The Tombs of Atuan

I finally finished the "quick read" that I started when I was getting a little disheartened with Wives and Daughters. This book is only 180 pages long, but it is NOT a simple read.

The Tombs of Atuan is, apparently, the second book in the Earthsea Cycle. It is young adult novel, but it deals a lot in death and loneliness. Ursula Le Guin was doing the depressed and murderous teen thing long before Katniss Everdeen came around.

The following review will contain spoilers, because to make any sense out of this book, I have to give stuff away. Sorry.

The novel follows a girl called Arha who is a priestess in a very complex temple system in a desert in an alternate world. Arha isn't actually her name. It means something along the lines of "the devoured one." Arha is the name given to every priestess of this one particular temple within the complex, and every new priestess is thought to be the reincarnation of the old one - much like the Dalai Lama. The gods this priestess serves are called the "nameless ones" and basically seem to be scary and evil. There are also lots of politics within the temple complex since multiple gods are worshipped at multiple different temples. And, of course, all of the priestesses are raised in the complex, so it's full of teenage girls all the time.

Most of the plot revolves around the arrival of a wizard/sorcerer/mage/weird dude who shows up trying to steal half of a ring that is apparently hidden in the labyrinth underneath Arha's temple. Arha is supposed to kill him because he has defiled her temple, or something like that, but does not want to. She has already order the starvation and burial of three prisoners, and has nightmares about it. This girl is only in her teens, and she's already had to take responsibility for the death of men without really understanding why. As my high school friends would say, "girl's got issues."

And it just gets more complicated from there. One of the other priestesses is trying to get rid of Arha and is constantly testing her. This priestess, who also happens to be an embittered old lady, catches Arha bringing food to the wizard while she has him locked up in the labyrinth. This forces Arha to decide whether to fully help out the intruder and face the wrath of the old lady or kill him and hope the other priestess decides not to kill her.

And, of course, the ring that the wizard wants will magically make the world peaceful once it is restored to its whole shape. Seriously.

All of this, plus a lot of other stuff I just can't get into right now, happens in only 180 pages. And still there is a lot of angsty hand wringing and descriptions of nightmares.

This book is intense, but in a strange way that I am not used to. It is beautifully written, and I sympathized with Arha (whose real name is Tenar) even as she was having teenage fits of hubris and then falling to pieces. I think the book as a whole is meant to be about choice and responsibility... how does this young girl take responsibility for the deaths that have taken place on her watch and how does she find an identity outside of the one assigned to her from birth (as a reincarnated Arha). My personal preference, though, would have been to tell this story in a less complicated setting. The issues of this alternate world and magic and gods, etc, just got a little distracting. I thought the interaction between the characters was more interesting than the world in which they lived.

I purchased this book at my local book store with the intention of trying to broaden my reading list to include more Science Fiction and Fantasy, since several of my dearest friends (Hi Becks!) love this sort of stuff. I picked this book in particular because Ursula K Le Guin is mentioned in the book The Jane Austen Book Club. See, I really can connect everything back to Jane Austen! On a side note, if you haven't read that book, you should... it's awesome.

Anyway, maybe this book was not the best entry point for fantasy. The alternate world of Earthsea is never really built up completely. Characters talked about separate nations and priest-kings becoming god-kings, but never really explained it. It was very easy to get lost in the details. Perhaps some of this is accomplished in other books in the "cycle."

So, I guess, I would give this book a 6 out of 10. It was beautiful and interesting, but just not my cup of tea. I'll try a few more fantasy books (I have to, after all, since they are on this list), but maybe Harry Potter is the limit of my love for this genre. Oh well, at least I tried.