Book notes: A Wizard of Earthsea

By Ursula K. Le Guin.

I made the mistake of writing this several months after I finished reading it.

Ged is a wizard in the the world of Earthsea. The story starts with him as a young boy with promising sorcery talent. He eventually goes to wizard school. This was written in 1968, so it’s the O.G. Harry Potter.

There’s a map. Love me some world-building! Maybe there are follow-on books, because we don’t visit all the named islands.

Names are important. I’ve been thinking we should be creating more names for things, like when you find out that another language has a single word that means a whole phrase in your language, like how Trevor Noah describes “schadenfreude”. However, knowing someone’s name shouldn’t give you power over them. Names shouldn’t be THAT important.

This book is pretty famous and doesn’t need my recommendation. I enjoyed reading it. Put it on your list!

Spoiler: This is the second book I’ve read where someone reunites with their shadow! The Saint of Bright Doors. How common is this plot line?! Since I’m a bit of an expert on this subject now I can tell you it’s always a torturous path to get your shadow back. Take care not to lose it in the first place.

Still spoiler: I didn’t see any deeper meaning to chasing the shadow? It was just an entertaining story, which is fine with me.