The Tombs of Atuan (1971)

(read originally in the 80's)

Scope Review: Earthsea Trilogy.

“Only in silence the word,
Only in dark the light,
Only in dying life:
Bright the hawk’s flight
On the empty sky”

Yin & Yang?

I honestly don't remember a time when I wasn't obsessed with reading and collecting books. I'd define childhood as a never-ending vacation. A weekend without a week following and reading-time everlasting. I still remember the never-ending days of my childhood. My first date. My first kiss. My first endless book infatuations. One of my favourite childhood memory was when I was twelve years old with my Grandmother Glória at home and me reading to her "O Feiticeiro de Terramar" ("A Wizard of Earthsea").

The rest of this review can be found elsewhere. ( )

Read May 2005
Re-read June 2012

2012 Review:
Not as good as [b:A Wizard of Earthsea|13642|A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle, #1)|Ursula K. Le Guin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1303134026s/13642.jpg|113603] but still a solid fantasy tale.

Definitely a worthy book to keep re-reading every decade or so.


2005 Review:
about Tenar. Ged is a secondary character and plays a small, but important, part at the end. Another tale of Earthsea ( )

Worth your time, just make sure to read The Wizard of Earthsea first. ( )

This is the second book in the Earthsea Cycle series, and I enjoyed it as much as the first one. I was a little disappointed at first because I had hoped to continue reading about the characters who had interested me so much in the first book, but this book focuses on a different main character. I soon got caught up in this new story, though, and forgot my disappointment. After all, if an author can make you care about one set of characters, then she’s likely to be able to do the same for a new set.

This book focuses on a girl by the name of Tenar who, based on the time of her birth, is believed to be the reincarnated soul of a high priestess. She’s taken away from her home at the age of six and raised to fulfill her role of high priestess. Eventually we do see a character from the first book, which I expected to happen eventually based on the reference to Atuan in the first book, and that just made a good story even better.

I thought Tenar was a more ambiguous character than Ged had been in the previous book. Tenar’s motives, attitudes, and decisions were often questionable and, although I sympathized with her, I didn’t like her very much at first. She grew on me as her character developed. I also thought this book had the stronger story of the two. It was equally short and it too left me wanting more, but this time I felt like everything was fleshed out well enough to tell the story at hand in a convincing way. ( )

A book that might have been shocking for its time, with the hidden Priestess who is taken as a child, the underground passages, the mysterious rites . . . and as always, told in a few quick but well-chosen words. The first time I read this I kept wondering Where's Ged?" Now, I read it seeing a new take on the Archipelago and a new society that emerges most skillfully. And the fact that there is a female character who grows, who is not just the hedge-witch of the first novel, is a good development in Ms. LeGuin's world. ( )