A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin (1968)
“A young wizard unleashes a shadow he cannot name, and must chase it to the end of the world to discover it is himself.”
Short Summary
On the island of Gont, a goatherd boy named Duny discovers he has extraordinary magical power. Renamed Ged, he trains at the wizard school on Roke, where his arrogance leads him to summon a terrible shadow-creature from the land of the dead. The shadow scars his face and nearly kills him. After years of fear and flight, Ged turns to pursue the shadow across open ocean to the edge of the world, where he confronts it by speaking its true name — his own. The shadow is not a demon but the dark half of himself, and by claiming it, he becomes whole.
Detailed Summary
Duny is born on the island of Gont in the world of Earthsea, an archipelago civilization where magic operates through the knowledge of true names in the Old Speech. His mother dies young, his father is a taciturn bronzesmith. When the boy accidentally uses magic to summon fog and repel Kargish raide...