Story about Wizard boy

Question

I remember one very good book about boy on island (I think it was pretty big - there were like towns or villages). The island was connected to "real world" through some kind of portals. There was one more world which was like bad or something (you could use portal to get there as well). I remember there was one scene where the main character (boy) needed to get through one of the portals so he froze guards in time using spell. This boy was one of several Wizards who use runes to do magic. I think one of runes is called ehwaz or something like that.

Do you have some idea what is this book called. It is trilogy. I've read it about 3 years ago. I'd say it's from 2005.

Answer 1

The description reminds me of the trilogy Book of the Stars (Goodread page of the first book) by Erik L'Homme. I read this trilogy in French, so I might have some names wrong in English.

In the books, there exists three worlds:

• our world, without magic, called the Real world
• a medieval fantasy world with magic called the Uncertain world
• an island which is in between the two worlds mixing modern technology and magic

The Uncertain world is dangerous because it is where the Shadow, an evil and powerful character lives.

The island is pretty big, at least large enough for a few towns, mountains and forests (map).

In the island, there is a guild of wizards that preform magic using runes. Wizards can travel between the three worlds using wooden gates covered in runes. I think the gates are guarded by knights. The main character is a very powerful wizard apprentice and in the first book, he goes to the Uncertain world with friends to rescue a classmate who had been abducted. He also several time use magic to freeze enemies.

The trilogy was published in the early 2000s.

Answer 2

A Wizard of Earthsea? I know there is a Runemaster. From the Google Books description:

The island of Gont is a land famous for wizards. Of these, some say the greatest - and surely the greatest voyager - is the man called Sparrowhawk. As a reckless, awkward boy, he discovered the great power that was in him - with terrifying consequences. Tempted by pride to try spells beyond his means, Sparrowhawk lets loose an evil shadow-beast in his land. Only he can destroy it, and the quest leads him to the farthest corner of Earthsea.

It started as a trilogy, but ended up with 5 books:

• A Wizard of Earthsea
• The Tombs of Atuan
• The Farthest Shore
• Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea
• The Other Wind