A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin, 1968
A young goatherd goes to a school for wizards and learns that magic means names, balance, and limits before it means power.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin's father was the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and her mother wrote Ishi in Two Worlds; their work fed her interest in other cultures and nonhuman minds.
Feels like power, wonder and awe.
The oldest rule of magic is a warning about unintended consequences.
You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard’s power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow. Books by Ursula K. Le Guin
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