Four-Day Planet★★★☆☆
H. Beam Piper A fun frontier/sailing adventure, but nothing special. Sort of Moby Dick in space with everyone based out of a corrupt frontier town.
Toilers of the Sea★★★★☆
Victor Hugo, William Moy Thomas (translator) An outcast from a small island community spends weeks salvaging a shipwreck, alone, to prove himself. More tightly structured than Les Mis, if less ambitious in scope.
A Wizard of Earthsea★★★★★
Ursula K. Le Guin The Earthsea series is one of my regular re-reads. It starts here, with the tale of how a goatherd grew into a wizard in a world where magic is woven through everything from the poorest village to the greatest palace. How he released a terrifying evil in his youth, and how he sailed the world seeking how to make up for his mistake.
A Wizard of Earthsea (Graphic Novel)★★★★★
Ursula K. Le Guin and Fred Fordham Fordham’s watercolor-style art is absolutely gorgeous. The adaptation plays to the medium’s strengths, allowing the visuals to tell the story when possible, keeping Le Guin’s prose when needed. Wide seascapes, rocky coasts, forested landscapes, people (not whitewashed!) and dragons…
