Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Unavailable
A Wizard of Earthsea
Unavailable
A Wizard of Earthsea
Unavailable
A Wizard of Earthsea
Ebook239 pages4 hours

A Wizard of Earthsea

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this ebook

Originally published in 1968, Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea marks the first of the six now beloved Earthsea titles. Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

This ebook includes a sample chapter of THE TOMBS OF ATUAN.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherClarion Books
Release dateSep 11, 2012
ISBN9780544084377
Author

Ursula K. Le Guin

URSULA K. LE GUIN was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929, and passed away in Portland, Oregon, in 2018. She published over sixty books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and translation. She was the recipient of a National Book Award, six Hugo and five Nebula awards, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  

Read more from Ursula K. Le Guin

Related to A Wizard of Earthsea

Related ebooks

YA Fantasy For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for A Wizard of Earthsea

Rating: 4.275 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

200 ratings75 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    excellent!!!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I found this author by accident and what a happy accident. I have been a traditional sci-fi fan for years and only recently have truly discovered fantasy. After reading the traditional mass media sources I find this little gem that has the intricate world building I love along with the fully fleshed out Hero’s Journey aspects. As a former teacher, I am thrilled to discover a book “written for children” to be filled with real literary meat! Was sad to hear the author passed but am eager to read her work with the same vigor I have for Philip K Dick.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the best fantasy novels of all time and the beginning of a truly masterful series. It really doesn't get much better than this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Hayao Miyazaki said that he keeps the books of Earthsea dearly close to him. So I started to read the first one; A Wizard of Earthsea. It tells a story of Ged. We follow his journey as a young wizard, met his first master, and learned about spells and wizardry in School of Roke, and then how one great mistake made him taking a long and intense quest to fight his own shadow. It’s a meditation on life, published in 1968, the book is the first of its kind, it’s original and refreshing, and many of later generation of fantasy writers borrowed some concepts from Earthsea, an extremely beautiful book from start to finish.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Re-reading this trilogy I remember loving a long time ago... Le Guin is a wonderful storyteller, with a mastery of language that allows her to create complete, believable worlds you can immerse yourself in. But her tales are never cheap or easy - there is a lot of wisdom and lightly hidden truths for our hard, real world in her fantasy writing. Still love it probably 20 years later.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've always loved A Wizard of Earthsea. I think it was my very first exposure to Ursula Le Guin, although that might also perhaps have been The Telling. In any case, I didn't know anything about Ursula Le Guin at that time. The first time I read it, I picked it up randomly in the library and read it aloud in the space of an evening. I read it to my teddy, Helen, and it was well worth reading aloud. Ursula Le Guin's writing can be very lyrical and lovely, and it definitely is in the Earthsea books. It's one of the few books that has a 'taste' I remember long after reading it, that I can taste that thing in real life and think of the book immediately. The words themselves are like that, and the descriptions more so: you can smell the smoke, the herbs, the fish. You can hear Ogion's silence, feel the cold in the Court of the Terrenon. Or I could, anyway.

    (Helen loved it too, by the way. She wasn't complaining, at least.)

    I actually prefer it to the rest of Le Guin's writing, really. It's quite short, and I found it easy to read, although my sister couldn't get past the first page, and I've read a couple of reviews saying it's difficult. I think reading it aloud helped, to catch the rhythms of it.

    I don't really know where to start, talking about the plot and the characters. When I think about it, I feel quite distant from the characters -- I don't feel as if I get inside Ged's mind or Vetch's mind or anything, but I still get to care about them. And you do get to know them in some ways. You know that Vetch is a very good guy, if not very complicated. You know that Jasper is rather weak in reality. You know that Ged is very, very proud. It's almost like a hamartia in him, actually: a fatal flaw that brings his fate down on himself. He's a sympathetic character despite the pride: he works very hard, is willing to work for what he wants. He's just young and impatient and slow to learn the things that he most needs to learn. When he's older and sadder and scared and just muddling through life, he's even more sympathetic a character.

    There are some very touching events/moments/chapters: for example, anything involving Vetch or Hoeg, Murre and Ged observing each other, and of course, the child-adults on the little island Ged is wrecked on.

    The whole story weaves together very well, and prepares the way for the other books of the sequence too. Things that happen early in the book -- for example, Ged bringing up the mist when the Kargs attack Gont -- are used later, the witch-girl shows up again later, everything is linked and everything has a purpose. It's very neat writing. Take notes, writers of modern epics! A satisfying story need not span four volumes!

    Some people find the ending anti-climatic. I think it was clearly telegraphed throughout: that it would be less a big showdown than Ged facing himself. Which is one of the scarier things I can actually think of. The text itself says that what he does is "embrace his own death", after all.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A very good book that I've read about a thousand times.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I never tire of this audio. From the sonorous introduction (which includes one of my favorite lines ever: "bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky") intoned by Le Guin herself to the over-the-top semi-hysterical narration by Harlan Ellison, this is entirely magical. Harlan inhabits Ged completely but never more than when he's a youth full of bluster and hubris.

    This story of a young wizard's schooling and maturation, which both predates and kicks the ass of Harry Potter, is pure fable. There's something here for everyone, and something new for me every time I revisit it.

    I love Le Guin, that's no secret, but I marvel anew at her economy of language and the consequent weight of each word in this one. It's got the searing sharpness of poetry but never departs from accessible narrative.

    2/2006
    Splendid! Unabridged, read with delight and intensity by the inimitable Harlan Ellison. This is one of my all-time favorite books, and I learn something new every time I revisit it. This is also the book which stands between me and the Harry Potter series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In simple but lyrical prose, Le Guin offers this short and sweet tale of power, folly, wisdom and friendship. This book reads like the best myths, full of hidden and unhidden truth. Le Guin has a true talent in making the world of Earthsea captivating, with a style that is lean and musical rather than heavy and descriptive. In many ways this book is the opposite of modern high fantasy. The characters are charming but not heavily fleshed-out, the action is sparse and often unheroic, the conflicts are more personal than apocalyptic, and the settings are described only enough to paint a general picture - leaving the reader's imagination free to play. Yet there is so much here that has influenced the decades of literature following it. Le Guin is a story-teller in the original sense, a weaver of fantastic, stirring tales of adventure, not just of the magical outer-world she has created, but of the universal inner-world we all share.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I picked this up from a friend's collection. They were divesting themselves of books and I had always wanted to read this.

    I really enjoyed it. I am glad I read it. I see why people are so into this series. I look forward to reading the next one.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I've heard about the Earthsea books many times and loved the Studio Ghibli movie but had never gotten around to reading any of them. I thought it high time I started and I am glad I did.

    A Wizard of Earthsea tells the story of the beginning of Ged the Wizard in a kind of prequel to his later fame and accomplishments. He starts as a brash, arrogant, impatient young man but after releasing a great evil into the world changes to become a wise wizard.

    I can see where this book may have influenced many other authors I've read and it has the makings of a great series. I can't wait to continue on with the rest of the Earthsea books.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5

    First read:
    Date: before 2008 (between 2000 and 2005?)
    Rating: 3*


    Second read:
    Date: from 19 to 20 December 2012
    Rating: 4*

    I find this a very hard series to rate overall. Though I've re-read some other books of this series more than once in the meanwhile, this one I never had the courage to pick up again. Now I finally did.

    I've read this book for the first time around 10 years ago. At the time, I remember slugging through the first half of the book. This is the one I've always remembered (and even described) as the one who only gets interesting after the middle. Interestingly enough, after all those years this book is one of the very few I still remember vividly.



    This time around, I never got bored with the book, and the story engaged me from the beginning to the end. The narrating style reminds me somewhat of Tolkien, and in that sense I see the reason for the comparisons with Lord of the Rings. Also, as I've been noticing with other books of this series, I got things from the story that I hadn't the first time I read it. The ending didn't mark me like it had the first time, since I already knew it, but it was still... well, marvellous. As any other review will tell you, the ending is the defining point of this book.

    I still don't know how to rate this though. This book will never be near perfect, mind-blowing, or whatever reason one rates a book 5 stars. However, this is one of the few books that I know I'll always remember. On the surface, it bears nothing special to the fantasy genre. There's more than meets the eye in this one however, and I find it one of the few books that can really transport you somewhere else entirely.

    Perhaps some part of the way I feel towards this book is being among the first of the fantasy genre I read, or having read it such a long time ago. Nevertheless, the only way I can describe this book is truly as 'magical'.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not really the style of writing I prefer to read, but a good story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Undoubtedly one of the great works of fantasy! In fact, it is unusual in the descriptive passages for the wizardry scenes. Many things are treated with a fresh approach, in fact. What I do question is whether libraries here in the UK are correct in placing this in the Childrens section!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    It's a world of mages and sorcerers and witches. Every village has its own sorcerer to help them in their day to day life spinning spells for small cures and blessing for their live stocks and everyday activities. Once in a while the mage need to fight dragons.In this world Ged is a natural born man of magic. He proves his power when he saves his village from invaders by weaving a spell of mist and rain. Later he is send to a school of magic. Here to show off to his friends he chants a forbidden spell which releases a shadow from the underworld. The shadow weakens him and for the rest of the story he has to chase this shadow to destroy it or it will destroy him.It a fast paced story but never pull you in. An average read.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A coming-of-age story, also a becoming-a-powerful-wizard story. Didn't really pull me in, felt awfully generic at times and I have to say that I expected much more from it. And it's a pity, because the setting is interesting - so I might give the series a second chance and read the next book in line.I also feel that the way the story is told (like a legend) feels too detached - you can't connect with the main character properly. He takes power for granted, makes a big mistake then goes through turmoil and peril in a story of redemption - and all I felt was "oh, ok, what next?". Maybe I expect too much from a YA novel - but hey, [Have Space Suit, Will Travel] delivered wonderfully.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A classic coming of age tale in which a young boy discovers his powers as a wizard and embarks on a journey into manhood. Young Ged experiences many hardships and possesses exceptional talent, but he is also a boy and prone to the failings of a young boy. It is his mishandling of his powers in a competition with another young wizard that creates a shadow which haunts him and challenges his power. While Ged's story is compelling, I simply failed to be truly pulled into the story and its world and found myself skimming portions of this book. I originally planned to read the entire series, but I may reconsider after this book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is probably the best coming-of-age classic ever written; coming to terms with your power, which means coming to terms with your capacity for evil. Add to that the extraordinary prose of Ursula LeGuin, and even those who have long since come of age and dealt with these issues will enjoy revisiting that moment in early life.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Ged’s amazing potential as a wizard is recognized and he is plucked from a remote village by a master wizard, destined to become one of the greatest wizards of all. And then that terrible human frailty, pride, gets the upper hand, and Ged makes a mistake that seemingly ruins his life.And Ged is off on a quest to restore the world.Le Guin writes with the rhythm of a poet and with the wisdom of a philosopher in this beautiful classic fantasy novel.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This was the first Le Guin I've read, and it didn't really live up to my expectations. I think part of the problem was that it was written in third person. I need connection with the characters that third person just doesn't offer.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was surprised to find this book was as profound as it is; the label ‘young adult’ keeps leading me astray… all a book needs to fit the genre is a young protagonist and an uncluttered storytelling style, but I keep expecting a negative aspect, a lack of gravitas…not here, in A Wizard of Earthsea; Le Guin deftly explores such notions as balance and knowledge and power through the initially ambitious and impetuous young wizard, Ged, who, in his desire to outshine a rival school-fellow, releases a shadow upon the world for which he must claim responsibility and somehow destroy.The author creates a world that is as much seascape as landscape, being the archipelago of Earthsea… perfectly suited to fantasy-world mapping, which happens to be one of my favourite aspects of high fantasy; the geography of world-building. Ged’s quest leads him from island to island as he looks for the wisdom he instinctively knows he needs to battle his shadow. I also loved the principles of the magic of the world, the naming and balance, and the characters that Ged encounters as a boy and on his journey.That said, there’s something slightly distancing about Le Guin’s telling the story as a legend recounted; it’s as though we’re reading about Ged rather than experiencing the quest with him; not that there aren’t some wonderfully immersive parts, but I did not feel as involved in the story as I might have with a different narrative approach… that wouldn’t stop me recommending the book to anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction, especially YA fantasy, as I’m pretty sure it’s a quirk of the reader’s rather than a flaw of the writer’s.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After reading 'The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed I was expecting much more from this story. Given the popularity of the Earthsea trilogy I must have missed something. Maybe I should re-read it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A fantasy classic.The story of how a young man known as Sparrowhawk became Ged, a master mage. He went from talented and cocky young apprentice to someone who saw what bravado could do to damage a person and did everything in his power to set things right, and find himself along the way.In the magical tradition of ancient cultures, common themes included the idea that knowing a person's name gave you power over them, as well as the idea that words themselves held power. This book is a great introduction to these ideas, along with being a wonderful story to pull you in without needing hundreds of pages to do so.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The first book in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle should be deem as a bildungsroman style novel. Ged Sparrowhawk starts out as an immature power and fame hungry mage-prentice. As the story unfolds, Sparrowhawk faces the choices he made as a child and teenager and tries to find confidence in himself and within his power.This is a truly wonderful fantasy novel for both young adults and adults alike.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It's a well-written children's/young adult fantasy novel. Coming at it as an adult, it's far less impressive, but had I encountered this when I was 10 I would have certainly have devoured the book and its sequels feverishly.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Count me among the stupid ones. Although I read and enjoyed most of Ursula K. Le Guin's science fiction in my younger days, I apparently decided to not read her fantasy. Or perhaps I had just moved on to something different. That was not a smart move. I started "A Wizard of Earthsea" thinking it would be a quick light fantasy read, something different from my usual. It turned out to be a much better book than I expected. I'm more than a little annoyed with myself for not having read this sooner. It is a coming of age story for a young boy who has a talent for magic, in a land where magic is fairly common. The book is very well written with a strong central character, the boy nicknamed Sparrowhawk. Ged is his true name given to him by a wizard who becomes his early mentor. It really turned out to be a journey of redemption and finding oneself and facing the dark side of the force long before there was Star Wars. There are lessons in this book, such as the temptations of evil, the value of true friendship and the consequences of foolishly losing one's temper, but one is not preached to at all. I can certainly recommend this to younger readers as well as all readers. I plan to read further books in the earthsea series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In this young adult fantasy, a young wizard releases an unnamed evil into the world of Earthsea during a spell that goes wrong and comes of age in a quest to defeat it.Only in silence the word,only in dark the light,only in dying life:bright the hawk’s flighton the empty sky.–from the Creation of ÉaI’m sure I read A Wizard of Earthsea as a young adult, although I didn’t remember it very well. But like the best novels written for young people, it holds up excellently in this second reading as an adult.In Earthsea, Le Guin has fully realized a land of islands, where people live as much on the sea as on the land, where there are dragons and wizards and magic. As a young boy, Sparrowhawk discovers his talent for magic when he protects his village from invasion by creating an obscuring fog. He is apprenticed to a wizard on his home island, then goes to the school for wizards across the sea, where his powers become evident. But his hubris gets the better of him, and in attempting a dangerous spell, he looses a nameless shadow in the world, which is bound to him and determined to possess him.The rest of the story describes Sparrowhawk’s coming-of-age quest to learn how to defeat the shadow, and to learn who he is. Le Guin’s simple but evocative prose brings her imaginary world of Earthsea to life, and while reading this short book, I felt like I was traveling along with Sparrowhawk among the islands’ rocky cliff faces, desolate moors and heaving oceans. Whether rediscovering Earthsea or visiting it for the first time, the trip is worthwhile.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Feb11:Well, there's a classic I sure missed out on.Characters: Lead is amazingly solid for the age of this book. The support characters are good enough as well.Plot: A good pass at a redemption plot. Many great adventures along the way.Style: High fantasy, without being boring like Tolkein. I'd almost say action fantasy in many ways. Great stuff!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A classic in the fantasy genre, and an example of fine writing besides. Ged of Gont is a powerful young wizard, perhaps the most powerful sorcerer Gont has ever produced. Just as great as his power is his pride. Ged is taken from his childhood home to study with the mage Ogion, but when he is too impatient for Ogion's deep wisdom, his mentor sends him to study on the mage island Roke. Here Ged's skill advances in leaps and bounds. Yet his pride becomes his downfall when he is pushed by the taunts of a rival wizard, Jasper, to work a spell well beyond his mastery, and inadvertently unleashes a shadow bent on Ged's destruction. Now Ged is bound to flee or fight his created shadow, until one or both are destroyed. One of the themes of this novel is power and the responsibility it confers on the user. Ged's quest and his struggle with his shadow illustrates that power actually narrows the path one treads in life, rather than broadening it. Once he thought that with his strength he could set the balance in life however he chose, but that thinking is what led Ged to release his shadow, eventually limiting his path to only one. Le Guin's message is clear: even those who want to use their power recklessly will eventually be forced into a recognition of their responsibility, sometimes with drastic consequences. This concept of power ties in to her theory of balance: great power is balanced by great responsibility. A deep analysis, but Le Guin's masterly writing demands a close reading of the themes she incorporates in to her plot and characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    (Book 1 of 4 of The Earthsea Quartet)Le Guin, U. (1991). A wizard of earthsea. London, England: PenguinI have recently read a book called ‘Ishi in two worlds: a biography of the last wild Indian in North America’ written by Theodora Kroeber about her anthropologist husband Alfred Kroeber’s work with a man called Ishi. He was the very last survivor of the Yahi Yana tribe who after living in the Californian area for over 3000 years, had been decimated by white settlers and became extinct on Ishi’s death in 1916. It was interesting to note on the author information for A wizard of earthsea that Ursula Le Guin is their daughter and I wonder what influence this anthropological upbringing had on her writing, especially when I see her protagonist in this book described as having ‘red-brown’ skin (Le Guin, 1991, p. 51).Ursula Le Guin’s story is about a young boy called Sparrowhawk, born in a poor mountain village in Gont, part of the richly developed mythical world of Earthsea. His aunt is the village witch and teaches him the rudimentariness of magic. Sparrowhawk becomes an apprentice to the wizard Ogion, the great Mage, after saving his home village from marauding invaders by creating a magical mist. With Ogion he begins his training by learning some of the true names of all things, but runs out of patience at the slow pace of his teaching. ‘Ged’s (Sparrowhawks true name) nature is built up gradually, through action and reaction, and because we learn to know him in this way, we accept him fully’ (Sutherland, 1997, p. 235). Ged is reckless and proud seeking only the power and glory that he feels is due him and as such parts ways with Ogion and travels to the isle of Roke to attend the wizard’s school there. He becomes the best pupil there although he had a tendency to show off. During his training, vanity and arrogant rage lead him to loose a nameless evil into the world. ‘And through the bright misshapen breach clambered something like a clot of black shadow, quick and hideous, and it leaped straight out at Ged’s face’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 74). In fighting this off he is horribly scarred and the school’s Archmage dies after trying to undo the evil unleashed. ‘You have great power inborn in you, and you used that power wrongly, to work a spell over which you had no control, not knowing how that spell affects the balance of light and dark, life and death, good and evil. And you were moved to do this by pride and by hate, is it any wonder the result was ruin?’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 79). Ged is followed by this shadow and cannot escape it until he realises he cannot avoid it and must turn and face it head on. ‘It is light that defeats the dark’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 135). He battles dragons, ancient evil stones and other powers during the journey. Helped by his true friend Vetch he chases the shadow and learns its true name when he struggles to reunite it with his own true self. ‘It is the shadow of your arrogance, the shadow of your ignorance, the shadow you cast’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 79).I enjoyed reading this book. It reflects the battle that we all have with our inner selves. ‘A man who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life’s sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark’ (Le Guin, 1991, p. 199). The maps of Earthsea were very helpful and extremely detailed. While I shook my head at young Sparrowhawk’s foolishness, this was an important part of the character development and his growing maturity is well described by the author. ‘Part of Le Guin’s power as a storyteller lies in her style - serious, spare, precise’ (Sutherland, 1997, p. 235).