Waaay back in, oh, I don’t know. Call it 2017, when Harry Potter fame started being questioned (and Rowling in general), Earthsea series was put forward as an alternative.
So let me tell you: Wizard of Earthsea is nowhere like Harry Potter series. It’s telling Harry Potter reader to read better fantasy series.
Which is fair enough. So let’s get back to Wizard of Earthsea.
Wizard of Earthsea is about Ged; a unusually talented at magic youth from basically backwater island. He’s headstrong and prideful, and learned magic from local Witch - before his home is invaded by nearby empire. Using his magic, Ged, not yet named Ged at the time, managed to fend them off. But he went into comma, until Ogidon, a mage, found him, healed him, and take him as his apprentice, and giving him the name Ged.
It’s pretty much a coming of age story, written in the style of old fantasy. It took me a bit to enjoy it, too used with more modern style, but it’s surprisingly nice. In the novel, Ged experienced the usual coming of age story. Following his patient Master, sympathetic with him yet too restless to really followed his direction and example. Finally going to school of magic, making friendship, getting (mildly) bullied, and getting his pride tested - and feel wanting.
Then he spent the rest of the novel trying to make-up for his one mistake, while achieving many legendary deeds in the course of doing so.
It has all the high you expected of proper fantasy. There’s adventure, there’s temptation. There’s a bunch of female characters that doesn’t amount to much, unfortunately. I’ve been informed it’s worst at first set of trilogy, better on second and third set, but we’ll see. And of course, it’s not set in vaguely medieval european by default, which is quite nice.
The emphasis of sea and different islands, with narration style, reminded me strongly of Sunless Sea, though obviously Sunless Sea came out much, much, later. Similarly, none of Ged’s victories ever quite ‘clean’ is also appreciated. And…
There’s conflict, but surprisingly little killing. Even the one in the beginning is pretty restrained.
There’s likely many more things I missed, but for now, I’ll went to nonfiction for the next book.