There’s definitely an interesting comparison that can be made between Wizard of Earthsea with a more contemporary fantasy novel like Name of the Wind. The latter is also about someone going to magic school but takes more about five times longer to do so. Ursula K Le Guin’s novels never outstay their welcome and always say what they mean to say.
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I should read it again. You see, I was 6 when I read it - no exaggeration whatsoever. I didn’t understand half of it. I recall a scene where an illusionist makes a fake mountain stream to show Sparrowhawk (or whoever) that illusions don’t make things real. Also defeating a dragon using it’s true name. But that’s about it.
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I got a signed Ray Bradbury paperback of the Martian Chronicles at a charity book sale for about $2 (that was obviously not noted as signed, or promoted at all). It was just in the heap and I wanted to read it. I found an autograph inside at home, later.
I suppose due to his fame and my fantasy-prone brain, when I saw it, my reaction was “Someone has forged his autograph.” When I presented this idea to work colleagues, they said, “That would be crazy perverse. It’s most probably a real signature.” I looked at examples of his autograph online and yeah, I’d say it’s real.
-Wade
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I reckon sociology is where the “Golden Age of Science Fiction” dates far worse. There’s a reason New Wave SF had to happen, and a lot of it is because too many Golden Age writers came off like they were too busy playing with their toys to think through the toys’ implications. XD
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Stephen, is a bit OT, but the social climate of 1930s (a good effect of the New Deal) was optimistic to the point that, with hindsight, was hyperoptimistic. the general idea was that global commerce can even guarantee peace (one of Italy’s issue was the lack of steel resources; US provides Mussolini’s Italy martin-siemens and bessemer furnaces first, then provides US scrap steel, starting a mutually-profitable exchange; this averted WWII in 1936…)
back on topic and used books; of course, being a Naval historian, I always hunt for secondary sources, ending with primary sources tucked in secondary sources; one of the most spectacular was finding a WWII Italian sailor’s letter, giving insights into cobelligerant Naples (let’s say that confutes Malaparte’s grim depiction…)
Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.
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I just finished The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo, which is a Southeast Asian Bluebeard retelling with a twist ending that managed to surprise me. Definitely recommended if you like that kind of thing, which I have reason to believe a number of people around here do.
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I went to boarding school for high school, and I had a friend who would sneak into my dorm room and sign my books. I still have my autographed Shakespeare’s plays (“Best wishes for your literary endeavors, XO Will”) and my autographed Sylvia Plath (“To my best friend Amanda, Love Sylvia”).
Every so often someone will see the Plath and their eyes will widen before I explain. Although thankfully no one has yet been fooled by the Shakespeare. So maybe your reaction wasn’t so crazy.
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No, but your friend was!
-Wade
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That’s a terrible thing to say about Sylvia Plath!
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I just read The Vegetarian by Han Kang and loved it. My friend gives great recommendations…
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On holiday, so lots of time to read.
- La Passe-miroir — Les Fiancees de l’Hiver by Christelle Dabos: original and surprising fantasy about a mirror-traveling girl forced into marriage.
- Empire of Silence by Cristopher Ruocchio: historical SF ; the origin story of Hadrian Star-Eater, his youth in a medieval/Roman galactic empire.
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I’m about 2/3 of the way through Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin, and it’s a great book so far even if it’s somewhat dated in some ways.
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Random fact: In high school I was good friends with the daughter of the director of the PBS movie of Lathe of Heaven.
Also, good book.
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Here are the books I’m currently reading. A mix of fiction (historical and fantasy), history, architecture/religion, Tolkien and space/astronomy.
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Two rows of three books each: Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid, A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, Clanlands by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross, Adapting Tolkien essays, and Chasing New Horizons by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon.
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Ursula K. LeGuin’s Lavinia.
After his travels across the Mediterranean, after Carthage and Dido, near the end of Vergilius’ poem, Aeneas weds the daughter of Latinus, King of Latium. This was in a time where Rome did not yet exist by that name, and its predecessor village was little more than a muddy hovel with some huts near an island in the Tiber where the salt-train had to pass through.
Vergilius got sick and left his poem unfinished (to what extent is a question for specialists). Ursula LeGuin gives Lavinia, who is no more than a name breathed to life by the Poet, the chance to tell her own side of the story, to fill in her experiences where Vergilius never did so.
Wonderful, beautiful book.
Vergilius: Aeneid - Wikipedia
Ursula K. LeGuin: Lavinia (novel) - Wikipedia
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Oh, I read a lot of those Tony Hill and Carol Jordan books by Val McDermid, she does some fun work. Her book “A Place of Execution” is also really good.
Also if you like her work, you might like Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels.
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For English (yay school) I’m reading George Orwell’s “Such, Such Were the Joys”, “Shooting an Elephant”, and “A Hanging” and comparing various parallels between them.
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I love Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels 
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I’m reading The Night Sister by Jennifer McMahon and N Equals 1 - Single Case Studies in Anomalistics edited by Gerhard Mayer.
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Currently making my way through the boatload of used paperback sci-fi and fantasy novels I acquired this summer; at the moment, I’m about halfway through the second book in Susan Dexter’s “Wizard’s Destiny” trilogy, as well as slowly making my way through a translation of Cyrano de Bergerac’s State and Empires of the Moon. Having a ton of fun with these so far, and they keep giving me weird ideas for the games I’ll probably never write…
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