You can’t live in Portland and not know about Ursula LeGuin. A few years ago she and Margaret Atwood shared the stage at Portland Arts and Lectures, a conversation I still remember several years later. It’s inexplicable then that until this effort, I had read only one of her books: Lavinia. This is largely because I generally don’t seek out science fiction; I usually wait for it to find me. I was struck by her remarks at the National Book Awards in December and realized […]
A quietly impressive redemption story with magic and a dangerous religion
The first book in the Earthsea cycle, A Wizard of Earthsea, offered a nuanced take on the fantasy trope of the wizard who comes of age into his power and learns that universal axiom “with great power comes great responsibility.” This second entry into the cycle shifts momentarily away from Ged’s story toward Tenar, who at birth is selected as the First Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan. Her story neatly deconstructs the equally common-in-fantasy Chosen One trope and also serves as a lesson about […]
I really missed out, not reading this as a youth.
A wise person knows to expect thoughtful, imaginative, lyrical fantasy from Ursula K. Le Guin, and in A Wizard of Earthsea, she does not disappoint. Goodreads summary: “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 […]
Reading with the Lights Off
First of all, this is a sequel. If you haven’t read the preceding novel A Wizard of Earthsea, then go do that right now. It’s not long. I’ll wait… It’s wonderful, right? I remember how the prose grabbed me when I first read it, and it still grabs me that same way. It’s like The Gunslinger in that way; it feels truly, effortlessly ethereal. The text exists outside of time, as do all great fairy tales. And that’s the one problem with the sequel. Much […]
Writing Science Fiction #LikeAGirl
During the past few days, a couple of interesting stories crossed my screen and they are so perfectly related to my current review that they simply must be referenced. First came the #LikeAGirl campaign from Always, encouraging us to turn that pejorative expression into a compliment. Then came this story from NPR about women writers in science fiction: Women are Destroying Science Fiction and That’s OK — They Created It. As I have just finished Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic The Dispossessed, I must say […]
Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can…
I had mixed feelings about this book while reading it, but now that I’ve finished it I realize that I enjoyed it quite a bit! The first half slogged for me. It was not a page-turner, although I was interested theoretically in the protagonist and his situation, I found it quite easy to put the book down for a day or two and return for a chapter here or there. It wasn’t bad, I just wasn’t hooked. The second half, though, pulled it all together, […]
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