No.94 - A Wizard of Earthsea

I'll be the first person to admit that fantasy is not really my bag. I've read a bit of Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman, and of course Harry Potter, but i've never tackled the likes of Tolkein for example! So when I was confronted with A Wizard of Earthsea I was interested to see how i'd enjoy it. Unfortunately, it was not for me! 

I don't want to be super critical of this book, but there were certain aspects that I struggled with. Originally published in 1968, A Wizard of Earthsea is a coming of age story about a young wizard searching to find his true self (sound familiar!?). Before reading this book I'd read that A Wizard of Earthsea could be considered a forerunner to boarding school/fantasy stories such as The Worst Witch by Jill Murphy and the Harry Potter series. This filled me with hope, as I really enjoyed both of these! However, the boarding school part of this story was extremely brief, and quite early on in the story. The entire plot was what I would term 'flitting', jumping from one thing to the next, leaving the reader feeling a tad confused. I felt there were many moments where I was left wanting just a little more story, or information. As a younger reader I feel I would have really struggled to keep up with the narrative, especially as the location was constantly changing, along with the array of characters and even their names. 

Names play a huge role in this story, as the hold the key to the true version of things, ie. characters and animals have their given names and their true names. Just explaining this to you has confused me, and gives you an idea of how complex this story is. By the end of Chapter One, Duny, the main character, is given his 'true name', and is referred to as Ged for the rest of the book. I know it sounds silly but it took me a while to understand what had happened and who Ged was, so I can imagine that for a child this would cause some confusion! 

The language and narrative style were also quite complex, and I found it much easier to read it out loud than in my head! I'd like to take this moment to apologise to anyone who had this book read at them over the last few weeks! Set around an archipeligo of islands there were lots of really odd place names such as Vemish, Iffish and Gont. Le Guin refers to all these places like you've been there, know exactly where they are and who lives there, which makes it even more confusing! There are sections where she explains locations and their mythology, which in some ways was helpful, but the way it was written was quite dense. However, she also provides some rather helpful maps, which made it much easier to chart Ged's journey! 

Our hero sets loose a dark shadowy beast/creature/thing which continues to follow him around the archipelago trying to kill him... I think! Every time he faces this thing it weakens his powers. The book is mainly made up of him sailing around, trying to run away from it! However, after consulting his mentor Ogion the Silent (a fine example of one of the names in this book, but not as good as Kurremkarmerruk the Master Namer, which i'm still not sure how to pronounce!!) he decides to go after the beast, and the book culminates in their face off. I shan't tell you anymore in case you fancy trying it out for yourself! Personally, it was quite a slog for me, but if you're used to fantasy fiction then you might really enjoy it!

Thanks for reading X

Next up, the children's classic Thomas the Tank Engine by Rev. W. Awdry