Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

Can a man be a witch? Can a woman be a wizard? Where are the boundary lines drawn? What defines what? What is simply tradition and what is a hard in stone rule? Most would tell you that only women can be witches, only men can be wizards, and that these are hard and fast rules. Until a dying wizard accidentally passes his powers (and staff) onto the baby that he thinks is the eight son of an eight son. Only the baby is a girl.

"Equal Rites" is about that baby girl, Esk, and her attempt to fumble her way through her magical legacy. Fortunately she's not entirely on her own, Granny Weatherwax, a local witch, takes on the task of watching over Esk and trying to direct her magic. She trains Esk up as a witch, a lot of it is just headology anyway, but the magic has other ideas.

Eventually it becomes obvious that the magic Esk inherited is not simply content to let her be a witch. No one knows what to do with a woman wizard, but everyone figures that the only one's who will be able to figure it out are the wizards of the Unseen University.

Getting to the University is going to be quite the journey though, and once Esk gets there she faces a bunch of men who are VERY set in there ways.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula R. Le Guin

My aunt has been telling me for years that I need to read this trilogy, and for some reason I never have! At first I think it was because I was too silly to remember to write down the name of the author. Oops. That does make the task significantly more difficult! Lately though I've been really having a lot of fun ordering books from my local library, and making notes about what books I want to read. So I finally picked it up!

"A Wizard of Earthsea" is the first book in the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula R. Le Guin. The next two books are "The Tombs of Atuan" and "The Farthest Shore. I'm ordering both of them, so you'll receive reviews on them in due time!

The first book, "A Wizard of Earthsea," reminds me very much of the "Lord of the Rings" books in the style of writting. It's no where near as long, but it has that same formal feel to it, which I think adds to the level of majesty in the descriptions! In this book we meet Ged, a young boy who soon starts down the path towards becoming the greatest sorcerer in all of Earthsea.

One of the things I really appreciated about this book is that the author treats magic with respect. Showing that it needs to kept in balance, and that things done improperly can be dangerous. I don't really believe in magic, but I much prefer imagining this approach than the "let's wave a wand and anything can happen without consequences!" approach. It feels more realistic to me.