Consumed by the Consumed One

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin was one of those books I literally couldn't put down. Dishes sat piled in the sink while my after dinner treat stretched from one chapter to two... then three, four.

Arha, the "Eaten One" is the virgin priestess of the Nameless Ones. Her family, her name, her childhood, was consumed by the Nameless Ones, and she is in service to protect the sanctity of their eternally dark, labyrinthine tombs. When a man violates Arha's dark cave with his magical light, her journey toward womanhood begins- a journey that will end either in enlightenment, or a life lost in the tortuous underground passages.

The Tombs of Atuan is the second of LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy (my review of the first in the series, A Wizard of Earthsea, is here). LeGuin develops aspects of the Earthsea universe only tauntingly touched upon in A Wizard of Earthsea. We follow the story through Arha's eyes, a very different protagonist than LeGuin's Ged of the first novel. It is only as the action begins to rise that we meet our old friend, and it's pretty cool to meet Ged through Arha's eyes.

LeGuin's writing is noticeably more powerful in this second installment. The reader moves through her world in beautifully selected detail. The feel of the desert wind is still on my skin, the smell of stale and decay in a sealed treasure trove, the wonder of the scene Arha beholds when light touches the Tombs of Atuan for the very first time.