Earthsea

I greatly appreciate Ursula K Le Guin's writing, and I mean that in a number of different ways. Generally, she has helped spearhead the literary development of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, opening the way for works that focus less on action and entertainment and more on craft, themes, and exploring ideas. Le Guin has helped the Sci-Fi field expand to cover the full range of possibilities in a way that few others have. I often cite Le Guin as a prime example of why great Sci-Fi and Fantasy literary works should be considered right alongside the more generally accepted literary fiction when it comes to saying something important. SFF can explore topics that standard works limited to the real world cannot, or can explore the same topics as non-genre literature, but in a very different way. Le Guin has taken full advantage of this, exploring themes like gender and race, societal norms, and political systems in new and profound ways.

Earthsea is slightly different for me though, not because the work is any less discussion worthy than in the Hainish Cycle, but because when I think or Earthsea the first thing that comes to mind is not thematic or exploration of issues, it is the beautiful simplicity of the writing. The Earthsea books are short. Very short. If you add them all up you have a weighty tome, but the stories, even those that share characters, are absolutely separate. This is not an LOTR situation where it is all 1 book but split into 3 parts. Each story is self-contained, and short. But despite the limited length, Le Guin has crafted a world that feels vivid both in landscape, culture, people, mythology, magic... It feels like Le Guin accomplished as much worldbuilding in 100 pages as takes most SFF authors thousands of pages.

If you are a fantasy fan or a literature fan, the Earthsea books are individually easily consumable, but will provide you plenty to admire and talk about. There are the counterpoint to the short/sweet or high-octane page turners that are eminently forgettable, but successful purely due to the level of effort to get through being so small. If all you want is a quick read... A Wizard of Earthsea is 250 pages (or thereabouts depending on edition), Tombs of Atuan is less than 200. You can get a quick read in, enjoy a masterpiece, and check off one of the "must reads" of SFF all in one go. If you want something weightier... Earthsea are still a great option as the content is so much deeper than the surface words. If you love sword and sorcery, Earthsea is right there. The simplistic, yet beautiful and descriptive writing just allows these books to hit on so many levels. I would never call Earthsea a high-octane page turner of the sort to capture non-readers for a brief spell, but if you do read, I challenge you to not enjoy these books on at least one of many levels.