This story reminded me heavily of Tolkien, and with most any author (I'm looking at you, Michael Ende writing The Neverending Story) I would have been frustrated and annoyed.
Le Guin manages to pay tribute in a way that is very much her own, and I look forward to rereading it again, now that I know the plottwist of the story. It still feels quite off from the Earthsea we know today, though that comes to no surprise, as it is one of the earliest stories in the Cycle.