Begin with A Wizard of Earthsea. That is the uncomplicated answer, and it leaves the most room for discovery. First published in 1968, it follows the young Ged, whose desire for power releases a shadow he must confront. It is the first of six Earthsea books.
Follow the author’s reading order
- A Wizard of Earthsea
- The Tombs of Atuan
- The Farthest Shore
- Tehanu
- Tales from Earthsea
- The Other Wind
This is the order given on Le Guin’s official site. Keep Tales from Earthsea before The Other Wind: although the collection reaches into different periods, its final story, “Dragonfly,” forms a bridge between the later books.
Read slowly enough to hear the names
A first encounter with a long-running fictional world can become a project of memorising everything. You do not need that burden here. Keep a finger in the map if it helps, but let a place acquire meaning through the people who live there. A name can become familiar before you know everything about it.
One useful reading habit is to note the questions a book leaves open, rather than immediately looking for answers in a guide. How does someone learn? Who gets to be heard? What does power ask of its holder? Returning to those questions after each volume makes room for a changing understanding.
Which edition?
Choose an edition that is comfortable to read. Individual volumes make natural stopping points; an omnibus keeps the sequence together. Check the contents before buying a collected edition, especially if you want the shorter works as well as the novels. The author’s official book pages are a better starting point than an edition chosen purely for its cover.