Review: A Wizard of Earthsea

With the relative success of the most recent film coming from Studio Ghibli to hit the States, The Secret World of Arriety, I was looking back at the releases over the last few years.  Among them is the film considered to be the worst thing ever done by the studio, Tales From Earthsea.  Released in Japan in 2006 and brought Stateside by Disney in 2010, the reviews were mixed at best.  To read up more, I'd recommend checking out the Wikipedia link here.

Long story short, I decided it was high time I actually read the books the film was adapted from, The Earthsea Cycle.  The film was from the first four books, but my library only had three in stock.  This review is going to focus on the first book in the series, A Wizard of Earthsea by Usula K. Le Guin.

The series is set in an alternate world, a world bounded east and west by vast oceans, and in between lies the Archipelago.  Well, there's a lot more than that, but again, I'd recommend exploring Wikipedia if you're all that curious.  What it boils down to is that you can expect a lot of sailing and seafaring adventures.  And in this world, magic is common.  Magic is both knowledge and power together: a non-adept with the right knowledge still cannot work magic.  An adept without knowledge is equally unable.  The knowledge needed for working magic is the Old Tongue, the language of the Making when Sepoy raised the islands of the world.  If you've read Eragon, you already know how this works.  Since this was published in 1968, it's safe to say this is where Paolini got the idea.

Our story follows a boy called Sparrowhawk, whose true name is Ged.  This boy goes from goatherd to sailor-wizard, trained by the elite school on Roke Island and blessed with the greatest talent of any known mage.  With his talents, he uses the necromantic Lore of Paln to raise the spirit of a departed lady of myth, similar to Faust raising Helen of Troy.  But when Ged uses his power thus for his own glory, a shadow emerges and attacks.  This begins his journey around the world to stop his shadow from consuming himself.

Modern writing theory dictates "Show, don't tell."  Le Guin said "screw that" and proceeded to use a minimum of dialogue to write an epic fantasy in a detailed world that breaks away from the white European Middle Ages model.  And while the story is somewhat predictable, the interest in this world draws the reader on and on.  The actions of the characters fill in what their words often do not.  While more dialogue comes into the later books of the series, this one's almost indifference encourages the feel of something born from myth-time.  Give it a read.  It's likely in your library's young adult or juvenile fiction section.