A Wizard of Earthsea is fantasy at its best. Written for a juvenile audience, it nonetheless contains rich language and world building the likes of which can be compared to the Lord of the Rings. I picked up a copy at my local library that was added to our collection in 2004. The picture to the right is of the library book I checked out and you can see how its cover is very traditional, immediately marking it as an older release. I loved this book though because when you hold it in your hands you still get that "new book" smell and as a hardcover that was the size of a paperback, it was not only easy to carry, but still made a loud "thud" noise when I closed it. Yeah, yeah, I know, typical book geek details, but I couldn't help but point it out :p
A Wizard of Earthsea follows our hero Sparrowhawk, a young magician-in-training that has little patience with the finer details of the art. Rather than learn as much as he can, he's more concerned with learning greater and better things. His ambition eventually leads him to recklessly call upon a soul from the dead and unleash a terrible shadow in the world. Sparrowhawk must now learn all he can in order to defeat the shadow and prevent it from wrecking havoc in Earthsea.
