The Tombs of Atuan takes place almost entirely underground, our characters sometimes literally stifled and near-entombed under the earth, in claustrophobic surroundings. A Wizard of Earthsea took place on land and sea under the sky, with the wind blowing in the characters' faces and freedom all around them, even as they were forced into a confrontation with a dark force they didn't understand. Le Guin's prose is powerful and evocative, and it's interesting in this novel that she flips the setting and feel of the earlier book on its head.
Thus our understanding of the main character of the series is expanded. The Tombs of Atuan, being told entirely from Tenar's POV, instead allows us to meet and see Ged as strangers see him, wholly externally with only hints at what's going on under the surface. A Wizard of Earthsea was, for all of its travelling and epic journeys and mighty set-pieces, a deeply internal story of a boy finding out who he really is and making peace with himself. The book also inverts its presentation of Ged from the earlier novel.
Tenar is painted in Le Guin's traditional depth, as we get to know this young woman who combines curiosity, ruthlessness, loneliness and leadership skills. Tenar is an interesting character and it's a surprise to learn that she is Le Guin's first major female protagonist. The book focuses almost exclusively on the new character of Tenar, with the book's connection to A Wizard of Earthsea not becoming clearer until later on. It is not a direct sequel to A Wizard of Earthsea, the preceding novel, and in fact feels like a companion book more than a successor. Le Guin's classic Earthsea sequence of novels, set in an enormous archipelago. The Tombs of Atuan (originally published in 1971) is the second novel in Ursula K. Despite the importance of her role she feels lonely and listless.until the day a wizard comes to her island. She serves at the Tombs of Atuan, deep within the Kargish Empire, a place of rote and ritual.
Tenar is the high priestess of the Nameless Ones.
0 kommentar(er)
