Ancient Geeks episode 83: A Wizard Of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

We begin our three-part coverage of Ursula K. Le Guin's classic fantasy series, starting with A Wizard Of Earthsea. It starts with a story arc that may sound familiar, a young magician finding his way in the world. But, as you'll hear, it's so much more than just another coming of age story with spells and dragons.

Steven read the Earthsea Trilogy (it was only the three books then) when he was young. Tom just read them. Both of us have a lot of praise to heap on the first book in the series.

It's the novel that wasn't supposed to be the start of a series, but it was. It's also the book that was conceived as "fantasy for teenagers," but is so much more grown up than that. (You'll hear a lot about how we feel about the YA label in this episode.)

A world of islands! A world of magic! Dragons! Clashing pedagogic theories! Shady rock collectors! A dramatic chase across the world! It's all here.

Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of popular culture. We were geeks before it was chic!

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Ancient Geeks episode 85: The Farthest Shore

We finish our discussion of the first three Earthsea novels by Ursula Le Guin with The Farthest Shore. We see Ged, the magician, as an older man, risen to Archmage. There's something terrible happenin...

21 Sep 1h 1min

Ancient Geeks episode 84: The Tombs Of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin

Continuing our coverage of Ursula K. Le Guin's first three Earthsea books, we turn to The Tombs Of Atuan. This time, the focus is on a female protagonist, Tenar, and her very dark coming-of-age story....

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17 Aug 1h 31min

Ancient Geeks episode 79: Escape From The Planet Of The Apes

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10 Aug 1h 2min

Ancient Geeks episode 78: John Carpenter's Dark Star

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3 Aug 1h 10min