О Боги, я вернулась к Волшебнику еще раз. Самый первый раз мне подарил эту трилогию отец, заказал тогда в интернет-магазине и невзначай отдал. Боги-боги, почему я не сохранила книгу? Засунула куда-то и теперь она там и стоит, никто ее не читает.В детстве я не смогла продраться дальше половины первой книги, потому что на меня навевала скуку такое медленное и бездейственное повествование. Герои, казалось мне, живут так, как будто им написали так жить: никакого выбора, никаких душевных метаний не описано, вообще практически ничего не описано.Насколько я разочаровалась тогда, настолько я влюблена в Волшебника сегодня. Те самые герои, которые как будто "плыли по течению", сегодня видятся мне, как будто судьба их уже написана. Как будто весь мир, все Земноморье находится под своим Роком и знает, что всему свое время. И на фоне этой тотальной фатальности Ле Гуин пишет о том, что у человека есть выбор, идти ему за Тенью, преследовать ее или убегать от нее, теряя силы, ждать смерти.Фатальность романа делает его более масштабным, более философским. Приподнимает над каждодневной суетой. Главный герой очень много путешествует по морю, в море нет суши, нет кадждодневных дел, требующих внимания. Герой находится в поиске, в медитации, ему видно больше, чем простым смертным. Его сила не только открыла портал и впустила Тень, его сила как раз и отбросила эту Тень.Пожалуй, для меня это книга-откровение. Это та самая книга, читая которую, удивляешься, как это автор смог описать словами то, что ты носишь в голове в виде неоформленных идей. Читать и кивать-да, да, все так, все именно так.Я восхитилась, когда поняла, что Дяченко в своей Vita Nostra вдохновлялись именно Волшебником, и так неожиданно звучит теперь и сама Vita Nostra, и Волшебник Земноморья.Это звук, сказанный солнечным лучом, брызгами фонтанов и плеском волн. Ветер колышет листья на деревьях и ты задумываешься: твои ли это деревья, твоего ли мира? Носят ли они то же Имя, что и в Земноморье или тебе предстоит заново услышать их Имена? Вдруг там, на самом краю мира, где Гед встретился со своей Тенью, он неосознанно создал этот мир, люди которого не знают Истинных Имен, но хотят узнать их? И мы все-лишь проекция этой встречи, искаженные тени другой Тени.И, конечно, Юнг, не могу не вспомнить его концепцию про Тень. Это самое первое, что приходит в голову, когда Гед говорит, что теперь он свободен и целостен. И то, что Тень носит то же Имя, что и Гед, и то, что он искал ее как хищника, искал сам как хищник и в итоге не победил, нет, и не проиграл-он слился с ней, узнал ее, узнал себя. Однозначно надо покупать в бумажном издании и читать, это просто шедеврально.
Very disappointing.This book was recommended to me by one of my favorite professors, so it's hard to say I really didn't like it. But I really didn't. The plots are rambling and formulaic, the characters are flat, and the narration aspires to poetry but comes off as awkward and over-the-top. Everything in the story has been done better by some other author, usually Tolkien.Maybe I just don't know how to read this style, but the general sense I get from it is negative. Le Guin does make her main points clear even if you miss some of her details.My impression of the trilogy:1. (Wizard of Earthsea) "If you are naughty, there will be consequences! Because light needs darkness."The most rambling plotline of the three, and Ged seems a bit like Tom Riddle, just plain power hungry. More likely to be a dark lord than an archmage. Also, the embracing the shadow ending seems like a cop-out. Too many stories fail to deal with the problem of evil in a realistic way. I seriously doubt evil just wants a pat on the head.2. (The Tombs of Atuan) "Humans are more powerful than the dark gods they created."Despite obvious flaws, my favorite of the three. For once there's a strong female lead, and the setting of the isolated, stagnating temple in the desert is an unconventional place to put a story. However, the religion remains underdeveloped. C.S. Lewis would have had a field day with such a situation, but all we get here is the feeling that everyone should just ignore the gods and preferable destroy the temple. I'll go read "Till We Have Faces" for a moving, symbolic treatment of dark myths.3. (The Farthest Shore) "Death is actually cool."Not sure why Arren has to be the king. Honestly he seemed a bit like a pansy. And I feel a bit cheated that Ged didn't die in the end. Their quest is disappointingly simplistic, since after all their enemy is only another silly human. Ende Would deliver more on the potential of an impossible quest. And I'm not really sure I want to see the magic come back. If you're that humanistic, why would magic tricks be important? Isn't the real power love and all that?In sum...The problem with writing a Great Epic Tale is that you can't write one just for wishing. You have to have something to say. The best fantasy writers are also people who have an insightful way of looking at life, such as Michael Ende and Madeleine L'Engle. I don't see such complexity or meaning anywhere in Le Guin's overworked world.edit: I'm including a quote from Alexander Pope. Just cuz."Some by old words to fame have made pretense;Ancients in phrase, mere moderns in their sense!Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a styleAmaze th'unlearn'd, and make the learned smile." --The Essay on Criticism
What do You think about The Earthsea Trilogy (1979)?
A Wizard of EarthseaThe boy Sparrowhawk leaves his home of Gont and travels to the Island of the Wise to learn wizardry, but in his youth and arrogance he accidentally unleashes a great evil on the world which he must set right. I quite enjoyed this book, especially the use of magic of names, but felt that the language was somewhat forced. It felt sort of forced-Tolkien-ian and jarred a little bit for me.The Tombs of AtuanIn this one, Sparrowhawk travels to the island of Atuan to try and retrieve the lost half of a great ring said to be able to bring peace to the whole of Earthsea. I liked this better than Wizard. The writing felt more assured and LeGuin seemed to have found her feet and was more assured. I also liked the character of the priestess Tenar and how her plight was handled.The Farthest ShoreThe final book of the Earthsea trilogy sees Sparrowhawk and the young prince Arren set out to find the cause of the malaise that is draining the will of the people and drawing magic out of the world. This one felt bleak from the start and it continued in that vein. It's a great adventure story, spanning great chunks of the world of Earthsea and the final confrontation is appropriately apocalyptic and bittersweet.In all, I'm glad I've read these books now and wish I had read them when I was younger and they may have made more of an impression on me. I think that the middle book was my favourite, having a less irritating Sparrowhawk than the first and less bleakness than the third, it was the Goldilocks book :).
—Raj
This is the edition I bought as a wee lad, I only managed to finish A Wizard of Earthsea due to foolishness of the young. Recently I have finished reading all three books of the original trilogy so I thought I'd link this book to my review of the individual volumes:A Wizard of Earthsea - My reviewIn which we meet young goat herder Duny soon to be named Ged and nicknamed Sparrowhawk. This is the story of Ged attending a school of wizardry on Roke Island, a serious mistake he made through hubris and how he seeks to rectify it.The Tombs of Atuan - My reviewIn which we meet Tenar a young girl on the horrible island of Atuan where they worship the evil "Nameless Ones", how she meets Ged and ... (spoiler!)The Farthest Shore - My reviewIn which we meet young prince Arren who shows up on Roke Island to enlist Ged's help to stop an evil thing that is sucking every good thing out of Earthsea. Ged is now an old archmage.The three volumes combined is shorter than one volume of most fantasy epics today. They are beautifully written and rightly revered as classics of the genre.I have not read subsequent books Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind though.
—Apatt
Read A Wizard of Earthsea. I'd heard a lot of recommendations for this, but I was disappointed. It seemed like Le Guin was trying too hard to make "fantasy" language, and focusing not enough on character or story. The whole "plot" ended up concluded within 2 pages, and it was pointless. I'm going to try the 2nd book and see if it gets any better, just because so many people I respect had rec'd it to me.3/24/09- Finished The Tombs of Atuan. A huge step up from the first book. There are important ties between them, and Ged does have a big role in the 2nd book. A very quick, easy read, and far superior (in my opinion) to the first book. I'm looking forward to the third one now. This one centered around the Kargish lands (where that mute couple on the little sandbar island in the first book are from), and the girl who is "reborn" as the high priestess who guards over the tombs and "The Place", a holy site, but doesn't know why. The whole religion is just something they do, but few still believe or worship, and they just follow the rules because that's what they've been told they must do. There was a lot more symbolism and meaning (the darkness=ignorance, light=knowledge; the religion keeping people down and controlling them through fear and ignorance, etc.), and the book had more plot, better characterizations, and better writing.
—Julie
