The first book in the Earthsea Cycle gives us the origin story of Ged - a boy with promising magical talent who, in a moment of weakness, makes a terrible mistake that shapes the rest of his life. 
 I first read this book as a young teen, and I was surprised by how much of it I could remember. The unleashing of the shadow thing, in particular, was still vividly in my memory. It was particularly interesting to revisit scenes that have stuck with me all this time and to go "uh, so this is where that's from..." 
 This was written in an era when fantasy was still very much tied to oral storytelling - "Tolkienish". It makes the narrative pace very fast, as we get little more than brief sentences to cover weeks and even years of the story's chronology. That doesn't mean that the story's pace is fast, though. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it does drag a bit as Ged travels around the world and meets with largely unconnected side quests. 
 The style also adds a distance between the reader and the action. Rather than seeing the action, we are told about it. This used to be standard in fantasy, but a book written like this now wouldn't get anywhere near the same reception. 
 That doesn't make it bad, by any means. It's beautifully written, and the worldbuilding is magnificent, but it does mean that people who aren't either at peace with older fantasy genre conventions, or who have adjusted their expectations to the newer expectations of the genre are going to struggle with the book. 
 All that being said, it fully deserves its place in the canon, right alongside Tolkien for its worldbuilding and lyrical narrative. And for me, specifically, it's wonderful to visit again with an old friend.