20 books to read while you wait for The Winds of Winter

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 collection…but 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 — or “Sparrowhawk,” 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 “Shadow” into the world. This shadow creature’s 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 shadow’s nature than is immediately evident.

There are some definite parallels between A Wizard of Earthsea and Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles. In many ways, Earthsea was the predecessor of Rothfuss’ 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 out…but the original three books are where it’s truly at.