The Tombs of Atuan
by Ursula K. Le Guin · first published 1971
40% recommend53% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
The strongest of the Earthsea books, with themes that deepen on rereading. It suits adults returning to a book first read as teens.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Arha's isolated existence as high priestess in the tombs of Atuan is jarred by a thief who seeks a special treasure.
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Mentions per year
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…a different take on Le Guin's best work. I couldn't get into The Dispossessed. I will try again, though. I read The Wizard of Earthsea when I was a teen and loved it, struggled with the second book (Tombs of Atuan) at the time, then returned to it 30 years later and now consider it a truly fine work as a story and an examination of religion, tradition, and belief. Immediately after completing Atuan, moved on to…
on “Ursula Le Guin Books” ↗The real star of the Earthsea trilogy is the second book, The Tombs of Atuan: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tombs_of_Atuan The others put me to sleep, honestly
on “Ursula Le Guin Books” ↗I just finished re-reading A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan last week. It was enjoyable because I picked up some of the themes that teenage me missed when reading the series all those years ago. A gifted writer RIP
on “Ursula Le Guin has died” ↗A Wizard of Earthsea, and then The Tombs of Atuan. Then read the rest of the series, which are all good, it is just the first two are particularly wonderful.
on “The Imaginative Reality of Ursula K. Le Guin” ↗…direction where not doing anything or much is the way. That doesn't help on plot :-) I loved that the books powerfully evoke the emotions of stages of life: A Wizard of Earthsea, the young wizard The Tombs of Atuan, the adventure (not about the adventure but about the wizard) The Farthest Shore, mage at the end of failing magic Tehanu, retirement, ex-wizard, reconciliation Tales from Earthsea, short stories of…
on “The Earthsea Trilogy (2003)” ↗The best thing about this illustrated edition is Le Guin's own comments written in the past few years reflecting on these books. Here's the last paragraph on her comments on Tombs of Atuan. (Um, spoilers, I guess.) > Rereading the book, more than forty years after I wrote it, I wonder about many of its elements. It was the first book I wrote with a woman as the true central character.…
on “The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin” ↗…books. I absolutely loved and treasured The Wizard of Earthsea, which I've read and reread many times over my life (something I almost never do with any books). The other two books in the trilogy: The Tombs of Atuan and The Furthest Shore were pretty disappointing to me, so I stopped reading Le Guin after that.
on “Ursula Le Guin Books” ↗…print, into life. And my contemporary women writers were showing me the way. It was high time I learned to write of and from my own body, my own gender, in my own voice. The central character of The Tombs of Atuan is female, the point of view is hers. But Tenar is just coming out of adolescence, not yet fully a woman. I had had no problem in 1970 writing out of my own experience of what it is to be a girl-child,…
on “The Earthsea Trilogy (2003)” ↗The world is vast and strange Hera, but no vaster or stranger than our minds are. - The Tombs of Atuan I've always felt that quote summed up what Ursula Le Guin had to say.
on “Ursula Le Guin Books” ↗…tetralogies and so on and so forth. I wish authors would just finish the damn story. I think that's why I like Le Guin and Banks so much. You can read out of order and it's no big deal. In fact, I read _The Tombs of Atuan_ before _A Wizard of Earthsea_, and all of Le Guin's Hanish stories are stand-alone. The same goes for Banks' Culture novels, where I started with _Excession_ and back-tracked to _Consider Phelebas_…
on “A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992)” ↗I’d say The Farthest Shore is not a “children’s book” either, nor arguably The Tombs of Atuan.
on “The Earthsea Trilogy (2003)” ↗…appealing? > That doesn't erase the earlier portrayals. Well it doesn't exactly erase them, but it reinterprets them drastically. Also, even though Le Guin later didn't consider it good enough, the Tombs of Atuan were written from a woman's perspective. A woman who's frankly a bit hard to recognize in the book Tehanu. Isn't a bit odd that the former high priestess of the Nameless Ones, of a visibly different race…
on “The Earthsea Trilogy (2003)” ↗…experienced before. My mind was at peace. I had no obsession for at least two weeks. It felt amazing, I was so content. I started to read Wizard of Earthsea, which I finished few days later. Then I read Tombs of Atuan in a few days as well. I read The Farthest Shore about halfway before my brain rebooted into its usual obsessive state. This was the most I'd read in almost 10 years! I wish I could experience that peace…
on “How to Read Books When You Have ADHD” ↗…On Tuesday night, the Sci Fi Channel aired its final installment of Legend of Earthsea, the miniseries based—loosely, as it turns out—on my Earthsea books. The books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than 30 years ago, are about two young people finding out what their power, their freedom, and their responsibilities are. I don’t know what the film is about. It’s full of…
on “No More Movies” ↗…for peculiar children (Made an effort to read more YA this year - this was the best in this series, but I still hated it. There's a host of better YA series out there.) 11. A Wizard of Earthsea: The Tombs of Atuan (See 8.) 12. The Girl in the Dark (Interesting book about a skin condition I had never heard of, and the trials of living with a very rare condition) 13. The Phantom Tollbooth (Clever children's book)…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗