The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

[EyeoftheStorm]

Almost finished reading this with DS1 (10). One of my favourite childhood books and I hadn't revisited it for a long time.

Reading it aloud to him was like reading it for the first time. So beautifully written that it's more like poetry than prose. So dark and powerful and fascinating.

Every time DS asked a question to clarify what was happening or what something meant, his question was answered in the next couple of sentences. Like the writer was answering him.

I love reading books with him. We have similar tastes. Though he plotted Sparrowhawk's journey on the map of Earthsea, while I've never given it more than a quick glance.

What shall we read next? This book has been the pinnacle so far.

It's fab isn't it - I'm looking forward to ours reaching the age to read it. Maybe you need to read something completely different now - maybe modern and comic.

However, on a similar theme (in my mind), have you read Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, or Joan Aiken's Wolves of Willoughby Chase series?

OK - for contrast, how about Terry Pratchett? Current issues in fantasy setting with a good helping of comedy.

Very similar wave length to you.

Read The Dark is Rising with him already and that was another highlight. As I'm reading, I'm thinking this is really hard - complex language, difficult vocabulary and hard to read characters. Maybe that's why we keep going back to these books because they stay with you because you can't really get to the bottom of them at 10.

Terry Pratchett is a great idea - he will love the word play.

Started Wolves of Willoughby Chase with DD1 but she doesn't like any sense of danger to characters so was quickly put aside. Hoping that fades soon as all we're left with is Rainbow Fairies and even those are touch and go sometimes!

Diana Wynne Jones? The Power of Three / Homeward Bounders / Dogsbody in particular (just mentioned the first two on another thread this morning!)

I assume you've read the next two Earthsea books with him already?

Not yet - I like to mix it up. Have them in an omnibus edition but want to spread the pleasure out.

Diana Wynne Jones? Did she write Howl's Moving Castle?

What about Penelope Lively? I loved The Ghost of Thomas Kempe when I was about ten.

Yes, that's her. I actually didn't read Howl until very recently, I must have been in my late teens when it was published. I do like it, but I prefer her earlier books on the whole.

I always loved the dark is rising too! How about alan garner - weirdstone of brisingamen etc or the chronicles of prydain by Lloyd Alexander (based on welsh mythology and a set of five books I think).

I've just finished reading it too. Amazing book - don't know how I'd managed to overlook it for so long. What was funny, though, is that I've recently finished a Creative Writing MA, and Le Guin's writing style is the polar opposite of everything we were advised to do - third person omniscient narrator, formal tone, lots of adverbs and so on. It's still way more powerful and engaging than most of the other stuff I've read recently!

Have you read any Alan Garner? The Owl Service is an all-time favourite of mine, and has a similar dark, otherworldly feel. His sense of place is amazing. A bit on the scary side though!

Feel like I've come home. Have read The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (was an arm twist as he didn't like the look of it) - got the thumbs up. Also read Weirdstone of Brisangamen with him but not any of his others. Love Alan Garner.

Will have a look at Chronicles of Prydain - sounds right up our street.

Thank you for all the suggestions.

Ha - great minds Madrigals and piglet!

Yep to the Hobbit.

I loved the Owl Service too but it's quite disturbing and I don't know if he'll get the triangle relationship. Might read it again myself though.

DS is actually a reluctant reader so I have read all these to him. That's why I pick ones I like!

How about The Land Of Green Ginger by Noel Langley. It is a sequel to the Aladdin story, and is so funny - it has a flying back garden, a magician who has turned himself into a button-nosed tortoise and a donkey who sits on a pin. And two villains called Rub Dub Ben Thud and Tin Tack Ping Fu!

I can still read it and enjoy it.

When he is a bit older, I can highly recommend the Dragons of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey - they are definitely for teenagers, though.

On the Arthurian/Celtic theme there's also a series by N.M. Browne called the Warriors Trilogy - lots of knights and battles and time shifts.

The Weirdstone of Brisingemen by Alan Garner.

Have you read Sword in the Stone? Again lovely language and themes (just suggested that one earlier, too!)

Thanks STDG and Temps I like the sound of those.

The Snow Spider trilogy by Jenny Nimmo?

I adore Ursula Le Guin. Have you read her later Earthsea books? They are rather more feminist and reflective than the original three. Also love the Gifts trilogy.

How about The Eagle of the Ninth for your boy?

I've read the fourth Ursula Le Guin - Tehanu? - and I agree. Wizard of Earthsea is very much a male coming of age book.

He just got the Eagle of the Ninth for Christmas - I'm looking forward to that one.

I remember the Green Knowe books - quite sinister. I liked them a lot.

Someone was talking about the Snow Spider books recently - I hadn't heard of them before that.

Try 'Letter for the King'

Thank you for this thread, I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said but I've been trying to remember the name of the Dark is Rising series for the last few weeks, I've just had a couple of scenes playing over in my head and couldn't place them.

DS is coming up to the age when he'll appreciate them, I can't wait to share them along with Alan Garner & Ursula le Guin.