This is probably an unfair comparison, because I read A Wizard of Earthsea as a child, and tried (and failed) to read the Harry Potter books as an adult, but … to me, Harry Potter is a series written for children as children, while the Earthsea books seemed to treat me as an adult. Maybe I’d have felt the same about Harry Potter if I’d read that at the same age.
Two scenes that stick in my memory and still give me shivers:
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Ged naming the dragon by its True Name
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Ged confronting the shadow he’s unleashed and both of them naming each other in the same instance with the same True Name.
This is sad. Of her works I only read Rocannon’s World when I was about 12. It was a paperback my older brother had purchased and it was in our shared bookcase amongst many other paperback novels. I was hooked on Sci-fi but read mostly Ben Bova, Franklin W. Herbert and the bigger names. However, her name has stuck in my head since my childhood. Ursula K. Le guin. It’s beautiful and just rolls off the tongue. I regret not reading more of her work. Perhaps it it is time to do so.
Le Guin changed my life very early on. I knew this was literature, not just spaceships and spells and wizards and things. She opened me up to deeper, richer experiences in fantasy and science fiction, and I’ve been grateful ever since while always referring to her as one of the biggest influences on my life.
She will be greatly missed.
Sparrowhawk!
Thanks… that brought the tears.
Le Guin has been very important to me in my adult return to science fiction and fantasy. Her style and voice is always so strong and her I love how she spoke her values in her work and in her life. As an interesting historical fact her novel “The Left Hand of Darkness” was the second novel to win both the Hugo and Nebula award in 1970/1969 (Dune was the first) and she was the first to do this twice with “The Dispossed” winning in 1975/1974. Knowing how difficult the science fiction/fantasy publishing world was for women at that time period makes this super impressive to me. The full list of joint winners is on wikipedia. Looking at her competition around then makes it even more so.
Her books never really made the jump to other media – often the only way in which a science fiction author becomes a household name. What we have is a beloved adaptation of “The Lathe of Heaven” made for television that is arguably more bizarre than her book. And that is it – most of the mini-series’ that set their sights on The Earthsea Trilogy fell far from the mark.
That’s a real pity. When I was a kid, it was customary to dump copies of these trilogies on precocious youngsters: The Lord of the Rings, The first three Dune books, and The Earthsea Trilogy. The Earthsea Trilogy does what those other trilogies do with an absolute economy of words. Very modern and vivid, not an ounce of fat – the images from those three books will be with me until I die. That’s some writing.
She is a happy mutant who helped me to be brave.
Her works featured heroes capable of critical thinking.
She found a deep well, an indisputably productive source to draw from.
May we all be so lucky.
Ad astra, ad astra
et gratias ago tibi,
Magistra Le Guin
The greatest.
Goodbye, and thank you, Ms. Le Guin.
RIP UK LeGuin. I will miss your work terribly, but my last name will forever be defined a state of sexual receptivity and peak fertility. I can’t thank you enough.
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