The Earthsea Trilogy (2003)
Please don&#x27;t be petty and don&#x27;t me give me the gray treatment because we don&#x27;t share tastes (I really am looking for some explanations of what might I have missed) but... I have to be dead-serious and honest here: I had huge trouble going through the 5 books at all. It was torturous 95% of the time. Only the first book was kinda sorta nice fantasy book, it dragged a bit but was full of promise and the world-building was nice. Sadly the ending I saw a mile away but was still semi-enjoyable until we got there.<p>From then on though, it was just downhill, with each book getting harder and harder to read. Especially book 4 could basically be summarized as &quot;the dark thoughts of an old woman, mixed once every 50 pages with the name &#x27;Ged&#x27;, the word &#x27;garden&#x27; and the description of a disfigured girl&quot;. :(<p>Like, don&#x27;t crucify me please, but I could probably compress that book in 20 pages, easily, without skipping a single plot element.<p>Book 5 was a slight improvement, all the underworld &#x2F; dead people descriptions were pretty eerie and I managed to get some immersion. Was okay, though still very watered down and prolonged and sadly again, the ending was easy to guess.<p>Books 2 and 3? I don&#x27;t even remember them now. I only remember how extremely excruciatingly slow they were.<p>In any case, I know there is always the universal will-never-go-anywhere cop-out of &quot;it&#x27;s just not for you, man&quot; but I would still be interested if anybody can elaborate what made the book click for them.<p>TL;DR I found the books extremely watered down, full of dark thoughts and rather meaningless stoicism, and Ged was basically a burned out veteran before he hits 30 years old which is a bit disappointing, isn&#x27;t it? Not to mention, again, too much focus on the mental struggles of old people. And there isn&#x27;t even any revelation or motivation anywhere, it&#x27;s basically &quot;life sucks man, what can you do&quot;.<p>Before you ask or claim: I really like reading fantasy and I picked these books several years ago due to their reputation. And I was -- and I still am -- legitimately confused what&#x27;s so great about them.