{"id":209,"date":"2006-03-19T19:11:35","date_gmt":"2006-03-20T02:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=209"},"modified":"2025-05-05T20:16:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T00:16:33","slug":"a-wizard-of-earthsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/209","title":{"rendered":"A Wizard of Earthsea"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wizard of Earthsea<\/em> (1968) Ursula K. Le Guin<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Strangely enough, as much fantasy as I read, I’d never gotten around to reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy. I’ve had the books for a couple of years, but for one reason or another, never got around to reading them. It’s a short book, my copy has only 183 pages (same for the reprint I just looked up), so I kept putting off reading it until a time when I needed a short book to read. Well, that time seems to be now.<\/p>\n

The first book in the trilogy, A Wizard of Earthsea<\/em>, tells the story of Ged, known as sparrowhawk, the greatest sorcerer of Earthsea. His youth and education through his young adulthood, as he took his first job as a wizard.<\/p>\n

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I suppose that I was fearing it was going to be one of those “classics” that I read because it’s supposed to be great, but I just don’t get it. (Like The Last Unicorn<\/em>.) But no, I really enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea<\/em>. <\/p>\n

I liked the writing, I liked the story, and I liked the characters. (And I also liked that it was a short book.) I found Sparrowhawk and Vetch to be very interesting, and I liked the way that Sparrowhawk matured. I’m typically not fond of books with bratty teenage characters, but I found Sparrowhawk interesting, and I found his immaturity and faults to be understandable, rather than annoying.<\/p>\n

I also enjoyed the fact that I had no idea where the story was going. It’s not often that a story completely surprises me, but as I read, I kept thinking, “I didn’t expect that!” which was fun.<\/p>\n

As far as covers, I like the original cover, and I like the cover on my copy (Bantam’s 19th printing), but the current covers? Ew. Why change a very lovely cover for something boring? (The binding on my copy, however, leaves something to be desired.)<\/p>\n

I’ve already started The Tombs of Atuan<\/em>, and have hopes that it will be as good as A Wizard of Earthsea<\/em>. Even if it is a second book in a trilogy. If, like me, you’ve put off reading the Earthsea Trilogy, do so no longer. It’s an interesting, well-written story. Enjoy!
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) Ursula K. Le Guin Strangely enough, as much fantasy as I read, I’d never gotten around to reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy. I’ve had the books for a couple of years, but for one reason or another, never got around to reading them. It’s a short book, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291],"tags":[839],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-ursula-k-le-guin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":210,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/210","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":0},"title":"The Tombs of Atuan","author":"Michelle","date":"March 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tombs of Atuan (1970) Ursula K. Le Guin The second book in the Earthsea Trilogy, The Tombs of Atuan tells the story of Tenar, who becomes Arha, the Eaten One, and High Priestess of the Nameless Ones. Tenar is taken from her home at the age of five becuase\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tombs of Atuan","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/tombs_of_atuan.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":211,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/211","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":1},"title":"The Farthest Shore","author":"Michelle","date":"March 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Farthest Shore (1972) Ursula K. Le Guin The final book in The Earthsea Trilogy, as A Wizard of Earthsea tells of the start of Ged's life as a wizard, The Farthest Shore closes his adventures. This time, Ged appears at the start of the book, as he receives Prince\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Farthest Shore","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/fathest_shore.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13514,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13514","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":2},"title":"Last Watch, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"October 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Watch, Audio Edition (2009\/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko translated by Andrew Bromfield narrated by Paul Michael As with the previous book, there are three intertwined stories. These stories take place over a relatively short period of time. Common Cause Anton is sent to Edinburgh, Scotland to look into the death of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Last Watch","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Lastwatch-e1511017917692.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3622,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3622","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":3},"title":"The Way of the Wizard","author":"Michelle","date":"March 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Way of the Wizard (2010) John Joseph Adams I love anthologies. They give me an escape in bite size pieces that won't keep me up past my bed time on a work night, and they also often a wonderful introduction to authors I have not read previously. This anthology\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"way_of_the_wizard","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/way_of_the_wizard.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14261,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14261","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":4},"title":"Digger","author":"Michelle","date":"April 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Digger (2011) Ursula Vernon Published by Sofawolf Press Rating: 8.5\/10","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Digger - Shadowchild","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2009-07-09-wombat601-talk.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2009-07-09-wombat601-talk.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2009-07-09-wombat601-talk.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13802,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/13802","url_meta":{"origin":209,"position":5},"title":"Digger, Vol. 1","author":"Michelle","date":"January 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Digger, Vol. 1 (2005) Ursula Vernon Did you know you needed a story about a wombat? I'm sure you didn't, however you definitely do. Publisher : Sofawolf Press, Inc Rating: 8\/10","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Digger Vol 1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Digger-Vol-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}