Le Guin’s seminal fantasy novel opens on the island of Gont, in the Archipelago of Earthsea, the birthplace of a boy destined to become the great wizard Sparrowhawk. She amassed a stunning oeuvre of novels, short stories, poetry, translations, and essays that won her dozens of awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book award for A Wizard of Earthsea, among many other prestigious honors for SFF writers. And, in science fiction, Le Guin was a pioneering voice for women The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) is considered a “ breakthrough for female authors,” offering a revolutionary perspective on gender roles and cementing Le Guin’s place in the genre. So many of my favorite authors, influencers of my own writing-Rick Riordan, Christopher Paolini, Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman-have acknowledged Le Guin and her Books of Earthsea as favorites of their own. For example, some critics credit her for popularizing the “magic school” story long before Rowling. So, I may not have known her work, but I certainly knew her name.Ī Wizard of Earthsea was published in 1968, launching a series and career that has had a profound impact on SFF literature over the past fifty-three years-and it’s hard to believe I knew so little about it for so long, given that Le Guin’s influence is so prevalent. All I did know was that Le Guin was considered a brilliant, boundary-pushing legend in the science fiction and fantasy (SFF) genres. I’d read one of her series- Annals of the Western Shore-too long ago to remember properly, so I went into this with no idea what to expect. I knew nothing about this series before I picked it up, and little more about Le Guin herself. “The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards.” – A Wizard of Earthsea Sure, I’ve read TheLord of the Rings, but what are the other foundational books in this realm? The game-changers? The “classics” I ought to have read by now? I’m clearly late to the party, but hey, at least I’ve made it, right? Now that I’ve arrived, here are my thoughts on the classics. The sci-fi and fantasy genres are massive, and I have decades-if not centuries-to catch up on. I’ve been an avid fan of speculative fiction for as long as I can remember, but I’ve always tended to stick to rereading my favorites.

The wizard of earthsea series