The Tombs of Atuan

Did not get the right cover that was advertised.

This is wonderful novel, but it's not for everyone. A reviewer below mentioned this being a "swords and sorcery" novel. That's dead wrong, though. There's not a sword to be found in it, really. There is magic, of course, but it manifests itself in a very different way and at a very different tempo than true "swords and sorcery" novels. What I love about this are the very things that some readers - often male readers, I'd wager - don't quite like about it. I like the very many ways it's DIFFERENT than anything else I've read in fantasy. Honestly, for the first half of there's no high adventure at all. It's the slow story a young girl indoctrinated into a dark and foreboding religion. Yes, a young GIRL. The main character of this novel knows no magic, doesn't own a sword, isn't out to change the world. That's refreshingly different than most fantasy. Add to that that the hero figure, Ged, doesn't even enter the novel until well into it. And add to that that when he's introduced he's largely powerless and at the mercy of the young woman, Tenar. How their relationship develops and how it becomes a quest novel drives the later half of the book, but still LeGuin never takes us too far from Tenar and the fact that everything she's experiencing is completely changing the world as she knew it. For those reasons - and more - this is a wonderful novel. If any of this sounds interesting to you please buy this and read it. Or read it again if - like me - you're an adult that first read Earthsea stuff years ago. It holds up wonderfully and it has plenty to appeal to adults as well as to younger readers. I'm a fan, and before long I'll pick up the next one and journey back to Earthsea again.

Bravo! As a frequent reader of fantasy novels, I was initially skeptical of Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" series because it is so much shorter than most books in this genre. How could an author possibly establish characterizations, create worlds, grab readers with such a short book? The answer is, superbly. I have read only this book and the previous one (so far), and find that "The Tombs of Atuan" grabs hold and won't let go: you genuinely care about the characters, become spellbound by the world she creates, and simply are not able to put the book down. Unlike other fantasy authors, Le Guin's characters are neither inivincible nor shallowly "good": they are human, and like us, they are flawed creations whose trials and tribulations are not simply a jump from one outrageous escape to another. Fantasy authors everywhere should take note- wizards and foes alike do not need to possess outrageous, invincible powers to be compelling to a fantasy reader. As Le Guin brilliantly illustrates here, sometimes a simple act of kindness can be as powerful as the most flagrant mystical powers.

Sparrowhawk, the protagonist of "Wizard of Earthsea," the first book of the triology, is a secondary character here; important but not the focus. This is the story of Tenar, a young priestess at the Tombs of Atuan.Earthsea has places where there are elder powers present. Readers of "Wizard of Earthsea" encountered one in the Terrenon. Tenar, as an infant, is given to the elder power of the Tombs. Her name is taken from her and she becomes Arha, "the eaten one." She serves as a priestess to a nearly forgotten religion that treats the power of the Tombs as a god. But everything Tenar has been told is twice a lie; her religion is almost forgotten and the Power is anything but a god.This is the story of how Tenar came to understand that her life, all of what she had been and most of what she believed was a lie. LeGuin makes it utterly convincing, in a spare, terse way that is stark and persuasive. Sparrowhawk plays a crucial role in all this, but he is not the protagonist. Sparrowhawk may have been the catalyst for Tenar's changes, but like a catalyst he is mostly unchanged by the process. It is Tenar who is changed. This is Tenar's tale. Can you imagine how devastating it must have been for Tenar? How many of us could accept and understand that what we had been taught was evil or, worse still, utterly meaningless? Could you do as well if, say, Christianity were revealed to be an utter fraud? LeGuin makes it vivid. Any thoughtful reader is left in awe of Tenar's strength and resilience. And in awe of LeGuin's writing.In most trilogies, the middle book is the weakest. Not the Earthsea books. This is a wonderful tale, superbly told. Very highly recommended.

The measure of the author's skill can be found in this: the protagonist who personifies the magic of this world, who is the fulcrum of the entire series, is not introduced until the fifth chapter.A lesser author could not have carried it off, or, in daring a prelude of such length, would have produced a transparent literary device, an extended prologue written only to flaunt a contrived technique. This author not only brings it off, but does so in a way that feels just right. We allow her four chapters to set the stage because it is time well spent. She does not waste a single thought.Hers is a quiet and unhurried voice, but also cleanly intelligent. She writes sparingly, allowing the reader to fill in the spaces. In so doing, she makes room for wisdom.The first book in this story was about the balance of life. This one is about identity. It features two protagonists: the mage already mentioned, and a young girl whose identity is ceded and then regained. I am giving away some of the plot, but this is not a betrayal. This story is about so many things, least of all plot.How many works of fantasy depict a magic that is boastful? The magic in them is like fireworks - all thunder, flash and vigorous action. Here, the author chances another approach: her magic is so subtle that it almost escapes notice. It is used to quiet great powers, conceal a desperate escape, forestall a mounting cataclysm. This runs contrary to what the fantasy genre has taught us to expect of magic, and yet it is precisely appropriate to the story the writer tells.This is also where the wisdom resides. The mage is more powerful than he seems. In the end, despite his humility, his power is revealed as something vast. One must delve deep to see his power, and deeper still to understand his nature. The heroine's journey takes her to such depths, and in journeying with her; we come to understand the essence of such depth.If this depiction of the book sounds serious and weighty, this is because, to some extent, such a depiction is true. It takes a contemplative soul to appreciate this book, and it will disappoint many who come seeking simpler pleasures. This is the second of a series of three (I will always think of Earthsea as a trilogy) and far and away the most muted. It is not for everyone; but for those willing to commit the emotional investment, it reveals itself as the slow middle movement in a beautiful concerto; missing perhaps the sweep and power of its sister movements, but possessing an intimate grandeur of its own.

Of course I liked The Tombs of Atuan. It is well-constructed and beautifully styled fantasy, comparable to the works of Susan Cooper and Patricia McKillip. (No, Tolkien is in a class by himself.)Le Guin's Earthsea books are all excellent, but some people feel that The Tombs of Atuan is slow to start, and less eventful than the other three. My opinion, for what it's worth, is quite the opposite. The introspective beginning of Tombs is not unlike the beginning of Wizard, focussing closely on a single character, that character's uniqueness, and the way that character is shaped by life. The reader approaches the threshold of adventure with the protagonist; the reader, too, is drawn into the struggle, shares bewilderment, doubt, and uncertainty; and the reader, too, has made a passage by the end of the book.Too much of modern fantasy is all long journeys, heated battles, unquestionably terrible villains -- and swordplay, of course. Le Guin recognizes that moral ambiguity creates the greatest obstacle a character can confront...and that if the question is worthwhile, the answer is neither easy nor painless.Tenar is a strong heroine and I would especially recommend this book for teenage girls, whose plight is sometimes not unlike that of the Eaten One; however, as all the best books are, this is a story which is based on human character and thus speaks to both sexes and all ages.