Wizard of Earthsea

Hardcover, 192 pages

Published Oct. 8, 1973 by Heinemann Educational Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-435-12172-3
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5 stars (3 reviews)

A boy grows to manhood while attempting to subdue the evil he unleashed on the world as an apprentice to the Master Wizard.

65 editions

Very enjoyable but of its time

4 stars

I did really enjoy reading this, and will almost certainly go on to read the other Earthsea books.

I came to Earthsea after reading several of Le Guin's Hainish cycle books and short stories, including some of the earliest ones like Rocannon's World. I can see similarities with the earliest Hainish cycle works, from around the same time - an emphasis on male characters, for example - which I am sure would have been handled differently by the same author had she written them later on. But there are still a lot of great ideas here, and it is far more open-minded than most fantasy literature of its era.

Subjects

  • English literature: fiction texts
  • Fantasy
  • Science fiction