Style, Character, and Plot — Reading Chapter 1 of "A Wizard of Earthsea"

With so much emphasis on world building in the first chapter, it is easy to forget that Ursula Le Guin breaks some other rules of fantasy as well, namely presenting a whole lot of characterization in a style that is somewhat archaic. In fact, the plot, the element for which genre fiction is so well known (and so oft derided) appears little more than a framework to reveal the world and the main character, Sparrowhawk, to us.

Le Guin's Style

But let us begin with a brief look at the style of the ...