The Tombs of Atuan

Here I've been going around thinking [b:The Left Hand of Darkness 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle #6) Ursula K. Le Guin https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1488213612s/18423.jpg 817527] was my favorite Le Guin novel, but no, it's definitely The Tombs of Atuan.This book made such an impression on me as a kid that I have carried Arha's labyrinth in my memories for all the years since. Rereading it as an adult (and a feminist) was an absolute joy: it contains everything I remembered with such fondness, and much more.When I read Earthsea as a kid, I was stunned by how different it was from any other fantasy story; decades later, I still am.I could write an essay about the symbolism and the gender dynamics and the lessons about male and female power within society, but here, let's just use these quotes from the afterword in the Kindle edition:But since I was writing about the people who in most societies have not been given much power—women—it seemed perfectly plausible to place my heroine in a situation that led her to question the nature and value of power itself. The word power has two different meanings. There is power to: strength, gift, skill, art, the mastery of a craft, the authority of knowledge. And there is power over: rule, dominion, supremacy, might, mastery of slaves, authority over others. Ged was offered both kinds of power. Tenar was offered only one.In the Archipelago, strong, active magic belongs almost entirely to men, witches being untrained and mistrusted; and the Old Powers are commonly described as misogynists describe women: obscure, dark, weak, and treacherous. In The Tombs of Atuan, the Old Powers, the Nameless Ones, appear as mysterious, ominous, and yet inactive. Arha/Tenar is their priestess, the greatest of all priestesses, whom the Godking himself is supposed to obey: But what is her realm? A prison in the desert. Women guarded by eunuchs. Ancient tombstones, a half-ruined temple, an empty throne. A fearful underground labyrinth where prisoners are left to die of starvation and thirst, where only she can walk the maze, where light must never come. She rules a dark, empty, useless realm. Her power imprisons her.Rereading the book, more than forty years after I wrote it, I wonder about many of its elements. It was the first book I wrote with a woman as the true central character. Tenar's character and the events of the story came from deep within me, so deep that the subterranean and labyrinthine imagery, and a certain volcanic quality, are hardly to be wondered at. But the darkness, the cruelty, the vengefulness . . . [...] Maybe it was the whole primitive, hateful idea of the feminine as dark, blind, weak, and evil that I saw shaking itself to pieces, imploding, crumbling into wreckage on a desert ground. And I rejoiced to see it fall. I still do.

Ursula does it again. An easy read, but completely worth it, she creates a fascinating world that captures the wonder and grandeur of the lord of the rings but much more subversive and original and with impeccable writing.

Weirdly important to me, a sequel that came out of nowhere and eclipsed an already great first book in the series.

The second of the Earthsea trilogy and possibly the weakest of the three books. Still a good book to read and it sets up nicely the third book in the searies

Estoy obsesionado con estos libros y no puedo decirte el porque.
Es la primera vez en mucho tiempo que acabo un libro y tengo el impulso inmediato de releerlo.
La unica razon por la que no lo hago es porque tengo los siguientes dos libros en casa.

Este segundo libro es TOTALMENTE distinto al anterior.
Igualmente increíble.

Brain capacity for a teacher is somewhat reduced at the end term, so I opted for an audio reread while doing chores.

In The Tombs of Atuan we meet Tenar, who is taken from her parents at five years old to become Arha, high priestess to the eaten ones. We will also meet Ged, the protagonist from A Wizard of Earthsea, again. This is atmospheric and sort of creepy. Le Guin portrays a culture that is both ancient and sort of stagnant. Tenar is a believable girl and young woman without some of the annoyingness such characters sometimes get in fiction. I love this book.

“The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men's eyes.”

Dang that was the longest cave exploration ever.
Excellent commentary on the sad reality of religious zealotry, and the cruelty of involving children before they are able to choose for themselves.

i could NOT put this book down. really incredible story about redemption and darkness and freedom and light. tenar is a different protagonist to ged, but in some ways they're still alike. i love the way ursula puts it in her author's notes:

“The dark side of the world was what she had to learn, as Ged had to learn the darkness in his own heart. [...] Each has to ask for the other's help and learn to trust and depend on the other. A large lesson, a new knowledge for both these strong, willful, lonely souls.”

“A girl who could not seek power, as young Ged could, or find training in the use of it as he did, but who had power forced upon her. A girl whose name was not given to her by a kind teacher, but taken from her by a masked executioner.
The boy Ged, offered wisdom, refused it through his own pride and willfulness; the girl Tenar, given the arbitary power of a goddess, was taught nothing about living her life as a human being.”

Good

I actually enjoyed this book better than the first Earthsea book. While it started slowly, the story was tighter and more interesting to me. I enjoyed the messages of freedom, identity, and power in this story. Because the story was much tighter, it was more interesting to me and I was able to stay focused more than I was with A Wizard of Earthsea.

According to Wikipedia, Le Guin said this book was about

Quotes

“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 towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.”

“The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea, and there is cruelty in men's eyes.”

“The Tombs of Atuan” est le deuxième tome du cycle d'Earthsea d'Ursula K. Le Guin, également connu en français sous le nom de cycle de Terremer.

On y retrouve Ged, le héros du premier tome, mais dans un rôle secondaire, d'autant qu'il n'apparaît que dans la seconde moitié du roman. L'héroïne est une jeune fille arrachée à sa famille à l'âge de cinq ans pour servir de Grande Prêtresse d'une religion très ancienne, après la mort de la prêtresse précédente, dont elle serait la réincarnation.

Comme le premier roman, celui-ci peut appaître comme un roman d'apprentissage très classique, mais Ursula K. Le Guin nous propose un très beau récit servi par une écriture empreinte de poésie. L'autrice explore parfaitement la psychologie de sa protagoniste et la question de la religion, du culte, de la foi, et de l'emprise.

Je continue à être séduit par ce cycle, je comprends qu'il soit devenu un classique de la fantasy. Je vais poursuivre directement avec le troisième roman !

5/12/22:

This was not exactly a cheerful book but not exactly a despairing one either. It is simply an exploration of the choices and circumstances of the characters mentioned. Ursula LeGuin for me is an author who's very good at portraying the themes she wants to explore in her books. In contrast to the previous book where Ged is the protagonist, the reader follows a different character here. We view the world through their lens and see them experiences changes and also coming to terms with those changes. 
Its a bit hard to precisely place this book in terms of plot and mood. Some might it's terribly bland and some might say the opposite. I rather just enjoyed it for what it was. 

I guess for now I can only say I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series.

final rating: 4/5

Another beautiful piece from Le Guin! This was an incredibly atmospheric story and such a breath of fresh air, as the Wizard of Earthsea had been. Short though this book was, I find it difficult to summarize the story, which was both simple and complex at the same time. Suffice it to say that I was thoroughly enthralled by the plot and the characters.

Tenar is the central protagonist of this book. She's flawed, she's striving to be better, she's confident, she doubts herself and her value systems. She's both relatable and yet a protagonist that we can root for and hope that she comes out the other end okay. I also particularly liked her personal assistant, Manan, cringingly subservient though he may be sometimes.

A large part of this story takes place in a maze of pitch-black underground tunnels, and it is testament to Le Guin's writing that I almost felt claustrophobic just reading about these. I couldn't imagine how any of these characters could be walking around in the complete darkness, in a labyrinth of tunnels, without going mad with fear. I really felt what it meant when it was said that the Nameless Ones have power in that domain there.

Thoughts about the ending: Did Ged really just promise Tenar all these things about leaving the Tombs and then left her there alone? That kinda feels like a shitty thing to do. I'm hoping that that's not really the end of her story because that would be really shitty, and that's the reason why this is a 4 star and not higher. While Tenar hadn't been in a very great place to begin with, at least she was mistress of her own domain to some extent. Ged basically told her to come out and be free, the byproduct of which was killing and destroying all the people she had ever known, including Manan (justice for Manan!), and then he abandons her in this wide wide world that she had never stepped into for most of her life? I'm not saying that they need to be together forever just because he brought her out of it but at least he shouldn't be immediately dropping her as soon as she brought him out of that place - it almost feels like he was using her, which would have been really shitty.

100% definitely going to continue on this series. More people need to read the Earthsea Cycle and this needs to be adapted.

Pensé que ya no era lo mío, que ya no seria entretenido, voy a leerlo por curiosidad, pensé, es la continuación del primero que ya leí, y es corto, así me convencí ... y pues la verdad si me entretuvo, de hecho hubo partes que me engancharon, claro, es como todo, si vas a leer (o ver un película) de fantasía vas a ponerte el chip que corresponde, si es que (aun) cuentas con el... creo voy a leer el que sigue, no se...

I enjoyed this. It felt like an original world-setting, it was nice to encounter a fantasy world that didn't lean on well established tropes. I want to learn more about the world, so I'll probably read the other 2 books at some point. The story was quite... limited? Felt like a short story more than a full novel. Not that it felt like it was dragged out, but just that it was a very simple plot.

But that makes way for good themes, setting, and the development of the main character. LeGuin packs in a sense of time passing and emotional maturing to this short novel. There's a tender and realistic demonstration of what loss of hitherto-unshakable faith is like, and mixed into that a critique of dogma and religion as well. It's nice to see deeper themes like this in YA fiction.

As well as being, to a lesser extent, a journey of events, people, and places, it's also an emotional journey from darkness into light, with Tenar ending up a very different person at the end; less sure of herself, wounded by her past, but free and more whole. One thing I really love to see is complex, flawed characters, and Tenar feels real and alive in this book. It's my first time reading LeGuin, but I can tell already they have a way of capturing the human spirit, and I look forward to exploring more of their work.

L'uomo e il piccolo cardo del deserto; il cardo e l'uomo addormentato.

“Tu sai tutto, mago. Ma io so una cosa soltanto... l'unica cosa vera!”.
Non è la prima volta che avete sentito questa frase nella vostra vita. È uno scontro tra due verità, ma ci sono verità più vere di altre? Alcune volte le verità ti imprigionano in un labirinto buio in cui la tua anima è in completa perdizione, in cui la realtà viene distorta e ottenebrata in modo che tu non veda più la luce del giorno.
Alcune volte le verità ti liberano e ti buttano in un mare di scelte, e non è detto che ti portino necessariamente alla luce, ma lo rendono solo possibile.

“Perché se ne stava lì così indifeso eppure così forte? Perché lei non riusciva a sconfiggerlo?”
Ci sono delle verità più forti delle altre?

I think I like this one more than the first. Also in audio book format.

This story is simple (in fact, it's for kids) but like the first EarthSea book it filled up my heart. Something about it rang true. I'll return to this story and it's many images when I need a reminder of how and why we climb up out of the dark.

Even though I loved this book, I did not love it as much as the first one. I had a hard time liking Tenar. But, towards the end, I found that she grew on me. I still absolutely love Geb. The writing is amazing. I am very interested to see where the story goes next.

Another great story from Earthsea.

This story follows Tenar, later Arha, then later again Tenar in a fascinating entry in The Earthsea Cycle. The story is gripping, the world is beautifully developed, and the writing is once again fantastic.

Holy shit this was good.

The Tombs of Atuan mirrors A Wizard of Earthsea in the absolute best ways possible. Both are coming of age stories. Whereas A Wizard of Earthsea was an epic globe-trotting journey of a boy owning up to his errors on the path to manhood, The Tombs of Atuan is a much more personal and intimate story about the loss of innocence and the choice between hiding in safety and naivety or embracing bravery and facing the unknown. Tenar is flawed and relatable, and her character development is heartfelt and beautiful. The metaphor of her exploration of the perpetually dark labyrinth contrasting her imprisonment, guilt, and loss of faith is next fucking level.

This book is a goddamn masterpiece.

3.5 rounded up. The first part of this was slow. Once Ged shoes up it got much more exciting and enticing. For such a short book this a slow burn.

Ooooh. Eheuuuu. Eheu.

How very sad. How very good. How very miserable our little girl protagonist is, mamma mia. I finish this book with such a heavy heart. I mean, no spoilers, but I shouldn't be this sad. Oh my goodness. That was good though. Recommend!

So this is the second in the Earthsea n-ology, Ursula Le Guin's (my master!) wonderful, deep, rich, intelligent response to YA-ish high fantasy. It follows several years after the events of A Wizard of Earthsea, AKA How Ged the Little Asshole Gets His Magickal Groove Back. This is about another little asshole: a young girl named Arha. Arha has been selected, Dalai Lama-style (Le Guin DEFINITELY INCORPORATES TIBET STUFF), as the reincarnated high priestess of the “Nameless Ones”, who seem to be unpleasant cave gods, basically. At five years old, she's swept up into a dark palace full of other priestesses and eunuchs, a palace that sits on top of the “Undertomb” (dark tomb cavern, important god-place) and “the Labyrinth” (dark labyrinth, treasures hidden, also god-place). Everything in this place is dark, run-down, and basically shitty.

And yea, verily, it is a shitty destiny Arha has fallen into. Though she doesn't realize it at first. DAMN, but she is a little shit in the beginning. Snide, mean-spirited, blindly devoted to the Nameless Ones and her authority; she bats away the quotidian kindnesses of her eunuch guardian, Manan, and her best friend, Penthe, and just basically acts like a brat. IRONICAL given she spends most of her young life churning butter and wearing a shitty black sack.

HENNYYWAAYYYY. The book starts slow - intentionally, I think - to mimic the oppressive boredom and petty shittiness of Arha's life in the palace. One day, she is shocked - SHOCKED - to discover (a) light in the Undertomb WTF this place is supposed to be holy pitch dark (!!) and (b) a MAN (!) WTF NO MEN ALLOWED HERE SO SACRILEGE and (c) trying to steal the Undertomb's magical booty! It's not a spoiler, I would guess, to say that this man is not just any dude but Ged himself! An older, wiser, chiller Ged, I am happy to report.

And from there churns the plot, which I won't spoil further.

So I basically worship at Le Guin's shrine, and I admired two - NAY, THREE - big qualities in this book. First, plot. Much like The Lathe of Heaven - or, honestly, any of her other books - she deftly reveals, layer by layer, a thick, juicy plotty momentum. The pacing and meditative style reflects SO WELL the mindset of Arha, as - slowly, slowly - the oppressive, shitty cobwebs of her brain are removed, revelation by revelation. You are VERY WITH HER on this journey, and it's so well done.

SECOND. High fantasy always seems to have a strong, naturalist quality. People are super in touch with their Middle-Earth-sea natural world. Forest elves, etc. What I like about the Earthsea books, and Le Guin does it a lot in this book as well, is how richly meditative the descriptions are. You feel and taste the dank tunnels, the roaring mountain stream, the salty and vast sea. It's very tactile. I normally find place descriptions boring, something that slows me down. But here, I let myself be slowed down, and I liked it. The world engages you on all senses.

AND THIRD. I actually didn't get this until I read Le Guin's afterword, for I am a simple person, but she was apparently making some big points about Growing Up Female in a patriarchal, hierarchical society, which now, upon reflection, I'm like oooooh. Duh! So that heavy weight on my heart and Arha's heart was, ahem, THE WEIGHT OF THE PATRIARCHY. V good.

Still much much better than Harry Potter and LOTR, and like x10000000 times better than godawful godstupid unholy godking George RR Martin's stuff DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED.

Namelessly passive
thinking nothing, doing less
the perfect priestess.