Tales From Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin is one of those all-time great fantasy novels. Now I'm no expert on fantasy, but I know enough about the genre to say this is great fantasy, even if it might have been aimed at a younger audience. I've read some high fantasy in my youth; The Lord of The Rings series, The Hobbit, and some low-brow fantasy as well; every Harry Potter book. This is probably the extent of most general readers' knowledge of fantasy. Tolkien is a master of prose and high fantasy, and Le Guin just as well.
The book is a series of novellas set in the world of Earthsea, all of them unique and different, offering us different glimpses of people and their ways in Earthsea. The first story, The Finder, details the wizard school on the island of Roke. Its said that J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter school is based on this. Important to note, the story focuses a lot on women and the role of women's magic within the school, which is integral to Le Guin's feminist tone. It sets the whole narrative up in an exciting way. Yes, there's sorcery, wizards, and wizards that turn into dragons but what makes Le Guin stand out from low-brow fantasy is that she makes a sociology out of it.
The Bones of the Earth describes the relationship between Ogion, legendary wizard of Earthsea, and his first teacher, a very loving relationship. Darkrose and Diamond is also a sort of love story, about a guy who would rather be a musician than a mage, and the girl he loves. On the High Marsh is a tale of madness and redemption.
The last novella is called Dragonfly, its about a girl that wants to enroll at the magic school at Roke island, at a time when women were banned. She ends up changing the world of Earthsea in the process.
Le Guin is a gifted writer, and I've learned a lot about fantasy and writing from this book and one of her other novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, which is one of her best science fiction novels. I highly recommend The Left Hand of Darkness in addition to Tales From Earthsea. In the beginning I wasn't sure if I could get into fantasy, after all I haven't read fantasy since middle school. However, Le Guin makes it cool, smart, and literary. She's brought me back to the genre.
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