I have similar feelings to this book as I do to warm sunlight or a fresh autumn breath. This book is comfortable to me. Le Guin does world building in a way that is simple and interesting and powerful. I honestly can not be very unbiased when talking about Ursula K. Le Guin. Even before I read her books or poems, I developed a proximity admiration for her from the ways that my older brothers would speak about her works. I came into this book knowing I was going to like it.
I originally started this book 1-2 years ago. I was in college and constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown, so distractions like this book got cast aside for what felt like more pressing matters. Yet, in that time a certain quote from the book rooted itself in my memory, and it is probably one of my favorite quotes . It highlighted the feelings of college for me very well. It says “You thought, as a boy, that a mage is one who can do anything. So I thought, once. So did we all. And the truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do…” This quote made me feel like it was okay and normal that things were already out of my control. This feeling and my general admiration made it inevitable that I would start this book again.
This book has wonderfully realized settings and imaginative story beats. The way that Le Guin describes these islands and their cultures, their diversity in thought even within their own cultures. Her worlds feel real even when fantastical. Ever since I started reading I’ve always had an aversion to the overly-detailed descriptions of settings, but the way that Le Guin does it often doesn’t feel like just placing down a setting. There are times the setting tells just as much plot as the main meat of the story. Though there were occasional times where I felt that it dragged on for a bit, these were short enough and the parts I wanted to get to motivated me to get through it.
My personal interpretation of the shadow, though I might not be breaking any new ground with this, is that the shadow was a manifestation of Ged’s fear, anxiety, and regret. As he runs away from it, it gains power. As he faces his fear it loses power. The final moment of him accepting it into himself as a part of him was him accepting his fears and regrets as a part of his story and being. I really liked it, and it spoke to my own personal life problems.
Anyway, in summary, book good. 4.5/5. Will prolly read the next one.
Also I am sooo much stronger than you and bigger than you and cooler than you, so there’s that.
by on-reddit-for-pewds