A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)
by Ursula K. Le Guin, Judi Dench, Michael Maloney, Emma Fielding, David Chilton, Nick Russell-Pavier
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Book Summary Information
Author: David Chilton, Emma Fielding, Judi Dench, Michael Maloney, Nick Russell-Pavier, Ursula K. Le GuinEdition: Audio Cassette
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Published: 1997-01
ISBN: 0563389168
Publisher: BBC Pubns
Book Reviews of A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)
Book Review: Well written, introspective, but a little dull at times
Summary: 4 Stars
Ursula Le Guin is a good writer. She has a good command of the language, and is able to develop a story very effectively, with a good buildup in terms of character growth. However, the story seems a little boring. After all, Ged's interactions with other characters are few and limited, and the world has a very sombre, lonely feel to it, with little to differentiate the various races and cities.
Perhaps the sense of drama and excitement is completely lacking because of Le Guin's motivation to tell a story within a Jung-style paradigm. There is little in the way of development of the individual characters, until the last fifty pages. I read this book once when I was around fifteen and then again 18 years later, and both times my feeling was the same. Well written, beautiful, but a little dull for such a short book.
Summary of A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1)
In print for more than three decades and translated into dozens of languages, here is the audio release of the first book in The Earthsea Trilogy. This is a tale of wizards, dragons, and shadows, played in an archipelago of imagined islands. The young boy Sparrowhawk becomes apprentice to a Master Wizard; but impatience to learn faster takes him far from home to Roke Island, where he enters the School for Wizards. As a student of magic, Sparrowhawk exceeds his years in accomplishment, but pride and jealousy drive the boy to try certain dangerous powers too soon. A terrible evil is let loose in the land.
Often compared to Tolkien's Middle-earth or Lewis's Narnia, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea is a stunning fantasy world that grabs quickly at our hearts, pulling us deeply into its imaginary realms. Four books (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, and Tehanu) tell the whole Earthsea cycle--a tale about a reckless, awkward boy named Sparrowhawk who becomes a wizard's apprentice after the wizard reveals Sparrowhawk's true name. The boy comes to realize that his fate may be far more important than he ever dreamed possible. Le Guin challenges her readers to think about the power of language, how in the act of naming the world around us we actually create that world. Teens, especially, will be inspired by the way Le Guin allows her characters to evolve and grow into their own powers.
In this first book, A Wizard of Earthsea readers will witness Sparrowhawk's moving rite of passage--when he discovers his true name and becomes a young man. Great challenges await Sparrowhawk, including an almost deadly battle with a sinister creature, a monster that may be his own shadow.
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