Lucas Blogs About The Tombs of Atuan

I don't usually make the review pictures this big, but these title illustrations are the bomb, yo!

So, what's this book's deal?

Well, it's a sequel (kinda) to A Wizard of Earthsea.

Oh, so it picks up where the last book left off?

Nope! In fact, I'd say you could read this book without having read the first one and still enjoy it quite a bit.

A sequel that works as a standalone? That' s a neat trick.

It is. Ursula K. Le Guin is a neat writer.

So then, the deal . . .

Oh, right. The main character, Tenar, is a little girl growing up in the Kargad Empire (They're out to the East of Gont. In fact, Kargad raiders attacking Ged's village is sort of the catalyst for the whole series really.). When she turns five, she's taken away from her parents to the Place of the Tombs of Atuan where she is sacrificed to the Nameless Ones.

Hold the phone! How can she be the main character if she's sacrificed at the beginning of the story.

Not literally, the sacrificial ritual is more of a token gesture. While the celebrants chant, "She is eaten. She is eaten." Tenar remains very much alive, however, from that point on she is no longer called "Tenar," but "Arha," the Eaten One. She is raised to be the sole priestess of the cult of the Nameless Ones. Nominally, she is the most powerful person in the Empire, but, in actuality, she has power only within the confines of the Place (a temple complex which includes the titular tombs, the Temple of the Twin Gods, and the Temple of the God-king). As she grows up, she is given more responsibilities: pouring sacrificial blood onto the tombstones, dancing in the Hall of the Empty Throne, and, of course, deciding the fate of any who blaspheme.

Deciding their fate how?

Well, blasphemers are imprisoned in the labyrinth under the tombs, and Arha is asked to decide how they will die. She opts to stop giving them food and water and to put out their torch so that they can starve in darkness and be fed to the Nameless Ones (that is to say, be buried in the Undertomb).

That's pretty intense.

It is. Did I mention that she's a pre-teen when this happens?

You did not. Sounds like it would be traumatic.

It is, she keeps thinking about it for years. Anyway, one day while looking through the various spy-holes into the labyrinth, she espies a dark-skinned wizard from the West. Did I mention that the Kargads view the art magic as blasphemous? Because they do. Sharp-eyed readers will be unsurprised to learn that this tomb-defiling wizard is Ged (aka Sparrowhawk). But Arha won't find that out for a little while yet. Anyhow, from this point on there are two main questions that the reader will find themselves asking: 1) What will Arha do to punish Ged? and B) Why hasn't she told any of the other priestesses that a foreign wizard is defiling their sanctum sanctorum?

Do these questions have anything to do with SPOILERS?

Yes. So let's get to talking about the book.

D'ya like it?

Yes. Not only is it a good standalone novel. It's even better than its predecessor.

Is it better or do you just like it more?

Hmm. Aren't those the same thing, at least for the purposes of my book review blog?

Let's put a pin in that. So, what's so great about The Tombs of Atuan?

Like A Wizard of Earthsea, Tombs of Atuan deals primarily with the inner life of its protagonist, Tenar/Arha. However, because nearly all the action takes place in one location, that focus is magnified. Tenar doesn't go on a world-spanning adventure, she has several dark nights of the soul. We follow her through her training and initiation as a priestess (specifically, as the reincarnation of all previous Arhas), and see the ways in which she is taught to hate and fear foreigners, wizards, and men (only women and eunuchs may enter the Place). Ged isn't the first person to challenge her beliefs, but he is the first person from outside the place that she's met since she was a small child.

I think I see what you're getting at. You get to see how Tenar's worldview is constructed and what happens when she's confronted with evidence that it might be wrong.

Yeah. And, as we established in the review of Wizard, Ursula K. Le Guin has a masterful command of setting and character. Here deployed to create an atmosphere of dread and to explore how characters who have largely been deprived of agency try to reclaim as much of it as they can.

Go on.

Well, the priestesses at the Place aren't necessarily there because of their own piety (Arha's friend, an initiate of the God-king, doubts his divinity because he's bald). Tenar was sought out as the reincarnation of her predecessor, girls are sent there as children because they're parents can't afford to raise them. The guards camped outside the walls are there to keep blasphemers out, yes, but they also ensure that the priestesses cannot leave. And within the hierarchy of their orders there's only so much room for advancement. As the High (and only) Priestess of the Nameless Ones, there is no one who may command Arha to do anything, but in practical terms the only real authority she wields is over Manan, her eunuch attendant.

And those prisoners she executes.

Oh, and them.

And presumably Ged, once she's trapped him in the labyrinth.

Look, the point is that while she is supposedly an important spiritual leader, she's more like a prisoner.

Seems a little bleak after the globe-trotting adventure of the first book.

There's plenty of bleakness in Wizard. But yes, there is a difference in tone. I think that's part of what makes this such a great sequel.

Oh, because it gives you something different from the first book?

Yeah, that sounds about right.

And I see that you've upgraded from the used paperback of A Wizard of Earthsea to a hardcover illustrated omnibus.

Yeah, in some ways it was a poor choice. Don't get me wrong, the illustrates by Charles Vess are gorgeous and evocative. However, having all six books in one volume does make the book really heavy. Also, the print is pretty small. So, yeah, this book is a little longer than it's page count makes it seem. But remember how I said that A Wizard of Earthsea isn't a page-turner, that it's a little more meditative and episodic?

Yes.

This one is a page turner, I read most of it in one day. It's really good. Read it. Even if you read A Wizard of Earthsea and didn't care for it, give The Tombs of Atuan a try. You might like it. You know, 'cause it's really good.

I think we got that.

Cool.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin, illustrated by Charles Vess, from The Books of Earthsea, The Complete Illustrated Edition, Saga Books hardcover edition, October 2018, originally published 1970, 105 pages, pairs well with burnt offerings and a warm blanket

Links:

Once again, the author's website, if you're into that kinda thing.

Here's Charles Vess' website, if you're into that kinda thing.