Book Review: A Wizard of Earthsea

Title: A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle #1)
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Genre: Fantasy (High/Epic Fantasy), Adventure
Rating: ?
Page Count: 266 (paperback)
Publication Date: January 1st, 1968

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.

Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.



Review:
You might notice this book doesn't have a star rating, and it's because I have very mix feelings about it. At the end - I liked it. I liked what could be learned from the book and the message of it, but - I'm also not sure I liked the actual book, actually at all. Maybe that I appreciated it, or something like that.

Mostly because I really didn't like this book at the beginning, I couldn't stand the main character and I almost wanted to just give up, even at page 30 and 40 and 100. I kept going, though, because some people I trust or respect had rated it high or talked about it highly or - something like that, and it's a classic for a reason. So I kept going.

Even, at the end, having liked how it ended and appreciated it over all, I still had a lot of problems with it. The writing wasn't bad, I liked it at times, but at other times I felt like I was reading notes for the scene, so the writer could go back and flesh it out more, it felt very like a screenplay almost, or just an outline. At other times I felt the short nature really fitted the story, and I think that it really did overall.

Basically I had very, very complicated feelings about this book. And it's been a very long time since I just didn't really know how I felt about a book, even writing this review quite a bit after I finished it, I'm still not really sure how I felt about it or if I want to continue with the series.

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to put this review up, because I'm not sure it's informative or helpful, but maybe it'll interest you enough to maybe check it out. If you have read A Wizard of Earthsea, then I'd love to hear what you thought, and if you plan to or something of that nature - when you do, I'd still love to hear (no matter how long after this is posted you do such a thing).