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A review by penguin_emperor_of_the_north
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
3.0
I liked it. Solid, not amazing but solid.
The big upside was the exploration and description of the world as Ged travels throughout the Archipelago. Also, the plot surprised me. Subverted my expectations for a big, final conflict.
Though, I'll concede that throughout the latter half of the book I started suspecting that the book wouldn't deliver a predictable end but I didn't see the actual end coming.
The general philosophy of the book felt very eastern. Taoist, I think. I copied down several quotes that had a general thrust of encouraging one to go with the nature of things, encouraging the idea that disturbing the balance of things is a very bad idea because you can't predict the overall impact of your actions.
Also, I liked the character arc here. For the first third or so I thought Ged was an arrogant jerk but there's a big point where Ged's arrogance bites him in the butt that really changes his tone and it makes the final climax far more satisfying. Like he's forced to confront what a jerk he was and deal with that.
My biggest complaint is the magic system because it seems like Ged can do anything and he's mostly held back by the go with the flow philosophy. So, some drama is lost because you know he's just going to magic the boat into not sinking or, oh, he can turn into a falcon? Good for him, seems like that's important but we're just going to roll with it.
Considering the story is focused on that go with the flow philosophy, the magic isn't a huge impact to the story. More facilitates the flow of the story than anything but I think it did rob some of the drama.
The big upside was the exploration and description of the world as Ged travels throughout the Archipelago. Also, the plot surprised me. Subverted my expectations for a big, final conflict.
Though, I'll concede that throughout the latter half of the book I started suspecting that the book wouldn't deliver a predictable end but I didn't see the actual end coming.
The general philosophy of the book felt very eastern. Taoist, I think. I copied down several quotes that had a general thrust of encouraging one to go with the nature of things, encouraging the idea that disturbing the balance of things is a very bad idea because you can't predict the overall impact of your actions.
Also, I liked the character arc here. For the first third or so I thought Ged was an arrogant jerk but there's a big point where Ged's arrogance bites him in the butt that really changes his tone and it makes the final climax far more satisfying. Like he's forced to confront what a jerk he was and deal with that.
My biggest complaint is the magic system because it seems like Ged can do anything and he's mostly held back by the go with the flow philosophy. So, some drama is lost because you know he's just going to magic the boat into not sinking or, oh, he can turn into a falcon? Good for him, seems like that's important but we're just going to roll with it.
Considering the story is focused on that go with the flow philosophy, the magic isn't a huge impact to the story. More facilitates the flow of the story than anything but I think it did rob some of the drama.