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30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Passage through darkness., July 11, 1999
Of course I liked The Tombs of Atuan. It is well-constructed and beautifully styled fantasy, comparable to the works of Susan Cooper and Patricia McKillip. (No, Tolkien is in a class by himself.) Le Guin's Earthsea books are all excellent, but some people feel that The Tombs of Atuan is slow to start, and less eventful than the other three. My opinion, for what it's worth, is quite the opposite. The introspective beginning of Tombs is not unlike the beginning of Wizard, focussing closely on a single character, that character's uniqueness, and the way that character is shaped by life. The reader approaches the threshold of adventure with the protagonist; the reader, too, is drawn into the struggle, shares bewilderment, doubt, and uncertainty; and the reader, too, has made a passage by the end of the book. Too much of modern fantasy is all long journeys, heated battles, unquestionably terrible villains -- and swordplay, of course. Le Guin recognizes that moral ambiguity creates the greatest obstacle a character can confront...and that if the question is worthwhile, the answer is neither easy nor painless. Tenar is a strong heroine and I would especially recommend this book for teenage girls, whose plight is sometimes not unlike that of the Eaten One; however, as all the best books are, this is a story which is based on human character and thus speaks to both sexes and all ages.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tenar's Tale, May 28, 2001
Sparrowhawk, the protagonist of "Wizard of Earthsea," the first book of the triology, is a secondary character here; important but not the focus. This is the story of Tenar, a young priestess at the Tombs of Atuan. Earthsea has places where there are elder powers present. Readers of "Wizard of Earthsea" encountered one in the Terrenon. Tenar, as an infant, is given to the elder power of the Tombs. Her name is taken from her and she becomes Arha, "the eaten one." She serves as a priestess to a nearly forgotten religion that treats the power of the Tombs as a god. But everything Tenar has been told is twice a lie; her religion is almost forgotten and the Power is anything but a god. This is the story of how Tenar came to understand that her life, all of what she had been and most of what she believed was a lie. LeGuin makes it utterly convincing, in a spare, terse way that is stark and persuasive. Sparrowhawk plays a crucial role in all this, but he is not the protagonist. Sparrowhawk may have been the catalyst for Tenar's changes, but like a catalyst he is mostly unchanged by the process. It is Tenar who is changed. This is Tenar's tale. Can you imagine how devastating it must have been for Tenar? How many of us could accept and understand that what we had been taught was evil or, worse still, utterly meaningless? Could you do as well if, say, Christianity were revealed to be an utter fraud? LeGuin makes it vivid. Any thoughtful reader is left in awe of Tenar's strength and resilience. And in awe of LeGuin's writing. In most trilogies, the middle book is the weakest. Not the Earthsea books. This is a wonderful tale, superbly told. Very highly recommended.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent sequel, June 21, 2000
The second book in the Earthsea series is something of a twist in that it does not focus on the main character of the Earthsea series. It is, instead, written from the perspective of Tenar, a priestess who is stripped of her individuality right down to losing the right to have a name. This seems to do two things, it allows you to get to know a new character (something I always enjoy) and it allows you to see Ged from a new perspective. Tenar's perspective on Ged is somewhat idealized, but it's apparent that this is the character's point of view, not the author's inability to create a character with depth. One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was (I hope I can say this without spoiling the story) that when Ged showed up, he didn't magically fix everything that was bad. So often at the end of a book the characters are 'riding off into the sunset' and the world is a perfect place again. In this one, they do ride into the sunset, of course, but they seem to do it with the knowledge that they still have work ahead of them. I recommend reading this book, but get The Wizard of Earthsea first to get a more complete look at the world Tenar and Ged live in.
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