Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series — beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) — set in an archipelago world where magic requires knowing the true names of things, following the wizard Ged from childhood to old age.
Predated Harry Potter by three decades in the young-wizard-at-school format while going substantially deeper into questions of mortality, balance, and the ethics of power — establishing the philosophical depth benchmark for literary fantasy.
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