Book 2), The Novice (The Black Magician Trilogy

Keep in mind this is a trilogy, you need to have read Magician's Guild before you read this book.
As the story progresses Sonea joins the upper class boys and girls in the guild to learn how to control and wield her magic. As you can imagine the cultural divide is the main focus of the book. The angst created in this book was delicately done and I found it very moving, annoying yes, but I was supposed to be annoyed.
The magic system that the author has invented starts to become more apparent, it is both original and refreshing, I HIGHLY recommend this series to those who enjoy the Fantasy genre.

The second in the series Sonea's story continues as she begins to learn the finer points of magic.

Akkarin is more featured in this book and despite how 'evil' he is meant to be, you can't help but be curious. This book also sees a brief love interest for Sonea.

I admit the book gets a little wordy with Lord Dannyl's journey and I got a little bored as I couldn't see how it was effecting the story (but trust me - you need to know it)

Overall a great sequel.

I really liked book #1, "The Magicians' Guild". It was somewhat typical of the genre but it moved along fairly well. The book had a few different elements and, I thought, really set the stage for books #2 and #3.
That said, I was very disappointed in "The Novice". I know the middle book of a trilogy tends to be the "worst" -- or at least the slowest -- of the story but this book took this to the limit.
At the end of book #1 we had a slum-girl who seemed pretty powerful magic-wise being convinced to join the Guild, and the High Lord practicing Black Magic in secret. At the end of book #2 we have a slum-girl who is now a novice and is pretty powerful magic-wise, and the High Lord practicing Black Magic mostly in secret. In other words, the plot has not advanced very much.
And the story was riddled with "preaching". I HATE morality books. Half the story was "rich-vs-poor" -- how the poor are not accepted by the wealthy and powerful. Poor Sonea endured continual harassment by the rich novices. It got so bad that I thought for awhile I was reading a "young adult" book about high school. The details of the harassments went on for a huge chunk of the book but it was never made really clear as to WHY they hated Sonea so much -- other than she was from the slums. The other half of the book dealt with Dannyl discovering he was a "lad", i.e. gay. I don't mind stories with gay sub-plots when the story line fits. But in this case it was clear that this was just a forum for gay rights -- how, for instance, in one country this was a crime punishable by death. Dannyl spent most of the book deciding he was gay and the rest of it wondering how it would affect his career. It added absolutely nothing to the plot/story line whatsoever. In fact I started skipping any part about Dannyl about half-way through and didn't miss anything. It just didn't fit in. And it seemed like it was added just for this book since in the 1st book all we knew was that Fergun had started rumors about Dannyl. It said nothing about the rumors being about him being a "lad" until book #2. Obviously added on.
I hope for greater things from book #3 -- why, for instance, does the High Lord practice Black Magic? He says he "can't tell" his reasons right now. Hopefully they'll be good reasons and not lame ones... Anyway, maybe the third book will be more like the first now that the author has spent enough (more than enough) time preaching and moralizing...

I do not know wether it's the author's own bias or not, but the pacifism of all of the main characters is grating. The protagonist resolutely accepts victimization by her peers and superiors, which is presented as a good thing. Of the three main magician professions, all Warriors are described in negative or at best neutral terms - while all Healers are presented as near-saints. I found it an unpleasant read.

The story that focused on the mystery that is the high lord and sonea was great. It was interesting an intriguing. I couldn't put the book down when I was reading these sections. Particularly the sections focusing on Sonea's bullying. It was very realistic, and I wouldn't put Sonea down as being weak. Bullies exist and most teachers will not step in or get involved, even today.

Despite this, Canavan focused way to much on the Dannyl's trip through the other allied lands. As mentioned by other reviewer's, Dannyl is eventually outed in these procedures. That is the not the problems (at least for me) when reading the story. His sections are just dull as dirt and rarely progressed the story. Eventually I began skimming his sections and found the story much more enjoyable, and not confusing at all.

This book was an absolute torture to read. Perhaps that can be considered a pun, because I think you would only enjoy this series if you are a masochist.
Authors always try to get us to emphasize with the central character, but in this series, Trudi Canavan has taken that to an extreme and portrayed Sonea as an absolute loser who has no friends, does not attempt to make friends, who gets picked on by bullies the entire book, and who doesn't have the smarts, guts, or desire to do anything about it. This is added to the 'running away form responsibility' that she does in the first book.
The one or two occasions where she wins a mini-battle or exposes a bully for attacking her or framing her for thievery(which are supposed to be serious crimes), it was because someone else forced her to stand up for herself and told her exactly how, and the bully so exposed isn't punished anymore than a slap on the wrist. I mean, Sonea and her classmates behave as though they were 7 years old, not 17 years old as they should be. Her 'loving' teachers merely alternate between ignoring her plights and acknowledging but not doing much about it. In a lawful world the villain would not only be kicked out of school but also thrown in jail. Instead his worst punishment is ... he has to stop taking lessons from his favorite teacher for a few weeks! Ludicrous to the extreme.
This complete victim mentality is just really frustrating to any reader with a spine or with half a brain.
There are also serious problems with the magic system and with the plot in general. For example, in the final 'climatic' battle between her and her nemesis, the villain is able to break though her shielding twice in a few minutes, even though she is supposed to be immensely stronger than he is. Yet earlier in the book the villain's combined magic from himself and 20 of his friends could only get through occasionally!
I certainly hope that the author has Sonea grow some guts or intelligence in the 3rd book, because otherwise I really don't see the point of any of the character development.

Sonea is now learning the magic arts, and has a sympathetic tutor, in general, but still has to deal with the rich kids, and boys who aren't fans of hers.

That is pretty simple compared to the fact that it seems the head of the whole joint is a dirty filthy human sacrificing black magician, and she is co-opted and cannot tell anyone.

All, however, is not as it seems.

I loved this trilogy, and half-way through it fretted because I knew it was eventually going to end! Its a great story- full of adventure, romance, danger, and magic. Like J.K. Rowling, Trudi Canavan juggles an impressive amount of characters and gives them all believable, enthralling personalities. Caravan is a master of suspense. The book is full of twists and surprises. I wish that I could thank her personally for her work-

Having read the first book, I was not dissapointed with the Novice, although it was slightly reminscent of Harry Potter. It was still a very enjoyable read, and I couldn't put it down. I am looking forward to the third installment.

I am an avid reader of historical fiction so this was a little out of my comfort zone, but I absolutely loved it! The whole series was very well written and I had a hard time putting any of the three down. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in trying something different or is already a fantasy fan.

I've read all three Black Magician Books, and this was probably my favorite. The Novice was a great book, though I agree with many of the other readers that Trudi Canavan made Sonea to placid. It irratated me how she was letting herself be pushed around so much. Still this was great read, and fitting book.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Trudi kept the action moving and kept adding surprise twists to the plot throughout!

The story had many major characters and this reader got emotionaly involved with almost all of them. They were well introduced and their individual stories wove well into a complex and complicated plot. I loved it! When is her next book(S) going to be available? I definately look forward to more excellent writing.

With excellent character development and a thoughtfully constructed world, this novel is a thoroughly engrossing read. Trudi Canavan's writing has only improved from the first book; I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

This is a pretty good sequel.

Sonea is a little bit of a wimp and I am hoping the third book allows her to grow out of that. Overall this is a decent fantasy novel, but I would reccomend reading the first book before tackling this one.

I found the first book in this series entertaining, not great or original, but a decent story to pass the time. As a result, I held no great expectations for this story, however, I was still dissapointed. I have never read a book with an established protagonist and storyline that devoted so much page space to the development of the relationship of sidecharacter and the progression of a marginal subplot. If the author wishes to espouse tolerance of alternative lifestyles, there are other more appropriate pulpits from which to preach. While the overall story still manages to be coherant, it lacks focus and impact.

This book was a little better than the first. However, I did not care much for Lord Dannyl's journey which included him discovering his same sex attaction. Overall, I did not see what his character brought to the story. Aside from that I like much of what was written.

The Novice follows the story of Sonea a poor girl from the slums who has discovered she is a magician. After her pursuit by the guild, she decides to become a student. But her life isn't easy because there are people who resent the fact that someone of her social standing can join the guild. She is constantly harassed by her fellow students. She becomes motivated to excel so that she can move ahead of her fellow classmates and move to another class. Her life changes for the better or perhaps the worst when the High Lord decides to take her guardianship. Her social standing improves but she is still harassed and then there is the secret that she knows about the High Lord. The secret could change the power structure and leadership of the guild. The High Lord would like to keep that from happening and has put pressure on Sonea to ensure that it doesn't. Sonea will just have to find a way to survive.

This is book two of the three part series and is recommended to all that like fantasy.

A masterpiece. No other words fit. This book left me several sleeplness nights out of the sheer intensity in storytelling. I simply could not stop reading! I identify so strongly with Sonea that it was impossible not to get emotionally attached, to a point where every painful moment in the book felt like a physical blow to myself. This is a story that knows no equal - and the thought that i will never experience anything like it again pains me.

The whole trilogy is just ok. Only read this trilogy if you cannot for some reason find buy or borrow any of Mercedes Lackey's Valdimar / Last Herald Mage series.Magic's Pawn (The Last Herald-Mage Series, Book 1)

I loved the book it is an interesting but light reading Sonea's character is ameliorating physically and is an overall interesting charter there is just one thing I really dint like about the book the reason I gave it a 4 star:

The whole Gay rights aspect of the book I hate it when authors start talking about gay people am not contradicting what I just wrote because this is not baseless -it is not an intrinsic trait. It is plain and simply unnatural.

God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. And for you atheists in nature do you see two males "come together" it's not natural. I'm not going to be an extremist and go in the streets to protest it so ok people do perverted things, just don't announce it don't write about it.

And to those who say I'm not being fair its not their fault they feel like that - those feelings are NOT natural these feelings may be brought about by many different things among them can be an extreme reaction to certain situations, a reaction to the way they are raised. Many reasons but don't mistake it for natural!!!

This series was disappointing. I felt the second book could have so much more, instead it repeats itself a lot, lets problems go on and on and on with no resolution, and really felt like I was reading the same paragraph over and over. What started out as a promising story with interesting characters quickly fell flat.