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A review by deerfangs
Earthsea: The First Four Books by Ursula K. Le Guin
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
4.5
As always, reading along with the Ranged Touch - Shelved by Genre podcast. Not going to write extensive thoughts here because I mostly agree with their assessment of all of these books.
A Wizard of Earthsea - 5/5, solid fantasy YA. I wish I'd read it when I was in the target age group, but I enjoyed it thoroughly regardless. Le Guin's prose is wonderful to read, so precise and so evocative, beautiful without being excessive. If there were kids in my life, I'd give them this book.
The Tombs of Atuan - 4.5/5, I really liked this one too but the ending was kind of a letdown after a fantastic buildup. The worldbuilding was fascinating and I enjoyed the character work; I just felt like the conclusion backtracked on some of it and recentered the world on Ged/the wizards of Roke in a way that wasn't as interesting.
The Farthest Shore - 3/5, there were elements of the character work, themes, and prose that I loved in the first two books, but the plot felt like a beginner D&D campaign: get quest from questgiver, go to location and talk to NPCs for exposition, repeat several times until you get enough information, confront the big evil and win and go home. Also, it really leans into the fantasy trope of "having a Good And Wise King on the throne magically induces prosperity in the world" which I find deeply boring. Kind of the reverse of Tombs: I found most of it iffy but I liked the conclusion.
Tehanu - 5/5, I was delighted to have Tenar back as MC and pleasantly surprised by how Le Guin addressed the material reality of a patriarchal fantasy world. This one felt so much more 'mature' both in the sense of the focal character being in her 40s, and in the sense of the narrative very explicitly revolving around misogyny, rape, child abuse, and recovery from trauma. Towards the end things got a little less nuanced, but YA is YA and I found this to be a really thrilling reading experience overall.
A Wizard of Earthsea - 5/5, solid fantasy YA. I wish I'd read it when I was in the target age group, but I enjoyed it thoroughly regardless. Le Guin's prose is wonderful to read, so precise and so evocative, beautiful without being excessive. If there were kids in my life, I'd give them this book.
The Tombs of Atuan - 4.5/5, I really liked this one too but the ending was kind of a letdown after a fantastic buildup. The worldbuilding was fascinating and I enjoyed the character work; I just felt like the conclusion backtracked on some of it and recentered the world on Ged/the wizards of Roke in a way that wasn't as interesting.
The Farthest Shore - 3/5, there were elements of the character work, themes, and prose that I loved in the first two books, but the plot felt like a beginner D&D campaign: get quest from questgiver, go to location and talk to NPCs for exposition, repeat several times until you get enough information, confront the big evil and win and go home. Also, it really leans into the fantasy trope of "having a Good And Wise King on the throne magically induces prosperity in the world" which I find deeply boring. Kind of the reverse of Tombs: I found most of it iffy but I liked the conclusion.
Tehanu - 5/5, I was delighted to have Tenar back as MC and pleasantly surprised by how Le Guin addressed the material reality of a patriarchal fantasy world. This one felt so much more 'mature' both in the sense of the focal character being in her 40s, and in the sense of the narrative very explicitly revolving around misogyny, rape, child abuse, and recovery from trauma. Towards the end things got a little less nuanced, but YA is YA and I found this to be a really thrilling reading experience overall.