A Wizard of Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea
by Ursula K. LeGuin
Reviewed by Mrs. Jones

I love the Harry Potter books.  I've often read that the Harry Potter books are very good, but not very original; that they pull elements from lots of other good books.  They borrow from the British tradition of boarding-school books, from mythology, and also from an old kids' fantasy novel called A Wizard of Earthsea, which is also about a boy wizard at wizard school.

Now I've finally read A Wizard of Earthsea, and I don't think it's very much like Harry Potter at all.  Yes, they both have young wizards who go to wizarding school, but that's the end of the similarity.  In LeGuin's novel, the young wizard is Ged, who shows magic talent as a boy, and is sent away to be an apprentice wizard.  In his ignorance, he uses his magic to unleash something very big and very dangerous, and then goes to the great wizard academy to learn to control his power.  He learns, and grows, and begins to come of age, but through everything, the dark power he awoke as a boy is following him.  This book is a lot more serious than Harry, slower paced, and with more emphasis on beautiful language.  Also, Ged doesn't actually spend that much of the book at wizarding school

One thing A Wizard of Earthsea does have in common with the Harry Potter series is that they're both coming-of-age stories, showing how a child grows into a man.  I loved the way that Ged isn't a perfect child.  He makes big mistakes and wrong decisions, and he has to live with the consequences of his decisions, even when he has learned better.

I also loved the emphasis on the power of language in this novel.  The magic system is based on the power of words.  Wizards speak an ancient language in which it is impossible to lie, and knowing the true name of a person or thing gives you a tremendous amount of power - therefore, a great deal of the work of being a wizard involves trying to discover the real name and nature of whatever one wants to control.  The language of the novel was truly extraordinary.  I've often been irritated at the phony lyricism of some fantasy novels.  I can't read too many sentences of "Forsooth, thou must go unto yon castle, for a geas is laid upon thee" before I get annoyed and quit reading.  But LeGuin uses language that is beautiful, lyrical, and old-fashioned, while still being perfectly readable.  I found myself pausing to re-read an especially beautiful sentence or paragraph more than once.

I loved reading A Wizard of Earthsea, and I can't believe I'm only now reading it for the first time, because I would have loved it as a teenager.  It's wise and beautiful and true, and I hope the second book in the series is as good as the first, because I already have it on hold at the library.