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First Written | 1968 |
Genre | Scifi |
Origin | US |
My Copy | library audiobook! |
First Read | May 05, 2019 |
A Wizard of Earthsea
I have put this book off forever; it's famous and beloved by people with similar taste venn diagrams as me. [ Sidenote: there's got to be a goood term for this, right? cultural affinity? IDK. ] But I'd dipped into it years before, and it seemed... cheesy? too serious? I don't know.
BUT: after a few pleasant audiobook experiences, where the inflexible pace of another reader helped me relax into a book, I tried this out. And really enjoyed it! Yes, it's an extremely archtypal hero's journey Wizard-with-great-power must learn to use it wisely to deal with Dragons and Dark Powers and Grow as a Person, told in a Formal Style, but it feels like THE archetype. It's the uncut stuff that derivative works are deriving FROM.
I don't know if I prefer 'fantasy-leguin' over 'scifi-leguin' yet. But liked it enough to immediately check out the next audiobook.
Noted on May 10, 2019
From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.
Quoted on May 10, 2019
The wise needn't ask, the fool asks in vain.
Quoted on May 10, 2019