A Wizard of Earthsea

How it reads

A Wizard of Earthsea is fantasy (coming-of-age high fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the third person, staying close to one character. Its central concerns are identity, power and politics and redemption. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.

It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. At 183 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.