A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)

A great story that straddled the line between literary and pop much better than the shoplit I've been listening to lately. I love a yarn about some guy going to some place and having misadventures along the way, I sure do. Better yet the themes of pride and the balance with nature and each other that comes from a devotion to living well. To living with mistakes as well as coming to terms with them as we try to make it right. IDK, I have a cold.

Libby Audiobook, Recorded Books.

I did really enjoy reading this, and will almost certainly go on to read the other Earthsea books.

I came to Earthsea after reading several of Le Guin's Hainish cycle books and short stories, including some of the earliest ones like Rocannon's World. I can see similarities with the earliest Hainish cycle works, from around the same time - an emphasis on male characters, for example - which I am sure would have been handled differently by the same author had she written them later on. But there are still a lot of great ideas here, and it is far more open-minded than most fantasy literature of its era.

This was a nice, almost Tolkienesque read. I love the fact that Le Guin deliberately made the main characters non-white, because she despised the good=white, black=evil trope.

Looking forward to the next books from the cycle.

Uuuhm. I enjoyed it, and for a "men doing things while talking in a complicated way" fantasy story this is very very good. Still... I asked myself why a few times.