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May 24, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

This is the second book in the Earthsea Cycle. Plot-wise it's not as good as A Wizard of Earthsea, but the writing is better. It has such wonderful fluidity that I read the entire book in just a few hours. For that I can give it four stars, though the story lacks the magic and adventure of the first book.

Tenar is taken from her family at the age of five and given to "the Dark Ones" (aka "the Nameless Ones") at the age of six. The belief is that they eat her so More...

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Sep 13, 2008

Martine rated it:

The second book of the Earthsea Cycle starts off in a slightly baffling way -- not with Ged, the central character of the series, but rather with Arha, a young girl who has been chosen to become the next High Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan and spends her life performing rituals in which no one really seems to believe any more. We follow Arha around her daily tasks, and just when we're wondering where the hell Ged is, he makes an appearance, and a fascinating sparring match between the wizard an More...

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Sep 14, 2010

Ian rated it:

What wonderful and vivid imagery this book contains. Imagery with power for those readers who can identify with the central figure, Arha/Tenar, especially those who are faced with challenges in their own lives similar to those she confronts. I found imagery of the mystery and challenge of self-discovery; imagery of the conflict and dual-nature within humanity and within individuals; imagery of loss, dedication, loneliness, and self-denial; imagery of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; imag More...

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Aug 18, 2007

Jonnynsb rated it:

I like the complexity and the emotion, but I found the book disturbing, too. Bringing up "unfaith" and skepticism was good. The struggle for power between Arha and Kossil was good as well.

I didn't like the inconsistency, though. The gods (the Nameless Ones) had power, just not the power Arha thought they had, so they weren't worth worshipping? Or was it merely that Ged decided they were "bad"? Or that they wouldn't strike Kossil down? They had not done anything More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

Joanna rated it:

I can't believe I never read this trilogy before now. I read the first book in the trilogy over the weekend, then read this one in practically one sitting. I think I actually liked this book slightly better than the first book, but that may just be related to this one having a strong female lead. I also appreciate that the characters and events in the books have slight overlap, but that it really isn't necessary to have read the first book to enjoy the second. I'll definitely be reading the More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

Ceridwen rated it:

I think I might do my best reading when I'm sick. I get superstitious when I'm ill. I surround myself with the talismans of warding illness: that one hideous, frayed wool sweater, tea with lemon, soup from a can. One of my salves is re-reading books that I love.

It's a brief book, short, the middle of a trilogy (which later sprawled to 6 books). When it starts, our protagonist, Ged, from the first book of the series, is nowhere to be found. It's about a girl, taken to be a priestess as More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 01, 2012

Erin rated it:

Arha (the Eaten One) is the High Priestess to the Nameless Ones, the Eaters who live in the dark under their temple. From childhood she has learned that the darkness is sacred and guards the treasures in the labyrinth beneath her home. This story is told from her point of view, and she locks Ged into the labyrinth when she catches him sneaking around underground. Unable to let him die of thirst, Arha uses spy holes and trap doors to communicate with him about the nature of the treasure in the More...

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Nov 20, 2011

Michael rated it:

I must admit, I was a bit put off when this second in the trilogy did not start off with Ged. Because of the peculiar way the first book ends, I was really curious as to what he would be doing. Instead, we get the mythos and religious practices of another island/continent on Earthsea and a previously unknown female lead, Tenar, for about 50 pages.

At first, I found myself reading to get to Sparrowhawk; however, this new layer of storytelling is just as compelling and intriguing. The co More...

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Jun 22, 2011

Rowena rated it:

ok i don't really remember this. i think when she became arha she started getting annoying or something. BUT i still remember the passage i REEEAALLY liked for whatever reason. it's the part when she asks him to prove his powers and he gives her the illusion of wearing a beautiful dress:

The heavy black she had worn for years was gone; her dress was of turquoise-colored silk, bright and soft as the evening sky. It belled out full from her hips, and all the skirt was embroidered with t More...

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Jun 18, 2011

pinknantucket rated it:

Everybody on Twitter is going on and on about Ursula Le Guin at the moment and how fabulous she is and how she just writes the best books EVER, forcing me to face up to the fact that I've never read any of her stuff. I'm so susceptible to peer pressure. If everyone on Twitter started talking about jumping off cliffs and how cool that was, would I do it? Maybe.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I did actually once read the first in this trilogy (A Wizard of Earthsea) but don't remember liking it v More...

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May 20, 2011

Cyndy rated it:

Of course, once I finished reading A Wizard of Earthsea, I wanted to continue reading about this world that Ursula LeGuin had created, especially since I was so pleasantly surprised by how different the books were from the horrid SciFi Channel miniseries, which tried unsuccessfully to combine these first two books into one story. The Tombs of Atuan separates the two stories, detailing only the story of Tenar, who appeared almost as a minor character in the miniseries.

::: High Priestess More...

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May 08, 2011

Rebekah rated it:

This is a story about a girl who is taken as a child to be the High Priestess of a pagan temple. She has a very limited perspective of life because she and the others are confined to the area. She catches a thief in the temple tombs and traps him there and starts to learn things of the outside world. She's a very frustrating character because she's arrogant and kindof an all-around awful person, but surprisingly the author somehow kept you from being completely alienated from her, or giving up h More...

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Mar 11, 2011

Benjamin added it

Just as an example, there's a lesser book by the great C. M. Kornbluth called The Syndic (1953) in which a young hero in a strange land meets a young witch-in-training; the witch helps him out and dies; and the hero is off to the next adventure, since the witch was really just a pit-stop for him (or let's be fancy and call it an episode for him).

In some sense, The Tombs of Atuan is like the inverse of that book: instead of following a hero who meets a girl who is a religious figure in More...

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Dec 25, 2010

Truly rated it:

"O Biarkan Mereka Yang Tak Bernama memandang gadis yang dipersembahkan kepada mereka, yang sesungguhnya tak bernama. Biarkan mereka menerima nyawanya dan tahun-tahun dalam hidupnya hingga saat kematiannya, yang juga milik mereka. Semoga gadis ini layak mereka terima. Biarkan dia dimakan!”

“Dia dimakan! Dia dimakan!”

"Kau adalah Artha. Tidak yang tersisa lagi. Semuanya sudah dimakan"

Sejak usia enam tahun Tenar sudah berada di Situs Makam. Dia More...

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Oct 19, 2010

Bryn rated it:

I first read this book as a child, and back then it was my first encounter with Ursula Le Guinn. I was enchanted. While this is the second book of the Earthsea trilogy, I stands alone very well. However, reading it first is very different from reading it as part two. Encourntering these characters for the first time, you don't know who to trust and that makes the story read in a very different way.

Earthsea is a set of islands on a fantasy world, where magic is not unusual. The Tombs More...

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Jul 23, 2010

Cat rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jul 13, 2009

Nikki rated it:

Much as I love A Wizard of Earthsea, there isn't much feminine about it. It's a male society, it seems in that book, shaped by men and only inhabited by women. I don't know how much thought Le Guin put into that, originally, but the women in the story don't really have much of a place. There's the witch and Serret and the Kargish woman and Yarrow... but they don't have great parts in Ged's life. He's taken away from the tutelage of the witch because only a man can teach him wizardry, and there's More...

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Jun 17, 2011

Roland rated it:

As the middle book in a trilogy, The Tombs of Atuan is the middle part of the life of Sparrowhawk, the wizard hero whom the books are about. This is the story of a quest of his middle years, before he became powerful but after he learned wisdom. As a bridging story, it shows development of his character, but curiously he is not the most important one in the book. The protagonist, Tenar, is different and yet similar - a woman of a foreign, barbarous culture, she is nevertheless also the implement More...

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Sep 30, 2010

Lizz rated it:

Wishing I could give it 3.75 stars. I am torn on this one and need to let it settle with me a bit. Hence, after I finished it last night, I immediately started re-reading it.

Not as engaging or rich as A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA, the story still pulls you in. Interestingly, I feel LeGuin's style changed noticeably between stories. Which makes sense bc WIZARD was epic, expansive, a hero's journey and covered the physical/spiritual/personal world of Ged. Somehow the writing was tighter in WIZ More...

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Jun 01, 2009

Quinn rated it:

The second book of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan is another window into the cycle of the world of Earthsea. This book is deeply rooted in fantasy tradition, yet feels refreshingly detached from some of the more over-used conventions. It employs the dichotomy of thief and victim to question the motives of both thief and victim and to try to shed light on bigger themes like light and dark, good and evil. And although subtle, it contains religious undercurrents, asking what we worship and why we wor More...

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Jul 12, 2011

Ruetha rated it:

The Tombs of Atuan continues the Earthsea Cycle with the story of a young Priestess who serves a terrible evil and who eventually meets a thief come to rob the Unnamed Ones she serves of a treasure that could reunite the lands of Earthsea and bring peace where for many long ages there has been strife.

Like the previous book, I'm not sure how I feel about this one either. I was looking forward to a story that would take up Ged's adventures and strengthen the spark of interest the chara More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Ron rated it:

After being so impressed with "A Wizard of Earthsea" I moved right on to "The Tombs of Atuan", the second book in the original Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin. Atuan is a very different book. It is much slower paced and quite a sad and dark novel. The focus of the story is on a young girl Tenar who has been chosen sort of like the Dalai Lama as a reborn incarnation of the one true priestess Arha. Her old soul is "eaten" and she becomes the embodiment of a long More...

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Apr 12, 2011

Daveski rated it:

I'm not sure I'd call this a "sequel" to A Wizard of Earthsea, even though it's book two in the cycle. It's really it's own separate story, but one that really complements the story of Ged in the first book. Ged is a character here too, but he doesn't show up until over halfway through and even then he's really secondary to Tenar.

Le Guin has built an amazing world here, and this book helps to strengthen the mythology of Earthsea. It is also an adventure story and a fable a More...

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Apr 05, 2011

Aaron rated it:

A fair follow-up to A Wizard of Earthsea, this book is much different than its predecessor. The Tombs of Atuan are told entirely from the perspective of a new character - Tenar/Arha. She is a young child initiated into a society of priestesses who are dedicated to old and nearly forgotten gods. Most of the first half of the book is devoted to Tenar learning her duties and place in this small, closed society, discovering the limites of her power and what it means to be given to the gods.
More...

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Nov 10, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

The second of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea series (originally a trilogy but now at least 5 books), this book looks at a very different sort of magic than that practiced by the male wizards of the Inner Sea. This magic is woman-centered and earth-centered and (in the view of the wizards) evil. Eventually, Ged, the hero of the first of the series appears on the scene and leads the priestess of the Unnamed Ones out of her underground labyrinth into the light of day and the variety of the world. A More...

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Nov 10, 2011

Elisa rated it:

"Ne olivat Nimettömien Hautapaadet, niiden jotka hallitsivat ennen maailman syntyä. Ja sillä joka niitä palveli ei ollut nimeä."

Maameren tarinoiden toinen osa sijoittuu Kargadin valtakuntaan. Ensimmäisestä kargit muistuvat mieleen hurjamaineisena ja sotaisana kansana. Tarkemmin ottaen tapahtumapaikkana on Atuanin saarella sijaitseva Kunnas, jonka alapuolella pimeydessä lepäävät ikivanhat Hautaholvit. Lisäksi maan alla kiemurtaa loputtoman mutkainen labyrintti. Labyrintista More...

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May 29, 2009

Alex rated it:

This book was short and sweet. It reveled a new culture in the world of the earthsea. I thought it was really interesting and I really liked the new main character. (What is with fantasy sequels focusing on a new character who eventually interacts with the old characters?). I can see Ursula's anthropology experience in this book, with its attention to religious ceremonies.

Spoiler Alert:
I think this book might have a bit of an anti-religious message... I mean her gods turn More...

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Mar 23, 2009

John rated it:

I usually hate it when the second book in a series focuses on a different character or characters than the first book. The Tombs of Atuan does that, so, even though I really liked the first book, I put off reading it for a while and finished the Chronicles of Narnia instead.

Once I started reading, however, it didn't take me long to get into this book and the new characters introduced in it. I think that Le Guin does a good job of writing characters that evolve and grow as the story More...

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Mar 30, 2011

Erika rated it:

Wow. Tombs of Atuan turned out to be a great second installment! So many series struggle with the issue of building on to what they already have and still being a convincing world. This book does a great job of continuing the story of Ged even though he doesn't even come into the picture until halfway into the book.

The main character, Arha, I thought was an intriguing character to watch change throughout the book. The holy ground where she was practically raised is actually terrify More...

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Jun 20, 2010

Nancy rated it:

As an infant, Tenar is singled out as the reincarnation of the Priestess Arha, the guardian of the Tombs of Atuan. Raised with full knowledge of the great responsibility that she will one day inherit, Tenar grows up haughty and proud. Then the wizard Ged arrives at the Tombs, seeking an ancient treasure known as the Ring of Erreth-Akbe. Ged soon becomes young Tenar's prisoner, his presence stirring seeds of doubt deep within Tenar, causing her to second guess everything she's been told about her More...

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