A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin and Fred Fordham

A Wizard of Earthsea recasts a classic fantasy novel in graphic-novel format.

A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham. Clarion, 2025, 288 pages.

Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15

Recommended for: ages 12-up

He was born in an obscure village to unremarkable parents, deprived of his mother at birth. They named him Duny, but in the archipelago of Earthsea everyone and everything has a true name that only the mages know. The boy displays unusual powers, and a somewhat reckless nature, from an early age, but not until he summons a thick fog to shield his village from marauders does it become clear that he himself has supernatural potential. Ogion, a mage from another village, adopts him as a trainee and imparts to the boy his real name: Ged.

It doesn’t take long for Ged to become impatient with Ogion’s slow methods, and the master offers to release his student to a renowned school for wizards on the island of Roke. But he cautions against Ged’s penchant for showing off: “Illusion fools the beholder’s senses . . . but it does not change the thing.” Ignoring the warning, the boy thrives at school but runs afoul of a noble-born apprentice who’s jealous of his own position as top student. In a contest to prove who’s the more powerful, Ged attempts to summon a legendary woman of the past but instead raises a malevolent shadow who attacks and scars him and would have killed him had the headmaster not intervened at the cost of his own life.

Self-exiled from Roke, Ged is pursued by the shadow over many years of wandering. The only remedy, Ogion tells him, is to confront it and call it by its true name: “not to undo what he had done, but to finish what he’d begun.”

A Wizard of Earthsea was Le Guin’s first novel for the youth market. The story can be understood by an intelligent 12-year-old, but has a depth that can be appreciated by an adult. It grapples with the nature of reality, of “true” vs. false names, and especially of the limits of power. The graphic-novel version retains these major themes and almost all the text is Le Guin’s. It can be read in a few hours but shouldn’t be rushed—the pictures need to be “read” as carefully as the text. Pages after page contains no text, just sequential action. I suspect readers will respond differently: some will be enchanted, others annoyed. The palette tends toward dark, making some panels hard to make out and some characters difficult to distinguish. Probably not for everybody, but rewarding to those who persevere.

Bottom Line: A faithfully and imaginatively executed, if sometimes (for me, at least) exasperating interpretation of a fantasy classic.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Three novels that straddle the definitions of science fiction and fantasy: The Rithmatist, Bubble World, and A Corner of White.
• Reviews: Three graphic-novel fantasies for mature readers.

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