"My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it." - Ursula Le Guin I have had this tiny novel in my possession for many years. I don't know where it came from, I don't know precisely how long I've had it or even where it came from, all I know is that I've never made it to the end. This is absolutely through no fault of the author or the subject matter, as both are entirely up my alley. A Wizard Of Earthsea was even adapted into a film by Studio Ghibli, who have produced some of my favorite films, ever. Why then, have I never finished this book? The only explanation I can offer is that I probably did read the whole thing in a day when I first got it, then set it aside and promptly forgot all about it. Maybe this is a re-read, but in any case, Le Guin writes classic science fiction and fantasy and has been given so many prestigious awards in duplicate that she was made a Grandmaster Of Science Fiction in 2003. Yes, that's a REAL thing.
A quick note on the film adaptation, taken from Wikipaedia, if you're interested, and certainly a good argument for why you should always read the book before seeing the film! In the early 1980s, animator and director Hayao Miyazaki asked permission to create an animated adaptation of Earthsea. However, Le Guin, who was unfamiliar with his work and anime in general, turned down the offer. Years later, after seeing My Neighbor Totoro she reconsidered her refusal, believing that if anyone should be allowed to direct an Earthsea film, it should be Hayao Miyazaki. The third and fourth Earthsea books were used as the basis of the 2006 animated film Tales From Earthsea. The film, however, was directed by Miyazaki's son, Goro, rather than Hayao Miyazaki himself, which disappointed Le Guin. While she was positive about the aesthetic of the film, writing that "much of it was beautiful", she took great issue with its re-imagining of the moral sense of the books and greater focus on physical violence. "Evil has been comfortably externalized in a villain", Le Guin writes, "the wizard Kumo/Cob, who can simply be killed, thus solving all problems. In modern fantasy (literary or governmental), killing people is the usual solution to the so-called war between good and evil. My books are not conceived in terms of such a war, and offer no simple answers to simplistic questions." On to the book itself! First impressions - I am reminded of many classic fantasy series beginnings; a young protagonist widely considered to be gently foolhardy and is ripe for development. Said protagonist is taken under the wing of a character with dubious but not necessarily bad intentions. I read The Magician when I was mayyyyybe fourteen and I was frankly enchanted by this sort of trope. It also reminded me of a trilogy I read many years ago called Damiano, by R.A. MacAvoy - all these books have a wonderful lost-in-a-forest vibe, with lashings of magic, animal familiars and unforeseen consequences. I've said before that once you've read a high fantasy series you've read all of them, but I feel as though this will appeal to my sense of nostalgia. That's not even taking into consideration that Le Guin's novels often deal with topics like social structure, anarchism, environmentalism. Magic in this universe is written in my favorite way - almost like alchemy and certainly in the vein of hedge witchery, herbalists, wise women/folk, in that everything comes with a price, everything must maintain the great cosmic balance and the smallest change could come with a thousand consequences so each sorcerer, each wizard, must learn the true name of things and practice his craft with the utmost care. There's something fun and liberating about magic just being around for the taking but I do find I prefer this difficult way of magic. It seems to me somehow more believable, as though it makes more sense, the need to work for it. Ged, our main character begins his journey as a bit of a self-serving wizard after establishing himself as extremely powerful from the get-go... He does save his entire village, but soon after he begins to display a thirst for power and knowledge that leads him down a path of questionable intentions though not outward evil, and this does provide the essential 'issue' of the book. The rest of the story centers around Ged trying to make up for his boo-boo with various degrees of suffering, hopelessness, and a sprinkling of endangerment to others. "Tell me just this, if it is not a secret: what other great powers are there besides the light?" "It is no secret. All power is one in source and end, I think. Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man's hand and the wisdom in a trees root,: they all arise together. My name and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name." I'm almost finished with the book and finding that although the writing is gorgeous at times and the concept of magic is beautifully devised, well thought out... There is something lacking in depth. Maybe it doesn't quite meet expectations as far as my perception of LeGuin's particular strengths, as there is a distinct lack of real world friction. Unrest among the peoples of Earthsea is glossed over quickly in the beginning as it provides a platform for Ged's first public display of magic, but doesn't receive much mention further on and though Ged meets with plenty of strife and helps to solve the problems of others, I feel as though the whole world could have used a little more fleshing out. I am used to quite gritty, often bloody, historical fiction and fantasy, and knowing that there are more Earthsea novels leaves me thinking that perhaps this is yet to come, but judging solely on this book alone I would say it's unlikely.
Final Verdict - 5 out of 10 I can honestly say I never made it to the end of this book before, because I was so mad when I finished it and I'd remember being that mad... I really don't care for a weak ending. Oh, boy. It was wrapped up like a neat little package with the simplest of explanations and although it speaks of a future Ged in a position of power, with great deeds done, the book feels like a stand alone adventure that was ended due to time or paper constraints. The end feels like a definitively clumsy end and there's no room for more. The writing is gorgeous, the pondering journey of Ged is a comfortable thing and the ending was not to my liking. Worth reading as a holiday novel, a rainy day book or as an accompaniment for a plane or train ride. It was a short read and as much as I my be disappointed with the ending itself - that resolution happened in the last three pages - the journey to get there was rather sweet. Yevaud the dragon was my kind of big lizard, though. Very sassy.
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Ok lets rip the band-aid off... I'm a Warhammer nerd. I'd like to back that statement up with a very important clarification - I love my science fiction but I cannot and do not hand paint little figurines and move them about on a board to make tiny, tiny war. I'm a huge fan of the world in which the games, tabletop or otherwise, are set. One of my favorite things about stories from The Black Library is that they are written by many different authors, which makes them incredibly varied in terms of writing style, subject matter and character development, so any time I'm struggling to find something to read that will keep me engaged, I immediately revert to the Black Library. I've got my favorite authors, sure, but with such a richly furnished universe there always seems to be something else that will engage me. I started out reading the novels upon recommendation from a friend of a friend, who does play the tabletop game, and I ended up getting hooked on a particular type of character called an Inquisitor. Basically, FBI meets assassin, meets secret agent, meets PROSECUTOR OF HERETICS and now I've said meets too many times. Think... futuristic, military, space opera. With religious overtones and sprinklings of immortality, magic, and demons. I digress. I started reading the books at a point far flung into the future of mankind without realising there was an entire series of books dedicated to the events that shape the way the universe is presented in the 41st millennium. Things are pretty messed up... the tagline of the 40K universe is "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war." Now, I know what you're thinking. War. Boring. Stabby. Bloody. Unnecessary. Buuuuuut... the characters that bring these stories to life tend to surprise you with just how multi-faceted they can be. Not every book is written from the view point of a soldier, a killer, an assassin, or barbarian - though certainly the many ways in which you could obliterate a life form are extensively explored - a lot of the stories are written from the view point of humans who are just witnessing the events that unfold. Besides the inquisitorial style books, these are in fact my favorites. Reading science fiction is such a joy to me because I can imagine where science could take us as a species, so reading books like these from the point of view of humans, whether they be physically, mentally, psychically advanced, or not, makes the stories more believable and a delight to experience. Mechanicum is Book Nine in the Horus Heresy series covering the events of a galaxy spanning civil war that leads to complete dystopian society. I use the term society loosely as there are many different belief systems, castes, cultures, entire planets of humans who bio-hack and mechanise themselves. Mechanicum itself covers the fall of Mars, which at this point is the hub of all technological advance in the galaxy. At first I found this one difficult to get into as the viewpoint changes chapter by chapter from a young human scribe on Terra (Earth), to some of the leaders of unrest and revolution, corrupted by dark forces no one really knows what to call yet. Except me. I do. Because I read all the books from the future first like an ignorant fool. *no spoilers* It is heavily geared towards descriptions of mechanical automation, ethically-eyebrow-raising invention, cyborgs, technological advance and of course, warfare. My favorite parts of the book were events experienced from the perspective of Dalia Cythera. She comes from a life of mind-numbingly dull repetition and is plucked from obscurity to aid an Adept of The Mars Mechanicum (a technocratic cult) in the invention of an incredible machine that threatens to reveal the machinations of important figures involved in a coup d'éta. Hijinks ensue. The rest of the internet would probably focus on what's happening with the higher ranking figures of importance within the book but I found that all rather dry and difficult to track. Dalia was my jam. She rubbed elbows with interesting characters and everything got a little medieval at one point. Weird but good. The end of the book will not be what you expect for her as a character, but absolutely what you expect for everything else, in all the worst ways you could likely imagine. The author Graham McNeill has written A LOT of novels for the Black Library. I read his books on the Ultramarines a long time ago and when I came across his name in this series I honestly couldn't remember if I had enjoyed his style. Turns out it's a bit... eh. Compelling enough to continue reading all the way through but maybe a little dry and technical for my taste. Having said that, some of my favorite Adeptus Astartes (aka Spare Marines - bio and tech advanced soldiers of the Imperium of Man) are the Space Wolves and they're as animalistic as you can get - think Vikings in berserker mode with insanely good senses. Final verdict - 7 out of 10
First Impressions - No Spoilers
The first pages of the book have a few maps and a prophecy offered in a lyric sort of form with not much explanation which doesn't seem overly relevant when I move onto the prologue. The next few pages are spent outlining the world the books are set in and a brief touch on the peoples it is populated with. It doesn't feel like a clinical set up, the information is delivered in an easy to digest manner: I don't get bored, that's a good sign. Not much detail is given about the initial character we meet, and this makes me curious about her story, but I also wonder if it's because she isn't to last very long due to the incredibly rough weather and the fact that she's alone in the wilderness and heavily pregnant. Are we are being protected from getting too attached? Who knows. I will admit it took me a little bit of forced reading to get through the first half of the book. Some parts moved a little slowly, sometimes the characters were exasperating, occasionally the prophetic portion of the plot becomes a liiiiiittle bit too cliche for my taste... Once the pace starts to pick up however, and the choices that the characters make or aren't allowed to make start to affect eachother, things do get interesting. Douglass has a writing style that is descriptive but not so much that the writing gets bogged down by detail. But can I mention here that the main character has changed his last name three times? Make a decision, mate. At this point in time I am a chapter away from the end of the book and I'm a bit on the fence about continuing the series. I am aiming to finish off more half-read books before I start any new books, so I'm not sure what will happen once I've cleared that pile - will I pick something else or borrow book two? How cliffhanger-y will the last chapter be? Only one way to find out... After chapters upon chapters of impossible odds, this book ends with hope. No cliff hanger really, as there's a clear direction in which the characters have to go and a purpose for each of them to strive towards. Cliff hangers make me greedy for a next book but I am a sentimental little nutter and it's probably pretty likely that I'll finish the trilogy at least. Final Verdict 6 out of 10 It was ok. There's definitely better fantasy out there, and if I were to recommend a fantasy series in the Epic Fantasy vein I'd probably suggest something classic like Raymond Feist or David Eddings if I were to look beyond the obvious. (Lord of The Rings, Robert Jordan.) All in all, it was good enough for me to feel as though I haven't wasted my time, I did enjoy it and it was immersive enough that it did the trick of pulling me out of my own reality. One book down, seven half finished novels to go. So here we go. I set myself a few bookish goals for this year, one of which was documenting what books I read in an effort to keep better track of how many books creep into my shelves and stay unread for far too long. Seriously, I have a copy of So Long & Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams that I bought from my high school when they cleared a heaping pile of paperbacks from the library... in 2005. It has been TWELVE YEARS, and I haven't read that gem.
I tend towards being a little choosy in what I read just like any book worm: I have my favorite genres and I'm quite adamant about sticking to them. Fantasy, science fiction, fairy tales and folklore, classics, Shakespeare, anything set in a medieval time frame - you could almost say I like historical fiction. I'm an escapist reader, which means I go in for anything that's as far removed from reality or current day as possible. Some of my goals for this year
I think the first step to take was to finish a damn book. So I did. I'll be posting a review here every time I finish a book, sans spoilers, so I have a way to keeping track of my own impressions and to recommend books to friends without keeping everything in my brain pan at all times because let's face it, my memory is dubious at best... |
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