10. The Earthsea Cycle
Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is a fantasy classic, up there with the likes of The Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. There are five total Earthsea books and a short story collectionâŚbut in my opinion, the quintessential Earthsea is the original trilogy. Each book is a self-enclosed tale, focusing on the adventures of the wizard Ged â or âSparrowhawk,â as the kids call him.
Ged begins the series as a magical child prodigy, but when he is sent to the island where magicians are trained, his ego starts to get the best of him and he releases a âShadowâ into the world. This shadow creatureâs entire purpose is to hunt down and kill Ged. And so begins a tale of predator and prey as Ged tries to stay away from the creature long enough so that he can grow up and become strong enough to defeat it. Yet as with any good tale, there is more to the shadowâs nature than is immediately evident.
There are some definite parallels between A Wizard of Earthsea and Patrick Rothfussâ Kingkiller Chronicles. In many ways, Earthsea was the predecessor of Rothfussâ series. The writing has the same lyrical beauty, the wizards struggle with similar issues, and the people of the world have similarly shifting opinions of the magical community. If you enjoyed Kingkiller, or like a good self-contained tale that will leave you feeling like you just took an impactful journey, then you owe it to yourself to read Earthsea. At around 200 pages (!), these are very short reads, but somehow they are even more profound than most of the larger works that the fantasy genre is known for.
Some of the later books, published years after the original trilogy (which was planned to be the complete tale) are a little weird. If you really love the first three, they might be worth checking outâŚbut the original three books are where itâs truly at.