I try to mention this whenever Earthsea comes up, but she revisited it after a long gap, so anyone who enjoyed the Earthsea trilogy should go back and read the rest of it.

I felt otherwise. I’ve read several fantasy authors I liked (Tolkien, Martin, Jemisin, Gaiman, Pratchett, Rowling, Sanderson, Lynch, Rothfuss, Jordan) and ended up reading all the books they wrote. I was underwhelmed by the first book of the Earthsea series and abandoned it. I think it’s partly that some of elements of the story inspired later authors (to wit, Paolini) so this doesn’t feel original just like Seinfeld Isn’t Funny. But also, the characters were so boring and one dimensional.

Le Guin is hard to stomach as you get older. I can read CS Lewis and Tolkien with a forgiving eye but not Lewis. Rowling is terrible. Susan Cooper should have had her success.

I don't find Le Guin hard to stomach at 43. CS Lewis on the other hand is heavy-handed religious propaganda.

But I can understand some taking issue with Le Guin. The language of the Earthsea books in particular is intentionally simple. My 9 year old has read most of the Earthsea books, and the series was initially explicitly targeted at teenagers.

For some that's hard to look past.

Some le Guin is a little, unpolished. Some of her magazine short stories; Rocannon's World, which is vaguely set in the ecumenical universe, but flying cat horses?

I think I've reread her whole earthsea cycle about every decade since ~1996, so maybe its time for another go.

I will say, some of her magazine fiction didn't age well. Some of the shorter stories and dime novels are fun, but, well wonky and incoherent. Not that I think she was going for coherence, but it distracts from the narrative once you are bit familiar with her worlds.