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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif
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Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my LOCUS FANTASY list.
As the Locus Sci-Fi Award winners list treated me so kindly, I figure I’ll trust those same good folk to pick me some stars in their sister-list, the Locus Fantasy Award winners.
Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's kind of boring too. That goes for the whole series, not just this book.
So I didn't know much about Earthsea before I started this - I knew some people whose opinions I respected loved it, and I knew that I hadn't gotten along very well with the other Le Guins I'd read - but I didn't know much about the actual story.
So, here's the lowdown for Earthsea books 1-4: (-BEWARE SPOILERS!-)
BOOK ONE is about a young wizard, Sparrowhawk. He was a poor goatherd, and the local witch recognised his talent and taught him what she knew. Then the local wizard, Ogion, took him under his wing, and tried to teach him too - but the kid, was too impatient for Ogion's zen approach, so he gets sent off to wizard school. At wizard school he kicks-off a rivalry with an older rich kid. Trying to prove himself more powerful, Sparrowhawk does something dumb - he opens a rift to the land of the dead, and this demon shadowbeast-thing comes out. They fight, the kid gets some cool scars and gets knocked into a coma. The head wizard of wizardschool does some healing voodoo and saves Sparrowhak, but takes the demonic bullet himself (and dies). Sparrowhawk then spends many years running away from, then chasing the beastie. There's a bit with a dragon too, but that's largely irrelevant. Eventually Sparrowhawk embraces the dark beastie as part of him (sort of) and all's good. THE END.
BOOK TWO is about a girl priestess in some grim temple in the middle of nowhere. It's all a bit Gormenghast. Not much happens for quite a long time and I was wondering where the hell Sparrowhawk had gotten to? Then Sparrowhak rocks-up, much older then BOOK ONE, now an experienced adventurer. He gets taken prisoner by the girl, then convinces her to release him and run away from the creepy temple with him - taking the mega-treasure from under the tombs with them. The temple collapses in an earthquake and they go home to a heroes welcome. THE END.
BOOK THREE jumps us forward in time again - Sparrowhawk is now the head wizard of wizardschool himself. And there's some bad juju going on out in the hinterlands - magic has stopped working. A new kid is on the block - a Prince - sent as the messenger to get Sparrowhawk's help. Our man and the Prince poddle-off on their quest. They visit a few different islands, meet some crazy raft folk who follow the whales, say Hi to the dragons again, then track down the Badguy wizard. Badguy has found a way to become immortal by leaving the door between life and dead cracked open, so they follow Badguy into the land of the dead, face him down and save the world. Then a massive dragon gives them a lift home, the Prince becomes King of all the islands, and Sparrowhawk goes back to his home island, to retire with Ogion and the goats. THE END
BOOK FOUR (I'm reading at the moment) breaks the trend by not jumping forward in time, and instead picks up just before the end of BOOK THREE, with the girl priestess from BOOK TWO, now all grown-up, looking after old Ogion as he dies, and then looking after Sparrowhawk when he gets back, riding his massive dragon. Sparrowhawk has lost all his wizarding power because he used it all up saving the world. Then they get all domestic and lovey-dovey. There's a little girl who's all scarred and burnt that ex-priestess has adopted. Turns out she's a dragon spirit and mega-powerful and saves the day. THE END.
So yeah... Earthsea. Nothing at all like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. It's not bad... but I just don't love it. My favourite part is the flavour of the language; she has great skill at sketching out epic quests with minimal words - you find yourself filling in the blanks. But I never snapped out of the feeling that these people were... concepts; embodiments of ideas and value systems, but not 'people' I could love.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather go for lunch with Harry Potter than Sparrowhawk! And neither would get a seat at the table if Peter Grant, Matthew Swift or Harry Dresden were available!
Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's kind of boring too. That goes for the whole series, not just this book, BOOK ONE.
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