Ateli-weird

(4.5/5)

I was lucky enough to find a hardcover edition of this book, and it was the first one on my bookshelf I decided to tackle here.

A Wizard of Earthsea follows the story of Ged (or Sparrowhawk as he is also known) through his childhood as he learns to be a wizard. As far as story goes, it’s not an incredibly complex one, but it’s very well put together. At the time of its publishing, such stories weren’t nearly as common as they are now, as LeGuin mentions in the afterword of this book.
Overall my experience with Ged was an enjoyable one, and I’m looking forward to the other books in the Earthsea cycle once I get around to them. I did find the writing style a little more distant than I expected, however. I’m not sure if this is due to the age of the book - I had a similar experience back when I was reading through the first few Pern novels, though it definitely grated worse in those books than it did for me here.

In some ways though I think the distance did some good. Though this book is designated as teen/YA, it doesn’t really read like one? At least in the modern sense. Part of why I dislike YA is due to the typical style of narration of YA novels. I’m not sure how best to describe it, but I think for anyone who’s read enough of them (particularly when the novels are either dystopian or focusing on queer issues/the coming out narrative) you’ve probably seen what I mean. A Wizard of Earthsea doesn’t feel like it’s talking down to the reader, or desperately straining to be relatable.