The Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K Le Guin Lovereading - -Year 5 (age 9-10) More books from this list Book 11 of 36. View the next book in this list View the next book in this list This title is in stock Price £5.24 RRP £6.99  Saving £1.75 (%25)   Download Extract    Buy This Book

The Lovereading comment:

This tale of wizards and dragons features the character of Sparrowhawk. Tempted by pride to try spells beyond his powers, Sparrowhawk lets loose an evil shadow-beast. Only he can destroy it and so he begins a quest which leads him to all corners of Earthsea. This is the first book in a quartet.

November 2010 Guest Editor Jonathan Stroud:

I think this is one of the greatest of fantasies, with a very different flavour to Tolkien or C S Lewis. Ursula Le Guin is a master at world-making: from the moment I opened the book as a boy, and saw the map of Earthsea, with its thousands of little islands, each with its own name and character, I was hooked. We follow Ged, a young and ambitious wizard, who finds his route to power is not at all straightforward. He must journey across the oceans, contending with dragons, witches, sinister shadows, speaking stones and (most dangerously of all) with himself. The magic in this book (and the rules that govern it) seem utterly real. The writing is beautiful, austere and restrained, and everything feels drenched with the salt-spray of the endless sea.

About The Author

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (born October 21, 1929) is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books and essays, and is best known for her science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. In 1953, she married historian Charles A. Le Guin. Le Guin has lived in Portland, Oregon, since 1958. The daughter of the anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and the writer Theodora Kroeber, she is noted for her exemplary style and for her exploration of Taoist, anarchist, feminist, psychological and sociological themes. She has at least three children and three grand-children.