Lucas Blogs About Books

Hey! Have you ever thought you could tell a story than its creators? I know I have. I am Lucas's Unbridled Hubris! I know I've spent a lot of time writing about Earthsea this year . That's partly because I first read the series this year and possess the zeal of a new convert. BT-Dubs, have you heard the good news about Ged, also known as Sparrowhawk, formerly the Archmage of Roke? In any case, how can I put this diplomatically? Both of the major Earthsea adaptations kinda suck. It was recently announced that A24 is developing a new miniseries with Jennifer Fox (whose work I am not familiar with) as a showrunner. And it turns out that Fox received Ursula K. Le Guin's blessing before her death in 2018. Now, you might say, "But, Lucas, Hallmark and Studio Ghibli also had Le Guin's blessing going into production, and both of their adaptations were disappointing at best." And you would be correct. However, I'll reserve judgment on this new adapt...

At least they got the human-to-dragon scale right. Hey! Remember a couple weeks ago when I talked about how much the old Hallmark/Sci-Fi Channel miniseries based on Earthsea ? Well, now I'm gonna talk about how Studio Ghibli donked up their Earthsea adaptation! SPOILERS , of course. The Farthest Shore (1972) & Tehanu  (1990) by Ursula K. Le Guin (with a little bit of Tales of Earthsea  (2001) & The Other Wind  (2001) thrown in for good measure) into Tales of Earthsea ( ゲド戦記 or  Gedo Senki ) dir. Gorō Miyazaki, written by Gorō Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa What gives? Studio Ghibli and Ursula K. Le Guin seem like two great tastes that should taste great together. Heck, if Teto (Nausicaa's pet fox-squirrel) isn't inspired by Ged's pet otak , I'll eat my hat (Please note: I will not eat my hat). The Original: All right, let's get this show on the road. The film borrows a good deal more from The Farthest Shore than Tehanu , so I'll focus a little ...

I knew there was I reason I kept that tablet around. Okay! So, we all remember that weird adaptations series I wrote several entries of last year, right? Well, we're sort of resurrecting it. This is Badaptations, where I look at adaptations that suck, and talk about why. Expect SPOILERS  aplenty. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) & The Tombs of Atuan  (1970) by Ursula K. Le Guin into Earthsea (AKA Legend of Earthsea ) (2004) dir. Robert Lieberman, written by Gavin Scott So, what got lost in translation when a tv producer decided to take a beloved fantasy series and adapt it as a cheap Lord of the Rings knock-off? The Original: Okay, so I've recently reviewed both Wizard and Tombs , so I'll try and be brief here. All right. Let's get cracking: Duny is the son of a village bronze smith on the isle of Gont. Like most Gontish men, Duny has reddish brown skin. Unlike most Gontish men, he displays an early talent for the Art Magic, learning a few simple spells fr...

So, what's this book's deal? The Other Wind is the last of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. Oh, good, for a while there this blog was threatening to turn into Lucas Blogs About Earthsea and a Series of Unfortunate Events .  Would it really be that bad? It might get a little boring. Okay, but fair warning, I've got ideas for at least two more posts about Earthsea, but I'll sit on them for a little while. They're about the adaptations, aren't they ? Yep! Anyway, before we talk about The Other Wind , let's talk SPOILERS   for Tehanu  and "Dragonfly." So at the end of Tehanu , Ged and Tenar have been captured by the new wizard of Re Albi who was a former disciple of Cob (the evil wizard from The Farthest Shore ) who was using Pelnish lore to keep the Lord of Re Albi alive but infirm and under his control. The wizard is about to kill them when the dragon Kalessin arrives in the TA-DA! nick of time and saves Ged and Tenar by im...

So, what's this book's deal? You know, Hypothetical Reader, you've been pretty cool about every book being an entry in the same series for the last several weeks. I guess I have, maybe I'm growing. Or maybe I just forgot to write you as a scold. Thanks. So, Tales from Earthsea  is the fifth entry in the increasingly inaccurately named Earthsea trilogy ( to borrow a joke from the Hitchhiker's Guide series ). This time around it's actually a collection of short stories. Shit! You're not gonna give each one its own review like you did with Terra Incognita , are you? No, I've learned my lesson. One review for the whole book. So, this sort of expands on the project begun in Tehanu . That is to say, Le Guin continues to interrogate the base assumptions of her own imagined world. None of the stories is a direct continuation of Tehanu , but there are a number of thematic similarities in these stories. So let's get going. First there's...

So, what's this book's deal? This is the fourth book in what had previously been believed to be the Earthsea trilogy. So then Ursula K. Le Guin decided to make it into a tetralogy? Hmm, let's talk about that in a future Lucas Blogs About X. Agreed, so does this book pick up where it's predecessor left off? It comes closer than any of the other Earthsea books. It begins just a little bit before the end of The Farthest Shore . But on the other side of the Archipelago, back on Gont. Is it about Tenar? No points for guessing. She actually goes by Goha now. You see, it's been twenty-five years since she left Atuan with Ged. In that time she's come to Gont, spent some time living with Ged's old master, Ogion, before marrying a farmer and settling down near Gont Port. Are things going well with her husband? Oh, he's dead. So she's a widow at . . . what? Forty? About. Also her two grown children have moved off the farm. Apple lives ...

So, what's this book's deal? It's the third book in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. Oh, so does it pick up where The Tombs of Atuan  left off? More so than Tombs   picks up where A Wizard of Earthsea left off. See, at the end of Tombs  ( SPOILERS ) Ged and Tenar bring a lost treasure back to Havnor and restore the Rune of Peace. That said, a couple of decades have passed since then, and nothing's really changed in the archipelago. Oh, a couple of decades? Have Ged and Tenar been going on globe-trotting adventures and stuff? Well, Ged's certainly been getting around. He's become a Dragon Lord and even been elected the Archmage of Roke. What about Tenar? The last review made it clear that you think she's a great character. I do. But we won't really hear much more about her until book four. Pretty much all we learn about her is that she's known as the White Lady of Gont. Anyway, like I said, things are still relatively stable i...

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 l...