Book 1 of the Black Magician (Black Magician Trilogy)

‘The Magician’s Guild’, by Trudi Canavan, is the first book of the ‘Black Magician’ trilogy. Written by the same author as the ‘Age of Five’ trilogy, and ‘Thief’s Magic’; it was first released in 2005, already a decade ago.

The book follows the main protagonist, Sonea, a young street girl which, one day, furious with the acts and attitude of the governing authorities, throws a stone at the shield of a group of mages containing a protest. This stone should hit the shield like the rest, but to the amazement of all those present, it instead passess through the barrier and renders a magician unconscious. This represents the Magician’s Guild worst fear: an untrained magician is loose on the street, and she must be found before the unleashes forces that could destroy both her and the city… or before she falls into the hands of those with ill intentions and opposes the otherwise unbeatable Guild.

Now, at a first glance the plot of this book is one that every reader will have seen at least once: A young protagonist grows up not knowing about a part of themselves, suddenly finds out, and is forced to confront the unavoidable change in their life as it puts them and their friends in danger. ‘The Magician’s Guild’ is another one of these, and whilst it avoids the more typical traps in which books of this genre might fall into, it instead succeeds in keeping the plot interesting. It is well written, and has overall a well-rounded story and characters. Something which I didn’t entirely expect from the summary of the book concerning the Magician’s Guild. The world is, as far as this book concerns, well developed and balanced, with likeable characters easy enough to become attached to.

This was a pleasant surprise, as it is something which as a rule almost always fails to impress me with books with this plot. Typically, the world, the characters, or the plot, either fail to impress or are less than average. In turn ruining whatever good reading experience the other elements of the story might have offered. Since this was the first book I read by the author, I didn’t know what to expect in this regard, but thankfully was rewarded with a book which I read in one sitting and which grabbed my attention immediately. It was a good read, and kept my interest all the way through, exploring all the opportunities it opened. It was also a very easy read and well paced, without too many of the clichés one becomes used to seeing in books with this sort of plot.

Is this all there was to the book, though?

No, of course not. Though it was interesting and wasn’t off-putting, some areas of it felt excessively prologued. Whilst this wasn’t truly boring and didn’t ruin the effect of the rest of the book, one could see boredom looming in the horizon with individual plotlines made far too long. Additionally, ins ome places it seemed to switch too abruptly between POV characters, causing confusion before I went back and realised what had happened exactly.

So, is ‘The Magician’s Guild’ worth a read? I’d say so, particularly if one is a fan of this particular type of plot and wants something which will be an easy and captivating read. It is interesting and proves to be an enjoyable book from start to finish. However, it is far from a masterpiece, and has some elements and faults in it which don’t make it too memorable in comparison to the best or other books of the genre. You won’t regret reading it, but don’t expect a new Tolkien.

The story begins with our protagonist, Sonea, heading back to the slums, her family having been run out of their current home, the place where they'd finally gotten a leg up on life and found decent housing inside the city. While trekking through the mean streets in search of a new place for the family to live, Sonea overhears the guards talking about a trap, and not wanting her old street friends to get caught, she goes to warn them. In doing so she puts herself on the front lines of the yearly slum purge conducted by the magicians.

Furious at the injustice of it all, Sonea joins the other dwells, those who dwell in the slums, and throws rocks at the magicians. The magicians are behind a barrier and none of the missiles being launched are having any effect. That infuriates Sonea as well, and then as if by, well, magic, the rock she throws goes through the barrier and takes down a wizard.

Sonea is stunned. She doesn't understand what happened, why her rock got through the barrier. She's not a magician. There are no magicians that come from the lower classes. The magicians are stunned too and she's been noticed. As one of the magicians points at her, several magicians incinerate a boy standing next to her. Sonea runs, returning to the streets below the slums, and her old friends, for safety as the Magicians Guild searches for her.

What to say about this book. I floated between a two and a three on this. I don't think the book was supposed to be YA, but it read like one. The story only holds together if you don't look too deep. If you are young and new to fantasy, you might find yourself liking this story. If you’ve spent the last forty years reading like I have, this story hasn’t a tremendous amount to recommend it. I settled on a two for my purposes.

The world build is inconsistent, as is Sonea’s character. There’s a strong magic practice in this story that sets itself up to be a power to be controlled and heavily monitored. It’s known to be inherited and yet the idea that a girl from the slums exhibits the power is seen as an oddity. The dwellers of the slums aren’t tested for power even though it’s known that the magicians seek out female company there and that the people of this particular country ‘breed’ more magicians than any other.

There’s a yearly purge of the slums by the magicians to keep population numbers under control and run out bad elements, but there’s no rhyme or reason, people are just herded, and herded where? There’s an insinuation that the people are being killed, but the author dances around this. That dance becomes furious once Sonea ends up at the guild and the magicians begin convincing her to join them.

Sonea hides from the guild with the thieves, the same thieves who are also hiding a rogue magician. Do they take her to him immediately for help to train her to control her growing power? No. And by the time they do take her, she’s becomes dangerous, too dangerous for him to be of any help. He doesn’t explain anything to her. I don’t know why he was even mentioned.

It becomes obvious that being on the run was nothing but a big contrivance that never had a chance of succeeding. Even one of the magicians says later that the thieves turned Sonea in to them. Magic is a known quantity in this world. The thieves knew what would be required to keep Sonea in the beginning and didn’t do it. I don’t buy the rogue magician not being able to train her and it doesn’t match what happened when Sonea did get to the guild.

Once she gets to the guild, she still doesn’t know control and she’s now with the very people who have once a year killed off dwells in the slums, but without training, she is suddenly calm enough that random, dangerous outbursts of magic stop occurring. Contrary to what the rogue magician said, power doesn’t factor in when it comes to mentoring or training on the part of the trainer. After hating magicians for a lifetime, a short lifetime but still - in a matter of weeks they convince her they’re good and she joins up.

There was a real potential in this story for the class, gender, and power divisions to really be strong themes that told a dramatic tale, and the author shied away from them and instead gave us a lot of little conflicts that didn’t add up. I would give other books by Canavan a try, but not this trilogy.

I really enjoyed this story! I'm getting back into reading after a reading slump of about two months and since I love fantasy, this book was a good way to get back into it.

Normally, I don't tend to like stories with a slower pace but there are of course exceptions; Like Written in Red by Anne Bishop and now also The Magicians' Guild. The reason I say it was slower was due to the first half of the book being a huge hide-and-seek game. It was really amusing to see it unfold though.

I love the characters! I adore Cery, who would do anything to help Sonea. I like Sonea, the main character, too obviously. She's strong and although she makes the wrong decisions sometimes, she could admit to having made a mistake. And then there are Rothen and Dannyl. I absolutely love them. They were funny, caring and accepting.

I will definitely check out the next book!

The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan - 4/5 stars

The Magician’s Guild is the first book in the Black Magician trilogy. It’s about Sonea, a young girl who feels angry at magicians and how they have made life difficult for the lower-class dwells. She sees other people casting stones at them, only for the stones to bounce back from the magical barrier. She picks up a stone and casts it with the full force of her anger ... and it breaks through, colliding with a magician’s head and sending him to the ground unconscious.

From that moment onward there is a manhunt through slums to find this girl with latent magical ability. I liked the idea of the guild hunting through the twisted and dirty slums to capture somebody. The portrayal of Magicians as elitist, robed, and predominantly male enforcers of society made them appear untouchable and terrifying. I must say that although I was interested in the magicians, I didn’t connect well with Sonea, her friends, or even have much of an interest in the thieves. The storyline was reasonably interesting until about half way through when...

It became incredibly exciting! I really liked the magicians Rothen and Dannyl. Their banter kept the story alive before, but Rothen’s knowledge of the Guild and his mission to make the reader see it as a force for good as much as evil was very interesting, and I became engrossed in the character interaction. Could it have been better? I thought the prose was very careful throughout, perhaps if there were more risky events or happenstances that leaped out then it would have put it a few notches higher in my estimation. Furthermore the truth about the High Lord seemed obvious much earlier to me. However, having said that, the conclusion was a proper conclusion, and the story was consistently well-structured.

Overall, if you like serious stories about magicians, interesting characters, and an exciting plot then I recommend this. Reading the second book is not out of the question for me!

Magician's Guild follows the adventures of Sonea, a young slum dweller who discovers she is a magician. Angered by the annual purging of the slums where she lives, she throws a rock at the magician's magical shield and manages to break it. This sets the magicians on Sonea's trail as they wish to locate the untrained mage before she destroys the city.

Magician's Guild is a fairly decent fantasy read. Sonea is realistically characterised as a mistrusting slum dweller and we get a look at the magician's who are trying to find her. We spend a good deal of the book, watching Sonea hide from the mage's and more time watching the mage's talk about her. That may sound like a criticism, but it's not really. We get to spend time with these characters, we understand their motivations and dreams.

The world building is very good; not quite on the level of Robin Hobb, but at least I don't feel the persistent need to strangle the main character, even if she is slightly annoying and a little passive at times. I do want to find out more about her and her future. Not particularly sold on the budding romance, but there's two more books to go.

Will certainly be reading the rest of the series.

The Magicians' Guild will not take your breath away like some of the other fantasy series out there but it is definitely worth a shot. The book did not take long in terms of growing on me though it does feel like it is targeted at teens. The story moves at a blistering pace and is based on the life of Sonea, a girl with magical powers who does not know that she has them. She realizes that she can perform magic at a very inappropriate moment and heads back to the slums where her closest allies dwell. The story picks up from there as the magicians of the Guild start hunting for this talented stranger.

The plot: It is exciting, fast paced but extremely simple. There is very little politics and the number of characters leaves nothing to the reader's imagination. You know who the bad guy is from the very start. Even then, it does not stop you from reading on.

The characters: I would have to say that the characters are probably the best part of this book. Rothen really leaves an impression on the reader and comes across as a kind person. Similarly some of the support characters are also woven very well.

The writing style: I am uncertain what to say about the writing style. It is good enough and I read the book fairly quickly. It is, like the plot, very simple but not necessarily the kind that makes you sit at the edge of your sofa forgetting about the coffee. The language is very simple and you do get the feeling that unlike other fantasies, this is specifically targeted to the teenage community.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I will be starting the second book today (which is when I finished this). I would recommend this as a nice book to anyone who likes fantasy. It does not have the rich details that Robin Hobb, Tolkien or GRR Martin can generate but it is definitely something very readable.

Good start to the series with an interesting set of characters that I look forward to reading more about. While some reviewers found the start of the story to be a little slow I feel that the background provides a crucial understanding of how deep a divide exists between the wealthy inner city people are the dwells. To be provided with the opportunity to gain a life of previously unimaginable wealth and power. But at the cost of turning into something that you and everyone you love has hated and feared your entire life.

I feel almost guilty for enjoying this book. Its obvious fluff. There was no suspense. The characters had the depth of a puddle. The chase went on for far longer than it needed to. Yet, despite these problems and more, I enjoyed reading this book. It was charming in its concern that people be judged as individuals, in its almost complete lack of violence despite the rough world that it portrays, and in the way that even the villain of the story shows compassion by healing the hostage he's taken. The city was well-developed in its class system, with a history behind it and a world outside its walls, all of which influence the events that unfold inside. The instigating event itself - Sonea's manifestation of magic - hooked me securely enough to get through some of the slow sections that followed.

There were a few serious problems that need to be addressed, even though it is a fluff book. The chase for Sonea goes on for nearly half the book, which is far too long. After the characters and their relationships were established but before Sonea starts to lose control over her powers is a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be there and I nearly dropped the book at that point. I knew the magicians were mainly good and just wanted to help, and watching them come close to finding her only for her to escape again and again became frustrating. Later, when Sonea does start loosing control we don't actually see it, we are told of it happening 'off-stage,' which is also frustrating because it would have livened up the story a bit at a point when it was dragging heavily.

Another important problem concerns a scene that should have packed a huge punch emotionally, but instead fell flat. Sonea has a male friend, Cery, who has a crush on her, and he makes a grave choice for himself out of love for her, one that involves a personal point-of-no-return. The author never returns to this choice to reflect on how it changes him, or what consequences it has for him as a person. Does he feel guilty? Does he second-guess his choice? Does his choice get him what he wants? By never returning to explore the after-effects, the author almost makes the choice seem trivial. Throughout the book most of the characters don't make decisions, as Cery did in this scene. They tend to allow things to happen to them, especially Sonea, who is passive and lets everyone around her do the thinking for her. Cery, as a result of his choice, had an opportunity to develop into a more complex character. However, when the author ignores his big scene as though it never happened, the result is the opposite: he flattens out even further than before.

Despite the problems I outlined above, it is likely that I will read the rest of the books in this trilogy. Its light, its fluffy, and except for the occasional disturbing Cery scene, it won't weigh me down with dark thoughts after I'm done with it. When it comes to entertainment, that's as much as I ask for.

The book's blurb was really well done, mostly the reason why I thought I'd read the whole trilogy, but after 200 pages into the book (about a halfway in) I realized nothing new or engaging has been happening for a while. These 200 pages could fit in 70-100, but the author preferred to keep me waiting for something miraculous and worth reading to happen. I hoped in vain.

I've been really put off by quite a large number of typos. Not sure who edited the book, but they did a bad job. In fact, it's the first published book to contain SO many mistakes!

I give The Magicians' Guild 3 stars for the blurb, the beginning, which was promising, and the ending, which was not bad. I'm afraid I'm not going to keep reading this series.

This is an extremely quick, very well written, nicely paced, character driven, little gem of a novel that approaches Magic and Class in a captivating way. My husband and I read this every night before bed and we both were sucked in immediately and spit out happily at the end (which was sans cliffhanger thankfully) dying to dive into book #2 straight away. This is a great setup for what appears to be an excellent trilogy.

I am moderately satisfied with the series, though not with the first book.

What I think about each of the three books:

1) "The Magician's Guild": almost half of the book is spent relating the tentatives of Sonea, supported by a friend and the Thieves, to conceal herself from the Guild magicians: I think it is a waste of time and energy, because every reader undestands since a few pages that she's going to be captured and instructed from the Guild (it is impossible not to undestand it: the story is related also from some "good" magicians point of view an it would be of no use describing and introducing us with these magicians if they weren't going to be important characters in the rest of the book). Some thirty pages or so would have been enough to introduce us with the slums and the Thieves and a couple of characters coming through the whole series. Instead, one is just tempted to skip useless pages in order to go to the key events.

2) "The Novice": quite interesting the developing of Sonea's magical capabilities, satisfying the plot about her acceptance into the Guild. First flaw: unfortunately it is not concluded in itself, and it is absolutely necessary to read the third book.
Second flaw: the events taking place in here, however pleasant and enjoyable, aren't necessary to the following book, they are quite stand-alone.

3) "The High Lord": since now, the most appealing of the three books, a nice, well-paced plot (even if the Guild acts as a pretty stupid organism, blind fearful and dull-minded).

As a conclusion: I would give 1 star to the first book, and three stars to the other two.
The average would be less than two stars and a half, but I'm willing to give it three stars as a global evaluation because the story has quite a grip on the reader and, despite the series is far from perfect and the characters are sometimes a bit commonplace, one finds himself pleasurably driven forward.

But please, someone must explain me a couple of things:

<SPOILER>
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1) why Akkarin during the final combat doesn't want to use the magic stored into the arched vault (I don't remember the name of the building)?? they were gathering magical energy form everyone and everything, why not that? that would have made the difference and everything would have ended differently. it seems to me very very stupid, when the destiny of your land depends on you, that you don't take advantage of every possibility, since the vault could eventually be restored in a second time.
2) the Sachakan woman: why doesn't she take part in the fight, but, more important, what was she? what was she doing there? yes, she was keeping an eye on the situatuion, but for whom did she act? in the end the author doesn't explain her role at all

</SPOILER>

I feel almost guilty for enjoying this book. Its obvious fluff. There was no suspense. The characters had the depth of a puddle. The chase went on for far longer than it needed to. Yet, despite these problems and more, I enjoyed reading this book. It was charming in its concern that people be judged as individuals, in its almost complete lack of violence despite the rough world that it portrays, and in the way that even the villain of the story shows compassion by healing the hostage he's taken. The city was well-developed in its class system, with a history behind it and a world outside its walls, all of which influence the events that unfold inside. The instigating event itself - Sonea's manifestation of magic - hooked me securely enough to get through some of the slow sections that followed.

There were a few serious problems that need to be addressed, even though it is a fluff book. The chase for Sonea goes on for nearly half the book, which is far too long. After the characters and their relationships were established but before Sonea starts to lose control over her powers is a lot of stuff that doesn't need to be there and I nearly dropped the book at that point. I knew the magicians were mainly good and just wanted to help, and watching them come close to finding her only for her to escape again and again became frustrating. Later, when Sonea does start loosing control we don't actually see it, we are told of it happening 'off-stage,' which is also frustrating because it would have livened up the story a bit at a point when it was dragging heavily.

Another important problem concerns a scene that should have packed a huge punch emotionally, but instead fell flat. Sonea has a male friend, Cery, who has a crush on her, and he makes a grave choice for himself out of love for her, one that involves a personal point-of-no-return. The author never returns to this choice to reflect on how it changes him, or what consequences it has for him as a person. Does he feel guilty? Does he second-guess his choice? Does his choice get him what he wants? By never returning to explore the after-effects, the author almost makes the choice seem trivial. Throughout the book most of the characters don't make decisions, as Cery did in this scene. They tend to allow things to happen to them, especially Sonea, who is passive and lets everyone around her do the thinking for her. Cery, as a result of his choice, had an opportunity to develop into a more complex character. However, when the author ignores his big scene as though it never happened, the result is the opposite: he flattens out even further than before.

Despite the problems I outlined above, it is likely that I will read the rest of the books in this trilogy. Its light, its fluffy, and except for the occasional disturbing Cery scene, it won't weigh me down with dark thoughts after I'm done with it. When it comes to entertainment, that's as much as I ask for.

The book's blurb was really well done, mostly the reason why I thought I'd read the whole trilogy, but after 200 pages into the book (about a halfway in) I realized nothing new or engaging has been happening for a while. These 200 pages could fit in 70-100, but the author preferred to keep me waiting for something miraculous and worth reading to happen. I hoped in vain.

I've been really put off by quite a large number of typos. Not sure who edited the book, but they did a bad job. In fact, it's the first published book to contain SO many mistakes!

I give The Magicians' Guild 3 stars for the blurb, the beginning, which was promising, and the ending, which was not bad. I'm afraid I'm not going to keep reading this series.

This is an extremely quick, very well written, nicely paced, character driven, little gem of a novel that approaches Magic and Class in a captivating way. My husband and I read this every night before bed and we both were sucked in immediately and spit out happily at the end (which was sans cliffhanger thankfully) dying to dive into book #2 straight away. This is a great setup for what appears to be an excellent trilogy.

I am moderately satisfied with the series, though not with the first book.

What I think about each of the three books:

1) "The Magician's Guild": almost half of the book is spent relating the tentatives of Sonea, supported by a friend and the Thieves, to conceal herself from the Guild magicians: I think it is a waste of time and energy, because every reader undestands since a few pages that she's going to be captured and instructed from the Guild (it is impossible not to undestand it: the story is related also from some "good" magicians point of view an it would be of no use describing and introducing us with these magicians if they weren't going to be important characters in the rest of the book). Some thirty pages or so would have been enough to introduce us with the slums and the Thieves and a couple of characters coming through the whole series. Instead, one is just tempted to skip useless pages in order to go to the key events.

2) "The Novice": quite interesting the developing of Sonea's magical capabilities, satisfying the plot about her acceptance into the Guild. First flaw: unfortunately it is not concluded in itself, and it is absolutely necessary to read the third book.
Second flaw: the events taking place in here, however pleasant and enjoyable, aren't necessary to the following book, they are quite stand-alone.

3) "The High Lord": since now, the most appealing of the three books, a nice, well-paced plot (even if the Guild acts as a pretty stupid organism, blind fearful and dull-minded).

As a conclusion: I would give 1 star to the first book, and three stars to the other two.
The average would be less than two stars and a half, but I'm willing to give it three stars as a global evaluation because the story has quite a grip on the reader and, despite the series is far from perfect and the characters are sometimes a bit commonplace, one finds himself pleasurably driven forward.

But please, someone must explain me a couple of things:

<SPOILER>
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1) why Akkarin during the final combat doesn't want to use the magic stored into the arched vault (I don't remember the name of the building)?? they were gathering magical energy form everyone and everything, why not that? that would have made the difference and everything would have ended differently. it seems to me very very stupid, when the destiny of your land depends on you, that you don't take advantage of every possibility, since the vault could eventually be restored in a second time.
2) the Sachakan woman: why doesn't she take part in the fight, but, more important, what was she? what was she doing there? yes, she was keeping an eye on the situatuion, but for whom did she act? in the end the author doesn't explain her role at all

</SPOILER>

I agree with the opinion of other reviewers that "The Magician's Guild" lacks enough material to make for a book (and the rest of the story is not enough to make a trilogy). This work is, and reads like, a first-time novel for a debuting author. Canavan has restricted herself to staying within the generally accepted and widely used boundaries of fantasy work: medievalism, magicians and thieves.

The story is a coming-of-age of Sonea, a slum girl who accidentally unleashes her magical powers when she and a group of friends try to obstruct the work of the Magician's Guild who are purging all the poor from the city. They throw rocks that bounce off the invisible barrier held up by the magicians. Except that Sonea's rock gets through when she wills it to, and strikes the temple of Lord Fergun.

Mass confusion ensues among the magicians, and they end up accidentally killing a boy standing near Sonea. Sonea herself is confused by what's happened to her. She runs and hides from the magicians who have identified her magical potential. The problem is, the longer she hides, the less controllable her magic becomes and the more destruction she creates to those around her. Even the Thieves are unable to protect her. Inevitably, Sonea ends up at the Magician's Guild.

The book tells the tale of how Sonea ends up at the Guild, and her apprenticeship. The plot focuses around the High Lord (the one that rules the Guild), whom Sonea accidentally observes practicing black magic. She and a few others who know about this, lie in wait but know that eventually they must do something about the High Lord. Meanwhile, Sonea is often troubled by Regis, a school bully, since she is the only slum girl in a school full of upper class students.

The details of Sonea's tough existence, frankly, are boring. This book comes in two parts, but in my opinion, they needed to be edited down to a quarter of a book. Books two and three could have formed the rest of the book. As one piece, the work would have been snazzy, snappy and sweet. As a trilogy, it is drawn out and somewhat stilted, suffering from too much information of banal aspects of the characters' lives that are of no interest to the reader.

However, it does have its merits. This book might interest some younger readers or those whose interest in fantasy are exclusively to magic. Once into the story, it becomes easier to ignore the glaring rawness of the writing. Happily, Canavan obviously becomes more comfortable with her characters, and the second and third book flow more easily than this one, although trite details still poke through excessively. The story, nevertheless, becomes more interesting, and because of this, it deserves three starts.

Trudi Canavan's first novel, The Magician's Guild, was a breath of fresh air. Not unexpectedly as it is coming from a first time author, it was simple in its plot, modest in its aims, precise in its characterisation and kept tidily to those unofficial lines drawn by the fantasy authors in the eighties that are the hallmark of a quality fantasy novel. I have no doubt as the trilogy progresses and more comes from the pen of this author that they style and scope of her novels will broaden markedly as the confidence grows. For now, this is a good opener and promises a new talent on the fantasy stage.

The plot is simple and like all good fantasy openers concerns itself with the coming of age of a street urchin - one Sonea - who's participation in what seems to be a teenage exuberant rock throwing session at the bad magicians, quickly reveals a burgeoning talent for magic (though we are never given a reason for its appearance). Class division has given way to deep mistrust and we find ourselves in true Krondor fashion (though not yet up to the levels of Feist's penmanship) in the underworld of the Thieves as Sonea and her protector Cerys spend Part One trying to avoid the magicians who are trying to capture her for benign reasons. The magicians, represented one the one side in the novel by the kindly Rothen and his ex-pupil, Dannyl, and on the other by the overbearing Fergun (the recipient of the stone that broke the magic field in the opening pages) eventually capture Sonea before her wild magic destroys both her and most of the city.

What follows is a phase of teaching allowing Canavan to open the world of the Guild to the reader and develop more fully these characters. The `evil' Fergun imprisons Cery in order to force Sonea to join the Guild and carry out some unknown task but is thwarted as the High Lord Akkarin emerges to save the day. By then end Sonea is apprenticed to the Guild under Rothen's kindly tutelage and a far deeper secret and danger is revealed that leads us neatly in to the next novel.

This is a fine effort from Canavan, neat and tidy in all aspects and possessing that necessary gripping edge that drives the reader onwards to see if Sonea can come of age before she moves into the wider world that magic inevitably has to offer her. I look forward to the next installment

The Dark Magician Trilogy is a wonderfully told tale of a young street urchin, Sonea, who in a pall of anger at the treatment received by the Guild's Magicians, suddenly learns that her burgeoning powers are much stronger than those of the magicians'. The Guild, rulers of the city and surrounding burroughs, are equally surprised, for never before has a slum-dweller been found to hold such power. The search begins for Sonea, through the streets and underground of the slums, for it is forbidden for anyone to have powers without the Guild's permission and training.

The Dark Magician Trilogy, is a cozy, well-told story with just enough tension to keep you reading, but with none of the annoying pomp and circumstance that some series fall prey to. Highly recommended read!

The Magicians' Guild introduces us to a pantheon of fun characters and a wonderfully developed backdrop. Being an avid reader of fantasy, I was especially glad to see a good plot develop through this trilogy as well. It's been a long time since a new work came out that had all the major elements(plot, character, background and dialogue) nailed down in a well written fashion.

This series would be just about perfect if the there was a pronunciation guide for the character names. Sonea and Ceryni, two of the first characters you get to meet have names that could be pronounced any number of ways. It's a real drag to find out after several years that you've been pronouncing your favorite character's name incorrectly. Might be easier if I were Australian(like the author).

That aside, Kyralia and Imardin are wonderfully deep in detail. After you've read the books through once, you almost don't need the maps that are provided. The characters, while stronger than most of the others, are not perfect or constantly rescued in some improbable or unimaginable way. Lastly, the magic system isn't overly hard to grasp. This makes it easier to get lost in the story without getting bogged down in the mechanics like so many other books lately.

I highly recommend this book and the rest of the trilogy.

The first few chapters, where Sonea discovered her magic and the Guild discovered her, were interested. After that, the book went downhiil quickly.

Almost the entire first half of the book involves Sonea hiding from the Guild, being discovered, running, and hiding again. Occasionally the reader gets a glimpse of the Magicians discussing her, which is interesting, but then the book goes back to endless hide-run-hide.

I almost gave up in disgust, but hate not finishing a book. Once Sonea is found by the Guild, the book picks up considerably. There are still several places where it drones on, however. It never got to the point of flipping pages, looking for when the action picked up again, but it got close a few times.

Trudi Canavan does an excellent job packing the magician's guild with style and pacing. Her prose is simple, to the point yet elegant. She makes the reader care about what happens & manages to keep events flowing & reveals information at just the right rate to keep one turning pages. However, I found the plot itself extremely weak. This mystified me a bit, because I'm used to fantasy debuts being the author's 'big idea' about a new fantasy world & watching them improve their wordsmithing with each successive novel ... as well as adding layer after layer of depth to the setting.

The world created in this series doesn't seem able to carry a significant level of depth. The story is far more wrapped up in the issues of the main character than transporting one to a different place. Besides the heroine, characters feel flat & stereotyped. Not much stands out as different from other fantasy worlds: different names for animals & a few quirks with magic.

Yet, Trudi Canavan's skill with words still makes it an intriguing story that you will want to finish. I'm reading the rest of the series, though I don't hold out that much hope the world-building & plotting will suddenly improve. Given her great talent for prose, I hope she will take on a second world at some point & make it far more detailed & less predictable.

The Magician's guild is good for people who really love fantasy. i'm not the biggest fan myself, but it could have been written better. the plot just wasn't something too get attached to. More than half of the book was dominated by the magicians' search for Sonea. The book wasn't written that well, either; it wasn't captivating and a page turner. the level of detail was good, though. i would read the second book in the series, The Novice, but with a little reluctance, and partly because i hate leaving series unfinished. but also because i am intrigued enough with the plot and with what will happen next in the story that i would like to read on. the second book also looks a lot better than the first and seems like a book that i could get into. but i guess we'll wait and see!

When Sonea learns that she has magic even though she's not supposed to, everything she knows changes. She has to go live with the Magicians' Guild, where she's trained by the same people she hates. In the end, she learns to look beyond their exteriors and to accept herself as a mage.

I really loved this book. I'd read it again in a second. I liked Sonea's strong personality, and her attempts to master her magic. I also really liked her magician friends. The fantasy world was really fun and interesting. Trudi Canavan is a great writer.

Haven't read anything from this author before and let's face it, "The Magicians' Guild" doesn't exactly reek of originality as far as concept. Indeed, most, if not all, of the concepts, ideas, and plotlines of this story are not original, and yet I found myself enjoying this book!

We've all heard the story of the magician whose powers are growing out of control and who will suffer some terrible fate if he (she in this book's case) doesn't get proper training. That's been used in many a tale before. Same thing with Magicians' Guilds, Thieves Guilds, Colleges/Schools of Magic (Hogwarts anyone?), and magician romance sub plots. Throw in the fabled good magician-who turns out bad-who turns out good-who turns out...where does this end again? plot device and we have a mixture of many a well worn theme. Yet I found myself enjoying this book!

I can only guess that Ms. Canavan has a knack for storytelling and character development that kept me turning those pages. This is certainly not fantasy that is strikingly original or complex. I am tempted to give it only two stars but I must give it three as I believe it is a good read and worth the money. Go ahead and give it a chance-it should keep you entertained.

It's not too terrible towards the beginning of the book. Teenage girl who discovers she has untapped powers and has to fight the Powers That Be? Okay, I got nothing else on my plate today. I can live with the poor pacing and some bland characters. Faren, the Thieves Guild leader, sounds kind of sexy. But you know, when the characters start acting stupid just to fit the already predictable plot, *sigh*, I can't help but get a little angry. I'm not afraid to say I put this book down forty pages before the end because it was getting so dumb.

For example, it was established that magicians can speak mind-to-mind and they can not lie while they are doing it. The antagonist attempts to trick Sonea into siding with him. Sonea does not trust him, but she conveniently forgets she has been taught this useful telepathy trick.

Another example, it's established that the magicians can track Sonea's magic and pinpoint her location. Once the antagonist reveals himself (and that was pretty ridiculous in and of itself) he admits that he has kidnapped Sonea's bland sidekick and has locked him in a secret dungeon. So he can you know, blackmail her. He then stupidly agrees to prove it by taking her to the secret dungeon and leaving her alone with the guy. She of course, can't tell anybody about this because she was blindfolded and it could be days before anybody finds sidekick. Never mind the whole telepathy/magic thing because that would ruin the plot damn it!

It's surprising that a by-the-numbers plot can be this shaky. It wouldn't have been a great book even if these stupid logic errors had been dealt with, but I could have at least made it through the book without them.

what is with all the negative reviews. Yes this book follows some fairly cookie cutter fantasy magician guidelines. You know what so do 90%+ of all the other fantasy books out there. I would not judge a book solely on that.

The first book starts off ok but takes a while to really get you in. Once I was engrossed I read the other two books in three days. They hit a climax and stayed there throughout the whole book. The books do not slow down for 100 pages while filling you in with lots of un-needed background information, future plot set-up, and side plots like a few certain "big names" in fantasy have been doing.

I found the books well written and extremely entertaining, the characters pulled you in and made you wonder what was going to happen next. If you love fantasy and are not one of the closed minded people who think unless a book is as complex as something l;ike Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series you will enjoy this series.

The characters were likeable, but a bit underdeveloped for my liking - I hope the second book will give them a bit more depth, and introduce some type of love interest to make the protagonists more realistic.

Whoever designed this series' covers should get fired! Because of the covers, I kept putting reading this series off. They are really, REALLY ugly.

One of my high school students absolutely insisted that I read this book, so after some feeble attempts at making excuses, I agreed to do it. Because I didn't want to disappoint the boy, I finished the whole book, but if I hadn't promised to read it, I would have put it down about halfway through. The plot is trite and predictable, but it takes the author forever to get to the predicted point. (If you're going to write a trilogy, I guess you need a lot of filler.) The pacing was horribly uneven, the characters are annoying, and the "Kyralian" and "Elyne" words for things we don't have in our world are just plain silly. There is a glossary in the back of the book if you can't figure out from context what "bol" and "sumi" are. The magicians don't seem able to DO anything with their magic except create force-fields and communicate telepathically with each other. Perhaps this book is really an allegory about classism and talent in a stratified society, or maybe it's just another sophomoric, second-rate fantasy novel. Don't waste your time with it. Reread Tolkien.

This book is not getting the credit it deserves and many of the reviews are unfair. I picked this up and didn't stop reading but for food and sleep until I finished all three books.

Pointing out that this book uses devices found in other books is not a valid criticism. All stories use devices found in other stories. What matters is not the materials used but the end result. Put another way: don't criticize a log cabin for being made of logs; criticize it for looking like the log cabin down the street.

Now the first book does have a certain amount of predictability not found in the sequels due to the point of view shift; however, there is still plenty of room for the author to surprise an experienced reader without the spoilers in another review.

The books are pretty scarce with foul language, but the plot begins with violence and death then retains an ongoing threat of violence that made Sonea seem like a mouse eating cheese off a mousetrap always waiting for the trap to snap. However things might appear, nearly every good thing that happens to her ends up being bad.

The only thing that bothered me with this series was the POV shift. It all works out in the end and story does require them, I just prefer fewer perspectives in a book. This book read fast, but I was biting my nails the whole way though, I was always expecting the hammer to fall. This book makes a good platform for the sequels.

For centuries, only rich people have been allowed to become mages. First, the applicant must swear allegence to the Guild. Then the Guild Mages trigger the applicant's dormant magical powers.

"The Magicians' Guild" follows the struggles of girl born to poverty who develops a strong magical talent without assistance -- right in front of a hostile group of Guild mages. The plot focuses on the young girl's efforts to avoid the Guild; and the Guild's internal conflicts surrounding this unique event. The more usual learning of magic plotline is rather subdued.

So much for the plot, now for the writing style. The point of view changes between a thief, the young girl, and two Guild mages. If you love melodrama, you will adore this book -- emotive overreactions, and vilifiying everyone with whom you disagree -- think Robin D. Owens or Mercedes Lackeys. There is a rather heavy handed author's message maligning "the rich" which got old fast. Also, the middle of the book drags a bit. My two-star rating is heavily influenced by not liking any these elements of style.

"The Magicians' Guild" tells an entertaining tale, suitable for light entertainment.

I was looking for a new fantasy/wizards/magicians book, and I usually shoot for ones that look "Epic". If they look like they're part of a trilogy, they probably have alot of complexity, storybuilding, and grand design. People struggle to get 1 book written, so authors must be pretty good to get a whole trilogy (or more) written, right? That's what I thought. I was wrong.

This one was just plain boring and juvenile. So many of the things that happened had me thinking: "Huh?" Why would they do that? It honestly read like it was written by a high-school student for a junior-high audience. Sorry. I know that's mean. I just couldn't "get" why people were doing the things they were. Had the writing been engaging or the story been original, maybe it could have been something. Maybe the rest of the series picks up... maybe the trilogy is better... I won't be finding out though.

There's SO many other good stories in this genre than this. I would keep searching. Some of my favorites so far: Assassin's Apprentice, Magician, Mistborn, The Blade Itself, and Name of the Wind.

This entire novel felt like a VERY long introduction to a series of books, which I am supposed to believe will be more interesting. Not much happened until the end of the story. I couldn't decide if I liked any of the main characters, who all seemed a little morally ambiguous (Are the Thieves good or bad?, Do we like the Magicians Guild or not? Do we like anyone?). The end of the book was fine and followed a common fantasy formula. Clearly not in the same category as David Eddings or Raymond Feist, but an acceptable read.

i applaud ms canavan. her work is WONDERFUL! i love these books they are fast passed, people and plot are well developed. i simply couldn't put it down.sonea has to go through much before she gets to the guild but you see her courage and determination to not give in or give up no matter the circumstances and chances she must take-a true heroine.

it all starts and goes down hill from when she throws a stone at a magician during the annual purge, just imagine her suprize (not to mention that her friends as well)when it goes through the sheild and hits a magician and nocks him unconcious.sonea goes into hidding b/c she thinks they want to kill her for hitting a magician and using magic. she has been taught to hate and fear magicians so when they send her a note saying all they really want to do is to help her learn control of her magic before she dies from all the magic that she can unleash not to mention all the others she could kill as well she doesn't beleive them and thinks it is a trick to lure her out so they can kill her but after she almost dies from the uncontrolled magic in her and has destroyed countless buildings from fire and other such things caused by magic. she sees what the magic can do and she decides to take her chances that they won't kill her but teach her control. she goes to the guild determined to leave as soon as they teach it to her but all that changes when...

I kept waiting for the story to get interesting but nothing happened. Basically keeps the same tempo through out the novel.

The storyline is very basic. It is told in a total linear fashion following just one story thread. Trudi poses no serious dilemmas to her characters. Everything is soft balled. For instance, Cerny is faced with having to kill a target for the thieves. At first it seems like a real moral choice. Trudi then immediately paints the target as such a villainous scoundrel that the choice becomes a vanilla trivial one.

I felt robbed on so many levels after reading this book.

I really liked this book. While I agree with some of what other reviewers noted about the predictability of the plot and the "fantasy staples" included in this book, I loved the characters and wanted to see what happened to them next. I don't have time to read as much as I would like (although I have an audio book going in the car at all times), but I read this book in one weekend. I had picked The Magician's Guild up at the bookstore on a whim, but have ordered the next two in the trilogy and can't wait for them to arrive.

Perhaps the storyline is a little juvenile as one reviewer noted, but I must be a child at heart, as I can't wait to read the next in the series.

The underdog gives it to the powers that be.
Sonea tries to stay out of trouble, yes she has some friends on the shady side, but she has stayed clear of them for awhile. Then comes the purge, where the poor are cast out of the inner city, if that wasn't bad enough, an arrogant magician makes a snide comment about her and her friends, her people...well usually rocks don't make it through the magician's shield, but what if one did? what if that rock hit the arrogant sob magician in the head?
Although this story is part of a trilogy its a good read on its own, but if you are like me you will want to own all three before begining, as waiting feverishly for the next book can be torture.
I am a lover of good fantasy stories and this trilogy is one of them.

I read this and immediately downloaded book 2 and book 3 of the Trilogy. Maybe I haven't read enough of the genre to be cynical, but this book was a real page turner for me, with delightful characterization, and good plot development. The lack of adult themes enables this book to be enjoyed by all ages.

This is not a book for adult readers. The characters all seemed flat. They all used the same simple vocabularies and simple sentence structures. Their motivations in life were simple and predictable. There are good guys and bad guys. Many real people are more complex than that. The book is 465 pages but probably should have been edited down to 50 to 100.

This book contained a very well crafted world. It was a good book except that I could predict everything that was about to happen. This book was written for young teens, it is not worth it if you are over 18.

This book is great, from start to finish I couldn't put it down. The characters are addictive and the story is fast-paced and a wonderful adventure.

I really enjoyed the two worlds in the story: The dark corners belonging to the theives and the majestic cities of the Magicians guild. It's a wonderful first book in the series, I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy, magic and adventure.

The Magicians Guilds takes some ime to grow on the reader. It starts off slowly and the story is somewhat disjointed until about half way through the book. After that it is simply great - a good tale well told.

The characters are somewhat one-dimensional (the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad :), but there are hints of some more complex development to come in the next two books. I look forward to reading them.

PS: Remember, the other term for "review" is "personal opinion"...