Review: A Wizard of Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It's a perfectly fine book, but ultimately it was not that exciting to read. It's what I would call medieval style fantasy: Wizards, dragons, castles, hordes of marauders, the whole thing. It prominently featured a school of magic for kids - kinda like in Harry Potter, but in 1968, so it might be one of the earliest versions of the trope. I read elsewhere how it was groundbreaking for the time for another reason: the hero is a minority - this was novel for fantasy books. And not just A hero (part of a team, sidekick, etc...) - but THE hero of the story. As a minority, I appreciate that, and I recommend it because of the history of literature value. But by itself, it's only ok, if feels too much of a straightforward fantasy story, it's not really my thing, I was never much of a fan of medieval-stye fantasy. The story is slow, the main character feels underdeveloped and not that compelling, and none of the secondary characters stand out for long.

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