A wizard of EarthSea

By Ursula K. Le Guin

Greetings everyone!
I’ll go ahead and apologise in advance if I seem a little confused today. I’ve just had a big knock to the head I’m afraid.
You see, I am a member of a book club – as I hope you all are too – and every other year or so they send me a book, usually by lizard-deliverance. This time though, they sent a somewhat unexperienced crow to deliver the package, hence the swelling bump on my forehead.

(If you ever want to send me a post card, check out my contact information. I would much prefer it if you would please send your post by a non-flying animal, or, if you only have birds at your disposal, please send a bird who actually holds a valid flying-license, thank you.)
But as I was saying, as an honoured member of The Order of Fantastical Reading, I have been asked to write reviews of the books they send me. As a matter of fact, this time they’d attached a note saying that I am a few decades behind in my reviewing hehe.
So I better get started right away. Only trouble is that it has been a fair while, and I might be a bit rusty. Oh, where to begin.
I’ll probably have to start off with a summary of some sort and I should also come up with some parameters on which to judge the books and award points by – some very spectacular yet relevant categories…
And finally, I will rate the book and give it something. Like hats? Yes, definitely hats, golden wizard hats!
All right, now that we’ve established the format, better get on with the actual review. Today I’m reviewing A Wizard of EarthSea by Ursula K. Le Guin, so everyone go grab yourself a cup of tea and let’s get going!
Attention!! Spoilers ahead.

Summary:

Our main character is a shepherd boy from a small village on an island in the land of EarthSea. He starts off accidentally bewitching some sheep, thereby discovering that he has magical powers.
(You don’t want to go around messing with sheep if you by any chance possess magic, better check! ) The boy learns some more magic, first from a local village witch, and then he attends a school for wizards, you know, the usual. He changes his name from Duny to a secret name that will not be mentioned here, since it is secret.
I’m not one to rat out another wizard, but, well, you could read the book and find out what it is.
Then he accidentally summons an evil shadow. Yes, a bit clumsy. First the sheep and now this, but after all he is only a boy, so we can’t really blame him.
The evil shadow hunts him for nearly the rest of the book, except near the end, when the boy decides to hunt the shadow instead. There is a lot of sailing around, spell casting, some dragon-fighting etc. The shadow, having some name-intolerance, can’t bear to hear its own name spoken aloud, so the boy tries to figure out what the name of the shadow is to gain control over it.
In the end, the boy and the shadow meet, and the boy, now a fully trained wizard, casts the shadow back into the shadow land from whence it came, by saying its name that he has finally figured out. Hooray!

Review:

After careful consideration I have chosen 7 key categories to judge this book by:
Meaningful message, Dragons, Relatability, Realism, Knitting and Impressive Wizards Beards. Hm, that was only six? And then I shall include a Weather category of course.

A Wizard of EarthSea has a meaningful message indeed: “Don’t mess around with magic, especially if there are sheep and evil shadows nearby.” Never ever forget about that.

This book has dragons in many different shapes and sizes:
There is the evil dragon of Pendor and its offspring, lurking on a desert island, always waiting for a chance to harass the good fishermen of Low Torning and very eager to munch and chew and burn people in general.
Then there are a few adorable pet dragons “harrekki” the size of tiny squirrels.
I also want to mention the little otak, a pocket size animal that our wizard boy carries around. It is a fierce but yet very loyal and endearing creature. I really have to get me one of those. I know an otak is not a dragon, but it is so super cute that I think it deserves some points nevertheless.

This book centres around a young and talented wizard, who saves villages in his free time. Admittedly, he is a bit grumpy and lives somewhat withdrawn from the rest of the world, but he never shies away from a good dragon-fight! All of this is relatable. Very good.
On the other hand, he is rather fond of showing off, and has a bad habit of throwing around dangerous spells and summonings. But you know, he is young, and as the story carries on, he gets a lot better and really pulls himself together.
All in all I would say that this is about 69% relatable.

This is a highly realistic book – in fact, it could be a documentary. EarthSea, the wizarding school on Roke and the mean dragons definitely exist. Trust me.

There are a few infrequent mentions of knitting, but unfortunately nothing of substance.

Not really a thing in this book. But I believe that someday, when the boy becomes a bit older, he will probably grow a long and very impressing beard.

The weather in the story is mostly dry and sunny, though sometimes cloudy too and possibly with some drizzle. The wind comes from changing directions, and at times there is reduced visibility, due to fog or a storm and significant wave height.

Conclusion:

After long and careful calculations, I’ve come to a verdict:
Overall A Wizard of Earthsea is a really good book.
The story captured me right from the beginning, but somewhere along the way I got a little bit bored and seasick from all the sailing around and around.
The story lacks impressive wizard beards and further knitting. Also, the weather in the story wasn’t all that great, and therefore I can’t give it a top score.