Had I read this book as a kid, I would have immediately begged my parents for the other books and gobbled up the entire series.

As an adult, I can definitely say that I wished I had read it sooner, and I did like it but I did also feel it was less detailed and shorter than it could have been.

“A Wizard of Earthsea” has a classic problem in flatness when it comes to the “show don’t tell” depictions of characters. Sometimes it felt like conversations were outlines rather than actual prose. I felt a bit frustrated when, instead of allowing the characters to speak for themselves, Le Guin left out their emotional responses and simply described a scenario rather than letting the characters play it out. And without that — the thing we connect to characters through — it just felt disconnected. In her attempt to make things brief, we lost fundamental details. It was almost too straightforward, you know?

However: I’m reading several books right now that try to illuminate the “shadow self” and while the characters are of a similar age to Ged, his struggle is much more personal and doesn’t really affect anyone but himself. The Shadow-being is focused solely on him and not the destruction of an entire world. It’s the internal battle of light vs dark that keeps him stagnant, as we saw when he was held back in school (another plot point I wish had been more elaborate) and it’s a journey he must take alone. The strength it took to turn away from being hunted to becoming the hunter is no small feat and should be commended.

While it may not have been transformative, this little classic was certainly thought-provoking and haunting, even though it did feel incomplete. Maybe it just suffers from what I call “first of a series syndrome”?