A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin, 1968
★ 4.01 from 380.1k ratings on Goodreads
Fantasy Young adultScience fiction
A young goatherd goes to a school for wizards and learns that magic means names, balance, and limits before it means power. A quiet, lyrical journey with a steady pace, where magic feels like weather and every name carries weight.
Feels like wonder, awe and nostalgia. About power, adventure and freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy introspective fantasy about learning limits, names, and balance more than battles. Some readers find the opening slow and the characters thin, so expect a spare, deliberate pace rather than constant action.
Why read it
It offers a short, thoughtful adventure about responsibility and self-knowledge, and its spare prose leaves room for wonder.
A page from the book
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. What readers say
Readers often find the story enchanting, lyrical, and introspective, praising its magical world and Ged’s journey toward self-knowledge. Others call it slow, dry, and underdeveloped, with weak pacing and characters.
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.
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Questions readers ask
- Is A Wizard of Earthsea for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy introspective fantasy about learning limits, names, and balance more than battles. Some readers find the opening slow and the characters thin, so expect a spare, deliberate pace rather than constant action.
- What is A Wizard of Earthsea like?
- A quiet, lyrical journey with a steady pace, where magic feels like weather and every name carries weight. Feels like wonder, awe and nostalgia. About power, adventure and freedom.
- What should I read after A Wizard of Earthsea?
- If you liked A Wizard of Earthsea, try The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss), Eragon (Christopher Paolini) and The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien).
A taste of the feed
Advice that sounds like freedom and costs almost everything to keep.
Let no one rule your mind or body. Take special care that your thoughts remain unfettered, one may be a free man and yet be bound tighter than a slave. Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don’t follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not. Consider none your superior in life. Treat all fairly or they will seek revenge. Be careful with your money. Hold fast to your beliefs and others will listen. Of the affairs of love, my only advice is to be honest. That’s your most powerful tool to unlock a heart or gain forgiveness.
Eragon · Christopher Paolini
What to do when the times arrive uninvited.
‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. ‘What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature, when he had a chance!’ ‘Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.’
The Fellowship of the Ring · J.R.R. Tolkien
What to say to yourself when fear arrives and will not leave.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Dune · Frank Herbert
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