I read A Wizard of Earthsea when I was very young, but for some reason, avoided The Tombs of Atuan. Maybe something about the cover scared me, or something a friend had said about it put me off of reading it. I do remember that the first book haunted me, and that was a weird feeling for my ten year old self. I distinctly remember avoiding The Tombs again when I read The Farthest Shore in high school. I don't know why I had decided to shun this book. I am glad that now, years later, I was finally open to it. What a story. It is one of the truest things I have ever read.

My favorite quote (of many):
"What she had begun to learn was the weight of liberty. 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 toward the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it." ( )

Brilliant second part in the series. I love the perspective in which this book is written. ( )

This story starts slowly and takes time to light up, but it's a beautiful tale once it finally does. ( )

The second Earthsea story introduces and follows a new character, a young girl, chosen to be the next priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, because she was born on the day the previous priestess died. The parallel with the story of Ged in the first book is interesting for just how their paths are and are not the same. Both accept their lot completely, never regretting leaving their families. Both work to excel. But where Ged's ambition leads him to question and tragically violate core principles of wizardry, Tenar never questions the premises of the cult she belongs to, no matter how evil, until Ged's arrival nearly 2/3's into the book shakes her assumptions.

One passing name took me aback: a reference to something in the month of April. Was this meant to make some hiddent connection between Earth and Earthsea? Nowhere else do I recall any other use of a name from our world.

Well-told, with a welcome move away from the male-centric first book, but Ged claims that unlike his magic, everything the women worship is a sham.

Recommended. ( )

3.5 stars.

In many ways a polar opposite to "A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan" is small and claustrophobic, taking place in a small temple village filled with a magic heavy laden with dread and fear.

The first half feels like a long-winded prologue and the second half is over before you know it. Tenar is sullen and veangeful, although she has good reason to be. There are a lot of reasons to dislike it, but it really sticks the landing where Ged draws her out of her hateful beliefs and grounds her in a supportive, loving friendship.

I love this speech he gives her at the end:

"You were the vessel of evil. The evil is poured out. It is done. It is buried in its own tomb. You were never made for cruelty and darkness; you were made to hold light, as a lamp burning holds and gives its light. I found the lamp unlit; I won't leave it on some desert island like a thing found and cast away. I'll take you to Havnor and say to the princes of Earthsea, 'Look! In the place of darkness I found the light, her spirit. By her an old evil was brought to nothing. By her I was brought out of the grave. By her the broken was made whole , and where there was hatred there will be peace.'" ( )