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The Books
The Wizard of Earthsea (My FAVORITE)
When i was in 8th grade, I wasn't much of a reader - usually only if I had to read for school and NEVER for fun. But I was in one of those "advanced" English classes and we had to read books over the summer - most of them weren't anything special, but Wizard of Earthsea stood out and grabbed my imagination. It had everything I'd been looking for in a book - magic, good vs. evil, bullies and great characters. Looking back on it, I can related to how some people say that Harry Potter made them want to read more - because the same thing happened to me. After I finished Eartsea, I devoured the next two books - and as this was back in the day before any other Earthsea stories or novels, I turned to other SciFi/Fantasy books - Pern, Lord of the Rings, Shannara and The Finovar Tapestry, but none of them truely grabbed me like Earthsea did. In the first book Ged finds out he's got a special ability (what kid doesn't want one?) when he saves his village from pirates and is apprenticed to the (very silent) wizard Ogion. I love Ged, but I also love the character of Ogion, who in my mind, is everything a Wizard should be.
He goes to the school wizardry on Roke Island (like Hogwarts but I feel its MUCH more difficult) he summons a spirit of darkness that scars him and leaves him to die. The rest of the book deals with his adventures (including a dragon!) as he tracks down and kills the evil thing he summoned. Truely exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The Tombs of Atuan
When I first read Tombs of Atuan, I remember thinking "Girl Stuff?" but I stuck with it and I'm glad i did. Looking back, I like that this one shows another side of Earthsea than Wizard did. Tombs main character is a girl, Tenar (hence my "girly stuff!" skepticism) who is taken from her family and dedicated as the high priestess in the service of the "Nameless Ones". To do so, she gives up her name and self to become Arha, "the eaten one", as all the high priestesses have done before her. Her childhood & adolescenes are MUCH different from Ged's - lots of duty and ritual, and lots of darkness (the novel IS called Tombs of Atuan after all).
Ged FINALLY shows up (yaaaay!) when Tenar is "of age" - she catches him trying to rob the Tombs and she punishes him - trapping him underground to die of thirst (she's a vengance-y one, all right)- but she does listen to him because she's lonely and has no friend.
She finally realizes that he doesn't want the treasure of the Tomb, but needs the other half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, an heirloom necessary to peace in Earthsea.
The Farthest Shore
When I was younger, I really disliked that The Farthest Shore had two endings, but now I kind of like it - its different, and not something you usually see (plus, it made for good speculations about which one is better). The book opens up with magic is losing its power and people and animals getting sick and dying. Our hero, Ged, has made it to Archmage of Roke and goes off in search of the problem - a journey that takes him & his companion to the end of the world and beyond. Needless to say, the solution broke my heart. (And, no, I'm not telling you here)
Le Guin wrote two endings to The Farthest Shore, one of them - when Ged returns tohis home island - is continued in Tehanu.
Tehanu
Tehanu, the fourth of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books was written SEVENTEEN years after The Farthest Shore. (Happily for me, I only had to wait about 7 years - I feel sorry for the Earthsea fans who had to wait ten more years than I did!) Of the Earthsea novels, this one is the most "grown up," which is why I think the series grew with me - there's a lot of gender and men and women issues in this one, which is one of the reasons I think its good that I didn't have to read this one when I was younger - it would have gone over my head.
However, its nice to revist both Tenar (from The Tombs of Atuan) and Ged and see what happens when adventures are done.
More to Come....Tales from Earthsea essay coming soon!
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