beginning got lost somewhere along theway, and now Ged drifts along with his sole purpose of exterminating ashadow. The book also has little to hold it together; again we getthe feeling of being adrift. He wanders from town to town, from evilcastle to dragon-infested island to fishing villages. Another problemis the interminable length of the boat rides, which creates nosuspense at all for his confrontation with the shadow; nor does itimpress with its imagery, or its rich complexity. The book franklygets a little dull towards the end. In good fantasy we usually get atleast a glimpse of some overarching conflict. That is absent here,almost completely. I'm not asking for a thriller but a book should nottake too much energy just to stay focused. Finally, the way he defeatsthe shadow has the air of a cheap movie ... The book isn't bad. Theauthor's language is simple yet evocative, and I found myselfcontemplating the book. If the second half of the book had been asgood as the first i would have to give it at least 4 stars. LeGuin'sseries has an air of timelessness about it. I only wish this promisehadn't been largely ignored in the rest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: Simple, but not
Review: Before I start, I should explain what I mean by high fantasy. High fantasy is (to me) a writing style that does not concern itself with the mundane details. Good is good and evil is evil. People don't worry about where the next meal comes from, and death and disease are not immediate, except as the story needs them. That being said, in some ways, A Wizard of Earthsea is a very simple book. It's straight high fantasy, and it's a coming of age story about confronting your inner demons, and the price paid for the sin of pride. And in an age where staggering complexity seems to be the norm, with plot twists and complex hurried action, sometimes it is good to sit and read a simple story, well told. Perhaps it's a personal thing of mine. So many people feel that it is necessary to do something new and exciting, the novel seems to exist to be novel and nothing else. I find great pleasure in seeing people do the simple things well. It's a lot harder than you think. Witness how few do it well. The fact that Earthsea is a seemingly simple novel, but complete in its simplicity makes it a classic in the field. Other novels build on the base, or change it, but this is a book you must read to understand the root of how high fantasy is written.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: There are a lot of positive things that can be said about this book, and this series. One thing many reviewers seem to be overlooking is the simple beauty of LeGuin's writing. She employs a simple, almost monosyllabic vocabulary, to give her tale the feel of a song, or a poem. Compare her use of language to, for example, the frenzied addiction to long-winded, Latin-derived vocabulary used by Poe, and you will see why her writing conveys an almost mythic calm. I also like the way she has such beautiful sentence structure -- many sentences are like terraced waterfalls, with the reader's mind tumbling lazily down a series off steplike prepositional phrases. If you want to study writing, and the use of language, you could do a heck of a lot worse than start with this book. The story is of a young man's growth to wisdom. There is Taoism as well as Jungian ideas all through this story -- if you can get a copy, (which would have been very difficult if you live in a small town, until Amazon.com and its competitors came along), I recommend picking up the "Tao te Ching", by Lao-Tzu. You will recognize many quotations from this story. You can have a lot of fun with this story, and hopefully get a lot out of it. Check it out!
Rating:
Summary: A very Good Read!
Review: I would have preferred to get more deeply inside the heads of the characters than I did. Otherwise, an excellent book. Sparrowhawk is a masterfully created hero and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Ýf there is wizards and dragon once lived in real world...
Review: You cannot find mighty wizards shooting balls of fire and lightning , demi-liches , dark elves , mad gods , utopic heroes or other fantastic cliches in this book. You can only find the story of goat herder who becomes master wizard of his world. What is the meaning of power? Shake the world with simple move of your hands? Ýncinerate thousands of warriors with one word? Ý think not. Power comes from heart. A people with good and strong heart can become god.Others can only 'think' they are god. This is the message of this book. Growing and staying pure even become the most powerful man in the world. Read and learn ,its the part of our way to power :)
Rating:
Summary: One of the best fantasy novels ever written
Review: I don`t think that there is much to say about Earthsea. If you love good sci-fi and fantasy you definitely must read this book. If you are a new fantasy fan you again definitely must read this book. And if you are not interested in fantasy at all, I would say you must read this book and see that fantasy is one of the best ways to understand our age and `us`.
Rating:
Summary: One of the all-time great fantasy novels
Review: Though obviously written for adolescents, this is a beautifully crafted story that should appeal to all thoughtful readers. In prose that is spare yet visually evocative and resonant with meaning, LeGuin creates an exterior journey of adventure that is also a deep personal journey toward maturity, with all the pain and loss, the failures and successes, and ultimate balance that such a journey involves. Her note-perfect narrative voice enhances the archetypal nature of Ged's quest for purpose and values. His journey takes place in a world as diverse as our own, for the richly envisioned archipelago of Earthsea contains different languages, remote islands and trade centers, rural folk and city sophisticates, cold lands and hot lands, wealth and poverty. Along with several powerful main characters, the novel has many nicely observed minor players and some charming animals, such as a little dragon the length of a girl's hand that lives in oak trees and eats wasps, worms, and birds' eggs. And of course there is the Shadow that Ged accidentally releases in a dangerous ritual, spurred by his own ambition, that goes terribly wrong. Magic appears only when needed, and the descriptions of it are very effective, such as when Ged creates fog to confuse invading warriors or transforms himself into the sparrowhawk that is his namesake in order to make a long journey fast. Beyond its exciting adventure and the theme of self-discovery, the novel is also about how language creates reality, for magic is controlled by language, and language dictates how individuals perceive themselves and the world around them. This is the best -- the purest -- of the four books in the tetralogy, which is saying a lot because all of them are good. Like each of the four, it is a complete story that doesn't depend on the others. My personal favorite among the other three is The Farthest Shore, in which an older Ged takes on a younger version of himself as a kind of apprentice.
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