Rating: 
Summary: leaves you wanting more!
Review: What a great fantasy work this is. Its one of the few fantasy books i have enjoyed as i don't read fantasy. The characters are excellent and without pages and pages of useless detail. Its short (i read it in 4 hours) but great. To bad the sci-fi adaptation was sssssssssooooooooo awefull!!!
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Summary: Experience The Magical World Of Earthsea
Review: "A Wizard of Earthsea" is the first of a trilogy set in the World of Earthsea long ago, during a time when dragons, wizards and magic were not uncommon, nor yet extinct. The island of Gont, located in the stormy Northeast Sea, is a land famous for its wizards. Gont's most famous native son was Ged, called Sparrowhawk, who in his day became both dragonlord and Archmage. His life is told in the "Deed of Ged," in many other stories and songs, and in this book.
Duny, a boy from the village of Ten Alders, was fascinated by his aunt's small "women's" magic. She was the local witch, no dark sorceress, but someone of use to the townspeople with her herbs and simple spells. The boy seemed to have a natural inclination for magic, and his aunt taught him a variety of tricks. His innate skills were put to a test when hordes of vicious Kargs invaded his homeland. His quick thinking allowed him to tap into his limited repertoire and come up with a spell to enshroud the village and its inhabitants in fog. Thus they were invisible to the enemy and almost everyone was saved. Word of the deed spread until Ogion the Silent, the great mage of Re Albi who tamed an earthquake, finally heard of Duny. Ogion comes for the boy on his thirteenth birthday and gives him his "true name," which is Ged. And Ged takes the use-name (nickname) of Sparrowhawk. Very few in this world know a person's true name, "because who knows a man's true name, holds that man's life in his keeping."
Ged travels with Ogion to Re Albi as his apprentice, learning to read and write the Six Hundred Runes of Hardic and proves to be an adept student. He finds he has developed a power which allows him to call animals. However, Ged is tempted by magic clearly forbidden to one so inexperienced, and makes a terrible mistake. From this incident, Ged and Ogion learn that he has become too powerful at too young an age and is not able to control the magic within. The boy decides to leave his beloved mentor and travel to Roke Island and the School (for sorcery). Here he studies under the Archmage Nemmerle, Warder of Roke and the nine Masters of Roke. He finds that a wizard's life is spent learning the true name of things in the old tongue. Power to a mage must be kept in balance. Every action has a reaction. Again, training goes extremely well for Ged until pride and willfulness cause him to step over the line again, and foolishly use power which he not yet mastered. This time the consequences are truly horrific and will have a lasting effect on his life.
Ged must move on, past this trauma to body and spirit, and continue to seek wisdom while he prepares to confront his monsters. He must also serve as sorcerer to the people he made a contract with. His adventures along the way are thrilling, as is the novel's extraordinary climax. This is a phenomenal book!
Although this novel, and the entire trilogy, have been classified as children's books, I don't know whether I totally agree with the label or classification. The plots may well be appreciated by children and adults alike, but the prose, the very language used to form the riveting storylines, is as rich and flavorful as dark Belgian chocolate. I had to stop several times to read descriptive passages aloud, to listen to the music of the narrative. The author paints a universe of landscapes with words, and they're as vivid in the mind's eye as seeing the real thing. The narrative voice is bard-like, as if relating a legend of long ago. Ms. LeGuin's exposure to Native American legends as well as Norse mythology is evident in her writing. She is the daughter of anthropologists and throughout her fiction there seems to be a deep understanding of how societies work, how they are built and evolve. Ursula Le Guin is an artist, pure and simple, as well as a magical writer.
JANA
Rating:
Summary: On my "Top 5 Fantasies" list
Review: Along with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Peter Beagle's The Last Unicorn, this is one of my favorite fantasies. The first volume in Leguin's Earthsea Trilogy, A Wizard of Earthsea recounts the journey of Ged from village goat-herd on the island of Gont through apprenticeship to the wise Ogion and on to the school for Wizards on Roke Island (long before Rowling's Harry Potter and Hogwart's School). Much of the charm of the story is the beautiful and elemental world which Leguin's evocative prose creates, a world of heights and depths, darkness and light, beauty and terror, dragons and magic -- a world that has its own spiritual integrity which Ged must learn to respect. This is "high fantasy" at its peak, graceful and spare and profound in its ability to move the reader. The second and third volumes, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore, though they may be read independently, continue to reveal this unique world and further develop Ged's character. Leguin has in fact written two additional volumes which take up where The Farthest Shore leaves off. Read these books if you love literate, original fantasy.
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Summary: Top Notch Fantasy, And A Whole Lot More
Review: Among other things, I am a great fan of fantasy, and among my favorite books are those in the Dragonlance series, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and various other Middle Earth tales, and other such books. This book, A Wizard of Earthsea, however, stands apart from the rest, and by far outshines all those save, perhaps, Tolkien's, compared to which it is on an at least equal footing.
Perhaps most importantly, this by no means should be considered merely a "young adult" book, or even a simple "adventure/fantasy" book. This a tale which explores some rather deep aspects of the human psyche, and when read closely is not a work to be taken lightly, much as Tolkien's works explore deep aspects of spirituality.
Set in a fantasy world that seems to resemble more the ancient world of the Hebrews, Hittites, and other such peoples than the more common medievalesque setting, Le Guin uses a style reminiscent in tone and atmosphere of the Viking Sagas to tell the tale of Sparrowhawk, or Ged as his "true" name is (in this book words have substantial power, as people of many ancient civilizations believed - in this case in particular, your true name is the word that allows others to have power over you). Specifically, this tale covers the parts of his life from early childhood to early adulthood (it is continued in the next three books of the Earthsea cycle).
It begins with Sparrowhawk's childhood on the Island of Gont, and like the stars of many tales from the ancient world, he has a rather special, bordering on "miraculous," childhood. Even as an untrained youth he has noticeable power, and it is substantial enough to aid in the rescue of his village from foreign invaders.
Sparrowhawk then goes on, through various twists and turns of plot, to become apprentice to a mage named Ogion, who, to use the words of history/politics in the world of magic, walks softly and carries a big stick. Impatient, however, to learn slowly but surely, he goes on to learn at an island called Roke, on which there is a school for Wizards (where he meets, among others, my favorite character, the Otak).
It is at this school where the plot really takes off, for it is here that, through a series of unfortunate but necessary events, Ged, who's power surpasses his judgement and is made dangerous by his youthful pride, releases a shadow upon the world. From here, much time is spent on his part running from the shadow, and thus he begins a series of adventures, including a showdown with a family of dragons. Eventually, though, Ged realizes he must confront the shadow, and it is his quest for the shadow that forms the climax of this tale, which I will not say anything more about.
Underpinning all of this is a wonderful synthesis of concepts from antiquity, mythology, psychology, and philosophy, and teaches several valuable lessons. One is the notion of not disturbing an abstract entity called the Equilibrium, which can be applied to our current lives in many ways, including (though certainly not limited to) care for, if not conservation of, the environment. Another is self-acceptance and the sense of self-efficacy, and more so spiritual/psychological fulfillment, which comes from that.
In short, this is by far and away my favorite book, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for either a simply good read or a philosophical treatise.
Rating:
Summary: Not the simplest of books....
Review: Before I go into details, a simple statment. I ranked the book a five. It deserves it. Phenominal book, phenominal story.
Here we go, the strengths: She is a phenominal righter and is able to entrapt the reader in the story. As I read, the personal conflicts and complexity of her charecters was amazing. You get to feel for their strugle and understand it intametely. This is a classic book, the writing reads like it.
My only criticism is simple, I wanted more. The writer has a wonderful ability to describe the surroundings and situations, but I felt wanting to know more about the character and the situation. Sometimes, it felt like the story jumped from one point to another without a clear connection. These criticisms are worthless, i assure you. It is an awesome book, worth reading. My criticism stems from wanting to know more about the world. Which is a reflection of the authors writing and storytelling ability.
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Summary: Fantastic, but she's no Tolkien or Lewis
Review: Here is a book where I can recognize the literary excellence, the sparse but aesthetic prose, and the overall quality of the story but totally reject the worldview presented. LeGuin's world is one where magic operates in the occultic sense. Her fantasy writings are often grouped with the works of Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, and while it is true that they are all "fantasy" writings, whereas Tolkien and Lewis were writing from a Christian worldview, LeGuin is writing from a decidedly pagan one. What she means by "wizard" and what Tolkien means by "wizard," for example, are as different as night from day. The story itself, however, is top-notch. The "Wizard of Earthsea" of the title is an extremely flawed and self-conflicted character. In the end you find that the major plotline essentially boils down to a great struggle the protagonist has between the different parts of his nature. I always thought that the endless glut of fantasy novels that have been churned out over the past half-century owe their existence to the popularity and influence of Tolkien. I see now that this is partly true, but much of their existence is owed to LeGuin as well. This is unfortunate. If modern Christianity had a writer of speculative fiction who could produce works as potent and popular as those of Lewis and Tolkien, it would help to counteract the pagan influence of modern fantasy novels, most of which follow LeGuin instead of Tolkien in this regard.
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Summary: see!
Review: I have nothing much to say, it's just very good book! It makes you think differently maybe see things differently. I don't know about others, but I like this trilogy very much.
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Summary: An enjoyable book for you to be swept away in fantasy!
Review: I love the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series and this book seemed to have a mixture of them both. If you love to read of magic, adventure, mystery and triumph you will like (maybe even love) this book. I can't wait to start reading the Book 2 in the cycle!
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Summary: A Wizard of Earthsea - Ian Guidash
Review: I thought A Wizard of Earthsea was a great book. It was THE fantasy book to read. It was full of magic, action,and friendship. The theme of the story was that you shoudn't be arrogant. I'd recommend this book to anyone, ecspecially people who like fantasy.
(If you think you're intrested in reading it, check out my overview)
A Wizard of Earthsea was about a boy named Ged. At birth, he was gifted with extraordinary powers. At the age of 13, he crossed into manhood and was taken as the prentice of the Wizard Ogion. Ged decided that he would rather go to a school of wizardry, so he went to school on the island of Roke. After about a year on Roke, Ged challenged an older boy to a duel. Thinking that he could surpass what the others said he couldn't do, Ged attempted to raise a spirit from the dead. In doing so, he failed and loosened a "shadow" of neither the realm of the living nor realm of the dead. It is now Ged's duty to rid the world of it--before it rids the world of him.
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Summary: Succinct and refreshing
Review: In a genre dominated by 800+ page tomes, the Earthsea books are a refreshing and delightful change. Ursula Le Guin is a master of flowing, lyrical prose. Each book is relatively brief, but chock full of all the elements that are required for a great fantasy story. She accomplishes this feat by keeping things simple and uncluttered. She doesn't need an appendix to list all the characters and their relation to one another. Her world is well-realized, her characters well-fleshed out, and the story captures you from the first pages. Take a break from the massive tales of Jordan and Martin et al. (not that there's anything wrong with them) and read an author whose writing is as magical as her story.
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