I find the start of Le Guin’s Earthsea books always a little bit of a struggle but they always turn out great. It happened with a the Wizard of Earthsea and it happened with the Tombs of Atuan. After the first couple of chapters you get pulled in. Le Guin’s style is more reflective than adventurous and that’s what I really love.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It makes you think and there are some really great quotes there. For example: “What she had begun to learn was the weight of liberty. Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward toward the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.”

Read it!