The Beginning Place Author:Ursula K. Le Guin Fleeing from the monotony of his life, Hugh Rogers finds his way to "the beginning place"--a gateway to Tembreabrezi, an idyllic, unchanging world of eternal twilight. Irena Pannis was thirteen when she first found the beginning place. Now, seven years later, she has grown to know and love the gentle inhabitants of Tembreabrezi, or Mountaintown,... more » and she sees Hugh as a trespasser. But then a monstrous shadow threatens to destroy Mountaintown, and Hugh and Irena join forces to seek it out. Along the way, they begin to fall in love. Are they on their way to a new beginning...or a fateful end?« less
While The Wizard of Earthsea was supposed to have been adolescent fiction Beginning Place is, in fact, adolescent fiction. I have a shelf full of Mrs. Le Guin's books but Beginning Place just wasn't my style. However, young readers that are fans of Harry Potter might appreciate this book.
Not one of her best efforts. It reminded me of Bridge to Tarabithia, with 2 disfunctional people in a "make believe" land figuring out how to coexist with "reality". It's ok, but not fantastic.
I am not usually a fan of fantasy, but this book grabbed me with the possibility of a colorful, new world hidden away so close to the drab, colorless existence so many of us experience today in the land of strip malls and bland sameness.