The Magicians' Guild (The Black Magician Trilogy - Book 1)

‘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!

As far as I can tell, "The Magician's Guild" has been published in 3 different English dialects and 15 other languages. That is impressive.

My son and I read the UK version of the "The Magician's Guild". As the reader I worked a bit harder with "The Magician's Guild" than I have on my last few audio-jobs for my son. As the readee, my son seemed pleased with my job.

Sonea is somewhere around the age of 17 when we meet her. Her mom is dead and her dad has run off. Thankfully, she had her sister's mother (Jonea) and Jonea's husband who stepped in to take care of Sonea. They were part of the dwell society and at the point that Sonea's mother died they lived in the slums. In the time since they managed to make their way into the Outer Circle of Imardin. There the three lived and worked out of a one room flat. Things were looking up for them. Then life did what life does and hit them in the face.

Before the threesome had moved behind the walls of the Outer City Sonea was running with one of the gangs (Harrin's gang) and had learned to pick pockets and steal. Several of the kids in Harrin's gang are homeless kids who look upon the gang as their home. One of Sonea's best friends, Cery, is such a kid. His father was killed by the Thieves for breaking trust with them.

Harrin, Cery and Sonea are one half of the equation of "The Magician's Guild". They bring in people to help them, but in essence the story is about them - and especially about Sonea.

The other half, of course, is about the Magician's Guild. They have the food, the wealth, the king's approval and magic. Like most privileged people the magicians are comfortable with status quo and reluctant to share their goods with "less worthy people".

Compared with the rest of the world I am probably somewhere in the top 20% when it comes to privileges (in spite of being a woman). Being a woman lowers me somewhat but this is what I have going for me: I am of Norse blood living in Norway. I have a college degree and am married to a man who has a university degree. He is well-paid. I am not - due to health issues. We live in a country that assures that all of its citizens have free health-care, free education and are assisted if they should fall on hard times. Our home isn't stylish or up-to-date but it is largish and warm during the winter. We always have plenty to eat. In other words, we have lucked out in the lottery of life.

What this means for me, is that I have to make some kind of effort to keep the other 80% in mind. Then I have to make even more of an effort to try to be of constructive assistance. It would be much more comfortable to pretend that the other 80% did not exist and that I had no responsiblity for the lives of other people on this planet of ours. But I know life is all about luck, nothing more. So I don't have a choice.

The Magicians are at the point where they are going to be made aware of the dwells as something more than cockroaches to be stepped on once a year during the Purge. Sonea is the tool to make it so. Discovering that there is one among the dwells whose powers are so strong that these powers have manifested all by themselves is going to change the opinion of some of the Magicians, frighten others and cement the prejudices of the rest.

Good luck, Sonea! You are going to need both it and loads of hard work to even begin to make an imprint in the sceptical attitudes of most of the magicians of the Guild.

[...]

I chose this book based on the blurb, period. It sounded fun(and yes, maybe a little traditional in the sense of plot), but I read the preview and I thought the author's voice was very appealing. After schlepping through quite a number of poorly written, cliche-riddled, miserably-characterized novels, I found The Magician's Guild delightful and refreshing. Descriptive issues like frowning are small foibles that, IMO, do not take away from this book. After all, how many times did Dumbledore's eyes twinkle? It's a fun adventure featuring a young heroine who had more on her plate other than which adorable boy she should chose in order to fulfill her destiny. Sonea is a young, talented Dwell (slum child) who turns out to be gifted with magic. When she's brought to the Guild to learn how to control it, all kinds of havoc ensues. Issues like bullying, prejudice, and integrity are addressed. I like the setting very much. I believe that the author did a solid job bringing the world forward for the reader to see. I am just finishing the next book (The Novice) and will write a review on it as well when I'm finished. :)

I think this author deserves five stars for introducing a female character that is a healthy mix of adolescent angst and pre-heroine growing pains.

Law

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.

I'd read The Magicians' Guild and the other two in the trilogy several years ago, but when I picked up The Magician's Apprentice and The Ambassador's Mission for Christmas, in addition to still having to read the conclusion of the unrelated series of Age of the Five, I decided I'd do a full Canavan reread, starting with all the books set in the Kyralia universe and ending on her more adult oriented Age of the Five books.

Fantasy 'rags to riches'-stories are one of my guilty genre pleasures. It's a classic trope, much abused, but when it is done right it's downright magical and timeless. I've read many of these humble origins to great destiny stories - I bet most of us have as they are often described as traditional fantasy stories - prime examples are of course David Eddings' Belgariad, Raymond E. Feist's Magician, and many of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar novels are also based on this trope. More recent examples are Patrick Rothfuss' Kvothe and Peter V. Brett's Arlen. Trudi Canavan's Sonea, the protagonist of The Magicians' Guild, is another such. And her story does justice to one of my favourite tropes.

Since it is a classic trope and the setting is very familiar - school setting, check, a slum child protagonist, check, having to endure adversity to get to a place of safety, check - it's in the details Canavan needs to find her originality. And this she certainly does with aplomb. First of all, there is no prophesy in this story. Sonea isn't a long awaited saviour that will make the land safe from a huge threat. No, she's rather the long feared complication most of the Guild doesn't want to deal with. Add to this Sonea's reluctance to escape her hard life in the slums and her wish to return to her family, instead of joining the Guild and living a life of comfort, and we have a rather unenthusiastic leading lady when it comes to the riches. Canavan doesn't just focus on Sonea and the Guild though; much of the book is given to Cery, Sonea's childhood friend, who has feelings that go a little ways beyond friendship and who does all he can to hide her from the Guild, including getting roped in as a minor operative for the Thieves, the guild who rule Imardin's underworld.

In Kyralia, even if for this book the focus lies mainly on Imardin, Canavan creates an interesting world. She provides snippets of history, through the books Sonea reads and the lessons she's given, but also vividly draws us a picture of what contemporary Imardin life looks like, though owing to our protagonists, this is largely limited to how the lower half of the population lives and to the life inside the Guild. What I really enjoyed, is how we often get views on historical events from two sides. For example, early on in the book we see how the slum dwellers see the Purge and what motivations they ascribe to the king and the magicians for keeping the yearly Purges up. Later on in the book, Rothen tells Sonea why the Purge started and why it has been kept up from the magicians' (and presumably the king's) point of view. This gives a well-roundedness to Canavan's history building and lets the reader make up her own mind as to who to believe.

The characters are lovely, even if they're evil. Sonea is your typical self-aware teenage slum girl you'd expect her to be, but what I liked about her is that she isn't perfect. She is genuinely frightened, by her unexpectedly budding powers, by the Guild and by the prospect of being, for all intents and purposes, the Thieves' magic slave. Despite being afraid however, Sonea keeps thinking and tries to make the best decisions, even if they are difficult ones. Her best friend Cery, is similarly street-smart and I loved his sense of loyalty to his friends, but Sonea in particular. He wants the best for her and the way he realises that what is the best for her, might not be what he wants and his decision to put her in front of his own desires, makes him all the more awesome in my eyes. Of the magicians my favourites were Dannyl and Lorlen. Dannyl because I loved his honesty and his very human responses to what is happening around and to him and Lorlen, because he defies the stereotype of the second-in-command. Too often, the guy that is second-in-command, in Lorlen's case he's the Administrator, is really a power hungry, manipulative politicker. Lorlen isn't, he seems to be a genuinely good guy, who wants to do his job as well as he can and I found him very likeable. Sonea's mentor, Rothen, is cool too, but he is an expected character; he's the wise, older - in this case father- - figure, that helps settle our out-of-their-depth bumpkin into his or her new life. While Rothen is well-written and most definitely very likeable, he is somewhat of a stereotypical character. The same can be said of Lord Fergun; he is the necessary despicable adversary that makes life difficult for Sonea and wants her out of the Guild. Again, Fergun is well-written and his motivations are interesting and go beyond revenge on the dwell who knocked him out, but he is still a bit of a stereotype.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Magicians' Guild and how easily it kept me turning pages. I was even somewhat frustrated that I couldn't start on the next book immediately, but need to spread them out to avoid glutting my blog with only Canavan reviews for the next three weeks! The Magicians' Guild is a great read for a younger set of readers and I believe a good introduction to the genre. But it is also an entertaining read for those of us who just like this type of story done well.

It has been quite a while since I have read and reported on an adult book, but for some reason this one caught my eye in the bookstore.

Sonea has grown up in the slums of Kyralia where she's developed, among other things, a great fear and dislike of the Magician's Guild. The Guild, as the dwells (the lower class) see it, are dangerous and greedy, pushing them around and only using their abilities for helping the rich. They know, above all else, to steer clear of magicians. Which wouldn't be too difficult, except that Sonea has magic too, strong, untrained magic that the Guild has discovered and cannot let go uncontrolled.

A part of me felt like this book (the first one in a trilogy) took too long to get going. There was too much running and hiding from the Guild and not enough actual magic, for my taste. Not that the story was bad, it just felt a bit redundant. But, being a series involving magic and lessons, it ultimately held my attention despite the meandering start.

I don't think the different characters were as well developed as they could have been and I disliked the fact that a number of them seemed to disappear halfway through the book. We got to know some people and then never saw them again, which is frustrating and even a bit disappointing.

But what the book lacked in character, it made up for in world and plot twist. While it seemed like more could have been happening, there were certainly a handful of unexpected events and what was a set up for a great overall series. Who in the Guild can you trust?

I was left with the feeling that book 2 and 3 would be even more exciting than the first. I can only hope I'm right since I definitely intend to buy it this week.

This is almost certainly one of the best books I have read in a long time. I picked it out with a couple other books, and after reading it, I quickly had to go find the sequel. The plot is captivating and never lets up, and Sonea-the heroine-is an original and definitely likeable character. After reading series that basically involved girls with the same personality, reading about Sonea is a big relief. She doesn't constantly stupid decisions, and she's tough. She doesn't allow her emotions to get the best of her, but she is thinking ahead to protect those she loves. I had to order the third one from Australia because I couldn't wait until September!

Since the narrator was so bad I couldn't get past the first 3 minutes (and then I skipped through multiple chapters and listened to a few minutes here and there to be certain), I can't give a proper review of the story itself. Hence the average 3 star review. If I was only reviewing the narrator, I'd give it 1 star. I've read novels by Trudi Canavan and I love them and was extremely excited to listen to this series. Now that I commute several hours to work and back I've lost free time to read but gained a lot of time to listen. I knew the story started slow going in, and I have no problem with that. In my experience those turn out to be some of the best stories because they are so masterfully crafted.

So what was so bad? The monotone I could handle. The awkward accent was doable. The smoker's voice, whatever. The two-second pauses after EVERY sentence were UNBEARABLE! I got so caught up counting the seconds every sentence that I didn't actually hear any sentences. It was so disjunct. There was no flow because the narrator interrupted himself every sentence with unnecessary pauses. Even within the dialogue this behavior continued. Nobody talks like that! I'm really not picky about voices and voice acting, but for the love of Pete PLEASE just read naturally and let the story flow! I know 5 year olds that read better than this guy. I mean, clearly plenty of folks take no issue with it, or he never would have been hired, much less have narrated multiple novels. For me, though, this narrator is a death knell for any book I may be interested in listening to. You have been warned.

Wow, this book is bad, more than half of the book is dedicated to searching for the main character 'Sonea", all that happens during this long and drawn out search is, that with the help of the thieves guild they keep moving her from location to location. The author repeats the same catchall phrases throught the book, everyone is stared at "thoughtfully", everyone has "narrowed" eyes, and "pursing" lips. Yikes, the story seriously feels like it was written by a kid. It is repetitious, boring and juvenile, Thank goodness I did not purchase this book or I would be really upset I wasted time reading this. The rest of the trilogy or whatever amount of books, the author has written after this will be unread by me.

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 have seen this one often in the Sci-Fi section of bookshops. I liked the cover, but thus far had not bought it. However, I am running a little short of novels I want to read and decided the time was right to buy the ebook, which I did.

This is an interesting enough story set in yet another fantasy world of magic and guilds. Sonea is a girl from the slums around a city where population purges are carried out by the hated magicians guild. When she throws a rock at the invisible shield that hides the magicians, everyone is shocked when her rock penetrates the barrier and strikes a magician in the head.

So she reveals herself as an untrained magician outside the guild and the hunt is on to find her.

This book was not especially novel, but it was well executed, and the sequel was set up nicely whilst bringing some closure in the first book. A good enjoyable read.

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.

When I first read this book I fell in love immediately. As soon as I finished it I ran to my local bookstore to get the next one in the series. I have since read the trilogy numerous times.
The story is set in a city called Imardin, the capital of Kyralia. During the purge (The annual purging of the city streets of the poor into the slums) the protagonist, Sonea, throws rocks at the local magicians. When one of the stones passes through the magical barrier, panic abounds. Sonea goes into hiding believing that if the magicians catch her they will kill her because they do not want the poor to be magicians in their guild. Meanwhile the magicians begin a search, intending to offer her a place among them. And so begins the story.

The story just keeps getting better as you read it, which is saying something as the start is so captivating. The personalities of the characters just jumped off the page. My favourite by far was, of course, Sonea. Such a strong leading lady was a rare thing in books I read when I first read this series. She is a woman who chooses the way she wants to live without concerning herself with the opinion of others. She makes her own decisions, though didn't have many options when in hiding. There was not much character growth over the course of the book, but remember this is a trilogy with growth in all of the characters spread out across all three books.

For me to truly love a book it usually has to have at least a dash of romance without completely taking over the story. If there is no romance at all I'm usually not going to give it a great review. I think it truly goes to show how amazingly good this book is that there was no romance in it and yet I still LOVED it! The romance comes later in the books, and is done amazingly well. It is up there with my all-time favourite romances. Even later on in the trilogy the romance is still just a sub plot and not the main focus of the books. Everything would have played out exactly the same without the romance, I think. But oh am I glad it's in there!

Trudi Canavan's writing style was paced very well. She is a truly exceptional story teller. I have read every book she has ever had published, and while I didn't enjoy them quite as much as The Black Magician series, I did still love reading them.

I loved the characters I was meant to love, hated those I was meant to hate, and was curious about those meant to be mysterious. One of the best debut's I have ever had the absolute pleasure to read! Each book in this series is better than the previous one. I would most definitely recommend this book, indeed the series, to anyone looking for a truly mesmerising read. If you have the money to buy it, or even a library to order it, then go get it now! Dare I say it; I think this is probably my favourite series I've ever read! And in my opinion, there is no higher compliment than that!

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:

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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

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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

I picked this book up because I was missing on Harry Potter, there I said it! I had never really ventured into the world of Science Fiction prior to HP. Someone recommended this series to me.

In the first book in the trilogy of the Magician's Guild the reader meets Sonea, a girl from the dwells (poor neighborhood) who one day realizes she has magical powers that she never knew about. The Guild is concerned because a magician who's powers are self-discovered as opposed to cultivated tend to be especially strong Magicians. Sonea, afraid of the Guild, makes a "contract" with the Thieves asking them to hide her. The chase begins, and continues for half of the book. Faced with the decision to join the Guild or try to survive on her own, Sonea struggles with whether or not the Magician's of the Guild are trustworthy.

The book was not a difficult book to read, easily could be read by any child who read HP. I will say that in the beginning I wasn't overly impressed but as the story developed I was sucked in more and more. I will definitely be picking up the next two books in the trilogy and hope they will be just as fun.

This in no way compares to the magic of HP but I'm glad I'm continuing to explore the Science Fiction world of literature because I think it holds a lot of potential books for me to enjoy!

It's the beginning of winter in the city of Imardin, it's the day of the Purge. Like every year for thirty years, the streets are being cleared of beggars, homeless vagrants and suspected criminals, and Sonea, her aunt Jonna and uncle Ranel have just been kicked out of the stayhouse they've been living in for years. Sonea has been sent ahead to see if they can get a room at their old place before the guards and magicians drive them beyond the Outer Circle.

Reaching the North Square where a large crowd has gathered, she meets some street youths, among which her friends Cery and Harrin. As a row of Magicians begin to push people forward, the young boys start their yearly sport of throwing stones at them, the missiles expectedly bouncing off the invisible magical shield. When she hears a fair-haired, well-groomed magician insulting them through the barrier, Sonea's hand tightens around the rock in her pocket. Holding her breath, she watches as the stone flies through the air and in a flash of blue light, slams into the magician's temple.

Bedazzled, she quickly understands there can only be one explanation to what just happened: she used magic. She has to hide.

The first half of the book describes Sonea's flight through the city streets, convinced that the magicians want to punish her for hurting one of them, and because surely no "dwell" may use magic, it's reserved for the wealthy families of the Houses.

Her friend Cery will convince the Thieves to help her, but as she tries to master her newly discovered powers, they only grow stronger, uncontrollable and very dangerous. Fearing for the safety of the neighbourhood, the Thieves finally turn her in.

In the second half, Sonea is at the Magicians' Guild, under the guidance of the Alchemist Lord Rothen whose job is to teach her Control before she decides to stay and maybe later become a Healer, or leave and go back to the slums with her powers blocked forever. In the meantime Lord Fergun, the Warrior magician who was hit by the stone, is planning his revenge.

After reading several reference books and standalone novels, it's good to be back with a good old fantasy trilogy! Although the story is rather linear and straightforward, the intrigue woven into the plot makes it a real page-turner. As a whole, the book is not extremely mind-boggling, but all the same very enjoyable and entertaining, with loveable characters such as Sonea's friend Cery, or Lord Rothen and his former pupil Lord Dannyl. I'm excited to read the second volume: The Novice.

This book is good at only one thing - setting u the next novel - there is very little action and the book is simply put as this - without major spoilers - the 1st half, there is a girl, she has magic, we must train her, she is hiding - and the second half - she is training - she debates staying - her ONE friend is worried - there is little intrigue (and I do mean only a little) and then the story is over - what is the point of this novel you ask? - it is to set up the next book apparently because this is the biggest yawn fest for me to read this year - no, no, and very much no

It's very rare that I read a book and finish it and say, "You know, that could have been a good book, but the editor screwed it up."

This is one of them. The editing is appalling.

I don't mean things like typos or grammatical mistakes, I mean storyline editing. There's just no way this trilogy should have passed muster. There's setups with no payoffs, payoffs with no setups, major characters who don't do anything, major conflicts mainly revolving around a misunderstanding (which later gets cleared up), and plot points that repeat themselves and repeat themselves over and over.

These problems are found throughout the trilogy (the second major character in the book only appears once, briefly, during the second book, and then at the end, doesn't really have anything to do with anything), but the first book is the worst. The entire first half of the book should have been axed by the editor, and rewritten down to 20 pages. There's just no point, you know how it will turn out, and it's repetitive. I barely managed to slog my way through it after trying four or five times.

The second book is a little better, though the same central plot point repeats through the entire book (she's an outsider! she's being picked on!). It is a little bit more interesting though. The third book, and really, the second half of the third book, is the only part of this trilogy where things actually start to happen.

Seriously, the editor of this series needs to be fired. It's not a bad trilogy - I didn't mind reading it, but it really feels like it needs two or three more drafts before it's ready for print. As Brian Sanderson says, "Don't describe a shotgun on the wall of a cabin unless someone is going to use that shotgun later." There's just entire, major, characters and places that are set up to do something, but then never do. (Cery's girlfriend, the Arena and layout of the Guild in general, etc.)

Even though I liked it, I can't really recommend it to others due to these problems.

I liked the books, but I agree about the cat and mouse pursuit being too long and drawn out. The crap with Regin in the second book was also drawn out too long also.

But what's up with the pursed lips? Do all these medieval authors throw in the phrase "___ pursed his/her lips" when they can't think of anything else to say? Lips were "pursed" at least 23 times in this book! Maybe she learned how to use a different phrase by the time she wrote the other two books of the trilogy, because lips are only "pursed" 13 times in the second book and only 6 times in the third!

There is a lot of grimacing and dread too!!

I like books based on medieval times (I know these are fantasy on another world, but it is still medieval like times), but the overused phrases really grate on my nerves after a while! Looks like she got her style of writing from Michael Jecks.

Let me preface my review with the fact that I did not finish this book. There were a number of reasons for this, but the biggest was that the plot dragged along. I could probably forgive this, if it was in favor of world building, but the author makes next to no attempt to actually flesh out the world she's plopped her protagonist into. For example, the magicians project their thoughts to each other to have conversations while in separate places, but we aren't given any type of introduction to it, so the limits seem nonsensical (although now I've written that, I wonder if they perhaps are nonsensical and that's why they aren't explained). It's almost like the author wanted to write a book about class uprising and the rest just didn't matter at all to her.

The only reason I gave it 2 stars, instead of the 1 because there isn't really anything I liked about the book so far, is because it's possible that it got better in the chapters I didn't read.

Sonea is poor and lives in the slums. During one of the annual Purges, performed by magicians on the Kings orders, to clear the beggars and vagrants from the slums, Sonea discovers she has the power of magic. Only the Magicians are allowed to practice this craft and Sonea does not belong to their group. In fear of her life, she goes into hiding helped by her friend Ceryni and the Thieves who live under the city. Whilst hiding her, the Thieves hope Sonea will develop her powers and will eventually be of use to them.

Meanwhile the magicians are searching day and night to find this 'rogue magician'. What they know, and Sonea and her friends don't, is that untrained, a magicians powers will become uncontrollable and eventually destroy the magician and all around them. A race against time begins.

Trudi Caravan has produced a book that is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a work that will tax the brain. However it is still a very enjoyable read and one that you find yourself caught up in and unwilling to put down.

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!

Well, this is one of those books where the title hooked me. I enjoyed the read, though I have to admit that the premise is nothing original: A slum girl discovers she has magic when a rock she throws at some magicians actually gets through the barrier they held and hits one of them. She then tries to hide from them as they search for her.

Still, even though the plot isn't very original, I could not help but enjoy the read. The characters feel real and the book doesn't seem long and dragged out. I give it a 4 out of 5, simply for the lack of originality.

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.

On a recent trip I purchased the first two parts to this trilogy. I hadn't heard of this author before, which isn't surprising, since this is her first book. Others point out, with good reason, that the basic story, structure, and mileau of this book are entirely unoriginal. However, it is useful to note that originality is not always necessary to enjoyment. What's pleasant here are relatively pleasant characters engaged in a good plot.

There are annoyances. Some important elements (such as the thieves extensive underground network of tunnels) are strictly plot devices. And the good/evil division is too pat.

Still, I enjoyed this book, and, eventually all three books. So I recommend it, but somewhat tepidly.

I enjoyed this novel. It is the author's first work, and has the feel of a debut novel. Though the writing seems a little unpolished in places, it is on the whole, well written, and will keep the reader nicely entertained from beginning to end. The characters are likeable, but on the downside, the book is a little predictable. It's fairly obvious how it will resolve. In fact, were it not for the sinister discovery that a character is up to no good, I don't know if I'd read it again. However, I am interested to see how the main character progresses, what the villain is actually up to, and I'd like to see the characters again, so I look forward to reading the other two books in the series. However, as no one seems in a hurry to release them on to audio, I doubt I'll get my chance.

Richard Aspell is a good narrator, and makes the audio book a pleasant listening experience.

I picked this book up while in London last month. I went to a local bookstore here in the States and I could not find it, so I am glad that I got it when I did.

I loved this book! The author keeps you hooked and wanting more with the end of each chapter. I found the writing to be straight-forward and easy, but very readable, which let me get through it quickly.

I am going to purchase the next 2 books in this series from the store and I have already reserved a copy of the Author's latest work.

I am a new fan! VERY well done!!

I stayed very optimistic while reading this book, but after a while of forcing myself to turn page after page, i realized there was no reward for my patience...and the reasons for my disappointment arrive on all levels; unlikeable characters, very slow pace and worst of all, the author paints absolutely no visual picture of the setting, along with a bland style of writing. Adjectives are too often repeated and the vocabulary of this novel feels severely limited. This may have been done to make this book a quick, easy read but the level of simplicity is astonishingly severe.

This book lacks everything required to make a good fantasy novel; imagination, engaging prose, exciting adventure and richly painted characters and setting.

I actually really enoyed this book. It hasn't gotten stellar reviews, but this can really be a fun book to read. I think the problem many people are finding is that the book is unpretentious. A lot of fantasy/sci-fi books come off very complex and involved, with names of people and places you can't pronounce. And while you're trying to remember who is who of the unpronounceable names, you've got to climb your way through a couple hundred years of foreign politics. What Trudi gives you is a good book, a good plot, and characters that you can see are still developing- as it should be in any series. I've read the second book in the series and it only gets better. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good fantasy read and just that.

Rather enjoyable read. Sonea was a real person, she made mistakes she had her flaws. While we could see different people's perpectives the storyline wasn't spoilt by this but it seemed as though it was enhanced by this.
I love the way Trudi Canavan makes things flow. She just has this way with words and The Magician's Guild leaves off with a sense of closure but with enough promise for a reader to make them wanting more and begging for a sequel.
Although I have a couple of complaints. There were too many characters introduced in the first few chapters and as a result I tended to confuse one character with another. Still you firgure out who's who and get definate pictures of what kind of people they are after awhile. It would be something you would need to read twice to make sure you understood properly. Also it was a bit short but that seems to be rather common in the first book.
I recommend getting all three books and waiting for a raining day that way you can fully enjoy the Black Magician Trilogy

I am always on the lookout for good fantasy and my oldest daughter had bought this book and she liked it, so I started reading it. The first few chapters got me interested, but the plot became quite obvious. I agree with other negative reviews that the main characters are unrealistic and... dull.

The fantasy part is too limited, in my opinion. Much effort is spent on describing the city, its classes, economy and geography. But magic hardly seems to help or influence the city or its rules. The same story could have been written in a world without magic, where Sonia had some other special talent.

I give it 2 stars, since I was curious enough to finish reading the first part. But even though my daughter has bought the following books, I will not spend time on them.

I took a chance on an author I have never heard of and man oh man am I glad that I did! The first book in this trilogy has well drawn characters, rich story line and her imagry is superb. I have not run across a new author that I have liked so well in a long time. I highly recommend that you pick this book up and be prepared to not put it down until the last page. I do, however, suggest that you go to the back of the book first and read Lord Dannyl's slang terms so that you are not lost when certain terms are used and you are left piecing together what you think the characters really meant. Other than that?? Sit down and read this book and enjoy!

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!

This is another book I'd give 3.5 stars to if I could. No, it's not the greatest thing you'll ever read, but it's not the worst by far.

I've read a large variety of books, and this one holds a special place with me because of such interesting ideas. I love details, and Ms. Canavan goes very in-depth on how magic works in this world.

This is more of a book for those who love adventure, but not of epic proportions. There's no crawling over mountains and sailing to distant lands- this is all involving one city. However, with hidden tunnels, an acacdemy for magicians, and even just the city streets there's a big playground for interesting things to happen. There's treason and betrayal, blackmail, and deception on both "sides" in this world, which makes everything deliciously entertaining.

Some of the characters could use a bit of work, especially the lesser ones from the beginning because they didn't stick out as well as I'd hoped. The world itself has been done as far as magician's guilds and theives' guilds and whatnot but I doubt they are exactly the same as other books and games (I haven't come across anything too similiar). The beginning is slow because nothing really happens but when the chase begins, things speed up immensely.

All in all, not too bad. It's not a waste of your time to read if you're into fantasy books.

This book was a necessary intro to the next two books (which were unbelievably amazing) but I didn't really get into it, and felt that it dragged abit. I am so glad I finished it though as the next two books The Novice (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 2) and The High Lord (The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 3) are up there as some of my very favorite books ever and I have read them at least 3 times each!!

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 thought this was a wonderful book. It is an easy read, and flows well, but is intriguing and has a good story. I personally loved all the characters, and the way each character has their own unique personality. I became an immediate fan of this author while reading this book, and bought the next two books the next day. Unlike some books that are in a series, this one has a relatively decent finish that doesn't leave you with a cliffhanger ending, but has enough suspense left to make you want to go get the next book. I think this is a good book for any age to read and enjoy.

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 is a great series of books. The author is a master story teller. Sure the story has a lot of elements of standard fantasy fiction but the heroine is great, the characters are interesting and well motivated. I often don't review books but this series is definitely on my strongly recommend list because of the story. It is complex, filled with mysteries, intrigue, adventure, excitement and elements of epic tales like being true to oneself and loyalty to friend and cause. Definitely read this series!

The author's weakness is in the depth of her descriptions and choice of words. This is well compensated by the storyline and characterization. If you are looking for a fantasy page turner, this is it.

The Magician's Guild is refreshing in that it's not about a reluctant male hero's quest to save the world. Instead, Trudi Canavan presents us with a spirited female lead who discovers that she has magic, which puts her in a social dilemma.

Should she accept her powers and join the "snobbish" magicians who are hated by ordinary people? Or should she stay ordinary but risk destroying those she loves with her uncontrolled magic?

The Magician's Guild is an enjoyable, easy read. Trudi Canavan's flowing narrative style will keep you turning the pages until the end. Though not as good a writer as Robert Jordan or Robin Hobbs (yet), Canavan keeps your interest with her likeable characters and familiar situations that readers will relate to. Themes such as social class divisions, friendships and betrayals, finding your true identity and figuring out where you truly belong are explored.

The book comes to a satisfying ending but readers are left in no doubt that this volume merely sets the scene for The Novice and The High Lord, the next two books in The Black Magician Trilogy.

Great!

I read this book when I was in high school, again in college, and yet again after that, the entire trilogy is a good read and a personal favorite of mine! I have read it so many times that after the spine gave way I ordered the imported hardcover edition. (All my favorite book- if available- are in hardcover). The US paperback release is a point of irritation to me as the cover art is NOT what is inside the book... A solid case of "you can't judge a book by its cover". Regardless of which cover or edition you get, give this a try!

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...

This is set in a world, or at least a city, in this case, where magic is the province of the wealthy and well connected, and those with talent and cash can be trained to become powerful.

So, of course, the heroine here is a poor kid, and a girl, at that, who seems to have more than just a little aptitude for this sort of thing. Along with a friend with a talent for the Thieves Guild, instead of magic, they get into more than a little trouble.

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.

As the first book in a trilogy I kind of expected it to be a little slow. And it was. But the pace picked up in part 2 and it was much more enjoyable. Yes, it has the cliched Theives's Guild and Wizard's Guild, but I don't think that subtracts from the enjoyablity of the book. And if you think the slow beginning will turn you off the book, think again, in the 2nd (and 3rd book) the trilogy the characters are more mature and have a deeper depth and the true plot is developed much more. Over all I loved the trilogy, it was a good read.

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.

I just read the first book, but I bought all three at once so I'll probably read the whole thing.

Back when I was 12-15 I would have enjoyed the story as the standard plot elements of this novel would have been new to me back then. But for my adult tastes it was a bit too much like Enid Blyton meets Harry Potter.

There was one jarring scene in the book which I didn't find at all believable. When Cery is persuaded to pop in to a building and murder someone whom his mentor at the Thieves' Guild wants out of the way. In just two or three paragraphs of brief conversation Cery goes from anguishing over whether he could ever do such a thing, to pulling his knives out with a cheerful smile. And then he never gives it a second thought after that; it doesn't seem to change his attitude or outward behaviour. He's a thief and now a murderer with a heart of gold and boy-next-door demeanour. Not convincing for me.

I've read so many fantasy novels lately that I'm on the run for new authors...I'm so glad I found Trudi Canavan! This book just flew, and left me panting for the next.
Sonea is a slum girl who, accidentaly during the yearly 'purge' of unwanted poor folk from her city, throws a rock at a magician and breaks through the barrier. This sends both the slums and the Magicians into chaos as Sonea seeks to control her new found powers and hide from the magicians and the magicians squabble amoung themselves about what to do about this. They never test people from the slums for magic. A good half of the book is this cat and mouse chase between Sonea and her allies and the magicians...and the rest...well I won't give the plot away.
Canavan is excellant at creating characters. Sonea is vivid in her terror and her stuborness and the loyalty of her friend Cery is touching. The Thief she hides with for a while is an intriuginig character as is the head of the Magicians, Akkarin. There are good magicians and not so good ones, but they are all so colourfully created that I know them well in my mind. Her two most central magicians, Rothen and Dannyl, so remind me of excentric proffessors at a universit...they certainly made me smile.
In anycase, this is a charming, wonderful book. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

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.

This is a great beginning to a series. I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy. Some of the reviews are rather harsh, I loved every minute of the book. I am looking forward to reading more by Trudi Canavan.

Hello there, i'll make this short. I first found the magician's guild series a few years ago and even now i am happy to revisit it. This story allures you into a tale of multiple juicy plots and displays an array of intriguing characters. Though i will admit that it can be cliched at times, it still holds its place as my favourite series and rightly so. If you are looking for a clean, enjoyable read then this is for you! It has an advanced writing style, little to no nasty bits and i recommend it to teenagers and adults alike!

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 is a well written beginning to a new world for Canavan. It's definately not high fantasy, but it's a good read for someone looking for an escape, or for younger fantasy readers. The plot and characters are strong, if somewhat predictable.

This is a nice read from a new series. It gets a bit dark at times, and the later books get darker, but it's an overall easy read.

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.

I got this trilogy this year on the strength of reviews I read here. I guess I am a little dense, and have to have things spelled out to me, so I will say flat-out that this book to geared towards young teenagers. Not adults. I say this as a person who adores Harry Potter and likes the Unfortunate Events series; I am actually a fan of juvenile fiction, but this is not a cross-over series. Just a warning, I'm sure that when I was thirteen, I would have loved these books.

I was hooked on the story almost from the first sentence and I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Trudi kept the action moving and kept adding surprise twists to the plot throughout!

All of the varied major characters were well introduced and their individual stories wove well into a complex and complicated plot. I found myself quickly involved emotionally with almost all of them, both the heroes and the villans. I loved it! It's a good thing I purchased the entire trilogy at the same time as waiting for the second and third books to arrive via second order would have felt like forever! An excellent author and I look forward to seeing more of her work soon.

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.

I picked this book up while on vacation on a recommendation from a bookstore employee. That was a mistake. The pacing is awful. The author takes the entire first half of the book to set up the plot (which is fairly thin anyway, and shouldn't take one quarter of that amount to set into motion). If the characters had been explored and expanded, that time would have been well spent. Unfortunately, the characters seem flat and unengaging throughout the book.

This novel feels like a short story that has been padded unmercifully into a much longer work. I certainly will not pick up the sequels.

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"...

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.

I got this trilogy this year on the strength of reviews I read here. I guess I am a little dense, and have to have things spelled out to me, so I will say flat-out that this book to geared towards young teenagers. Not adults. I say this as a person who adores Harry Potter and likes the Unfortunate Events series; I am actually a fan of juvenile fiction, but this is not a cross-over series. Just a warning, I'm sure that when I was thirteen, I would have loved these books.

I was hooked on the story almost from the first sentence and I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Trudi kept the action moving and kept adding surprise twists to the plot throughout!

All of the varied major characters were well introduced and their individual stories wove well into a complex and complicated plot. I found myself quickly involved emotionally with almost all of them, both the heroes and the villans. I loved it! It's a good thing I purchased the entire trilogy at the same time as waiting for the second and third books to arrive via second order would have felt like forever! An excellent author and I look forward to seeing more of her work soon.

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.

I picked this book up while on vacation on a recommendation from a bookstore employee. That was a mistake. The pacing is awful. The author takes the entire first half of the book to set up the plot (which is fairly thin anyway, and shouldn't take one quarter of that amount to set into motion). If the characters had been explored and expanded, that time would have been well spent. Unfortunately, the characters seem flat and unengaging throughout the book.

This novel feels like a short story that has been padded unmercifully into a much longer work. I certainly will not pick up the sequels.

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"...

The book starts of good but after a few chapters it becomes a litle bit slow but it picks up rather fast again and after that first bump it's an enjoyable book. It's not a complicated book and the storyline is simple but I have read the whole trilogy and can say it gets a bit more complicatde and bit more shady.

I realy enjoyed the book when she got to the guild but that's throu half the book and i guess I was a little bit eager to get there. Those who anticipates the book to get fast to the guild and likes magic maby this isn't the book for you. If you think you can get past the first bump you're in for a good book.

Though I wasn't quite as happy with this book as I was with Elizabeth Haydon's Rhaposody, Prophesy, and Destiny series, the book still receives five stars. There is strong setting and characterization, even if the plot moves a little slower than I like (though I think that's almost unavoidable in the first book of a series), but there isn't a want of action. It's completely worthy of being bought. The book is well put together in terms of the culture and society of the setting, and the characters that it might produce. Character motivations are good, though they aren't particularly complicated or deep. The author should be applauded for effective use of imagery. The book came off as a little simplistic, with the small number of characters, indications of black and white views of good and evil, and single setting. However, I have a feeling some of that will change in the next couple of books, and it didn't prevent me from enjoying the book, anyway.

The book was not bad, but still I would not call it too good either. I found the story to be well-paced and interesting, with a plot that moved constantly --but overall I believe that the writing could have been better.

The characters were good, but not great. Sonea and Rothen, in particular, were lovable but I would have liked more depth to them.The ending was very predictable, and to me a bit unrealistic. I felt that the invention of many names for food and drinks ("bol", "sumi" etc.) made the plot seem a bit childish.

I can recommend it to readers of light fantasy, but if you're a fan of more darker and epic fantasy, then this is not for you.

We discovered Trudi Canavan's first trilogy while on a vacation in Australia and we LOVE her. Even had her books shipped from Australia before they were published here (before there were even plans to publish here, I think). Her model of magic and society is very interesting and her storytelling skills fantastic. The author also has an interesting personal website with sketches and paintings she did as background work. A truly compelling read-you will be unable to wait till the other two are published here in the U.S.!
Canavan does an excellent job of developing very real characters-something not always found in fantasy novels. She also has an interesting way of painting a totally complete world while still allowing the reader to fill it in as they see fit. My husband and I had an interesting discussion about what 'time period' this book might be set in (or what it correllates to in real history)-she certainly doesn't beat you over the head with allusions to a Tolkien like world (not that Tolkien is bad, but a change of pace is nice in fantasy!).
Truly a fabulous author (and a fabulous first effort!) and a great read!

With the amount of fantasy books published every year, one would think it is difficult to find a really original approach. Well, this book surprised me for the originality and the slow but catchy development of the characters. It takes a little time before geting really caught, but once your are in, it is difficult to put the book down

excelent in every aspect. for all ages and contains a great message behind the main story. great and easy to read. hope you enjoy as well. in case you do go ahead with the followings. they are even better

As i live in Australia i have read and enjoyed all three of her books. I have been trying out new Sci-fi/Fantasy authors for awhile and i am usually dissapointed so it was a very nice suprise to find myself really enjoying the TBM trilogy. I even found myself staying up till 4:30 in the moning to finish the last book.
My only complaint is that the third book could have had a better ending, which is the reason i gave 4 stars instead of 5. It was rushed and left me with unansered questions plus i would have liked a better outcome for Akkarin.
I'm really looking forward to more books from Trudi Canavan. :o)

I have really enjoyed reading this book. It is fresh and has an interesting plot and while the characters could use more depth the story is very interesting this is the first book that I have read that deals with magicians in detail. The mechanics is interesting, while not really well thoght through I think that the difference between black magicians and normal magicians could use a more complicated explanation

The Black Magician series is the most amazing series I have read. Trudi Canavan's writing style is eloquent, yet still understandable. Sonea's (The books main character)personality is very relatable, especially to those who weren't associated with the popular crowd in school.

I would recomend this series to any person willing to be addicted to this series, and to future series from this author.

I love the theme of this book, it brings out the kid in me. How I always wanted to find a hidden ability that would set me apart from the rest. I know thats a common theme, but there is that and so much more in this book. Was a great read. I can't wait for the other two to come in the mail!

This book made me want to shove a fork in my eye and eat glass...
Let me explain.
The first thing I look for in a fantasy book is the number of books in the series. No one writes just one fantasy book these days; they come in multiples of ten. I figure that if the author can't wrap the tale up in three books or less, it isn't worth it. Sadly I don't have that kind of commitment in me.... Since The Magicians' Guild was book one of three and the cover looked kinda cool, I thought I'd give it a whirl. I suppose part of the problem is my method of choosing a book. (What can I say? I like shiny things. I'm a consumer and it caught my magpie eye.) Now I realize that most fantasy fiction is a variation on a theme but this was a weak attempt. You know the tune. An unlikely hero with magical powers and a name that has lots of vowels and apostrophes must travel to the ends of the earth, overcoming mind blowing adversity to find the wizard/oracle/whatever who knows the location of the magical amulet/sword/gem that will fulfill the prophesy/vision/hunch and save the kingdom from a dark and evil malignancy that threatens to destroy it.
In The Magicians' Guild a young street urchin, Sonea, accidentally discovers that she possesses a raw and untamed magic that threatens not only her safety but of those around her. As a result, she is hunted by the members of the Magicians' Guild who want to find her and teach her to control her powers before she destroys them all. Fearing they will kill her, she runs for her life. She is taken in by the Thieves Guild who agree to hide her but in return she and her powers will belong to them. The magicians finally capture her and she is taken to the Guild where she learns to control her magic, reveals a sinister plot, and saves the day. Blah, blah, blah.
Like I said a variation on a theme. I understand that a good turn on an old trick is difficult, but this is a good example of what I hate in fantasy fiction today. Regurgitated, typical, and uninventive. The characters are stereo-typical, paper thin and hardly worth rooting for. It's generally a bad sign when you hope the main character dies. The majority of the book is devoted to the attempts of the magicians to locate and capture Sonea. It wasn't until chapter sixteen that they finally caught the brat! What could have been an exciting beginning turned into a long and drawn out chase scene that went on and on and on...yaaaaawn...and on. Books like this convince me that breaking into print really isn't that hard. It makes me think that if this kind of junk can get published, so can mine. (In case you're wondering, it's a romance novel for ugly people. What do you think?!)
They say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and I think we can all agree that the traditional meaning of this saying is to emphasize that a book might be amazing despite its crap cover. The opposite can be said in this case. A semi-cool cover successfully camouflaged a steaming pile of poo. Unless you're into that kind of thing, don't bother.

This book is a must read for anyone looking for a new fantasy author. She writes an entertaining story that entwines you within its plot. The characters are well developed and the story keeps you guessing until the end, and the leaves you begging for more. I loved this book, and I would recommend this book to both adults and young adults trying to find a new title, only because it is an easy read without the pointless descriptions that plague some books.

I can't actually find anything positive to say about this book. I know it's a debut novel, but ... but the setting is very thin, the characters are ill-defined and unengaging, and there's a lot that doesn't make sense. The dragging plot is clumsy to the point that it relies on the characters being stupid.

What I most disliked, unfortunately, was Sonea herself. Canavan's efforts to portray her as a street-smart urchin with a hatred for the authorities and a past in a gang fall flat. Until the day the book begins we never see any sign that she's suffered from the authorities' attention or gone hungry, and then we learn that while in this "gang" she - er, played pranks. Others stole, but not her. She nobly proclaims that if she got a windfall of money she'd feed the hungry and keep none of it for herself. Her reaction to the wizards and life in the Guild is amused superiority, of all things. Her internal dialogue uses the same large vocabulary and elevated concepts as that of the wizards', despite her lack of education, and her speech is always smooth and polished. In other words, the character isn't written as and doesn't feel like a natural outgrowth of her supposed circumstances. We're told she's intelligent, but her actions and attempts to plot show she's not particularly bright, she has no imagination when it comes to her changed circumstances, and her decisions about who to trust seem quite random.

So for me, Sonea wasn't a credible character and she wasn't particularly likeable, either. She expressed little concern over the risks others were taking for her or the damage her unrestrained magic was doing, and her treatment of Cery was poor. Her realisation that the world is more complex than she wanted to believe is slow and grudging. She demands understanding but offers little in return, demands others act to rectify societal wrongs when there's no sign she's ever acted herself, expects others to be punished for their misdeeds but to get off scot-free for her own. Canavan seems to think Sonea deserves a free pass because she's from the slums - an immature position that Diana Wynne Jones, for example, a really strong author, would never adopt.

I didn't find Canavan's attempt to make class solidarity a driving force in her book successful. Sonea's sudden lapses into class-warrior or feminist mode jar because they don't fit with what we've seen of her thoughts and actions so far and seem frankly unnatural. What sixteen-year old wouldn't be thinking of herself and what she can gain for herself, at least some of the time, rather than what she can do "for the people"? Yet what has she ever done to alleviate the poverty of her fellow slum dwellers or work for women's rights? Nothing, it seems.

Incredibly, no-one in the book has any sense of wonder about magic at all. It's simply a tool. Sonea feels no excitement at her new ability, no curiosity about its possibilities; the wizards view it as completely mundane; Cery is healed by magic and has his mind read, and acts as if it's nothing special. This struck me as weird, to say the least. What's the point of having a story about magic if no-one thinks it's amazing? It left me wondering what Canavan thinks of her own fictional world. Is it really that lacking in excitement for her? Or is she simply unable to convey that excitement in her writing?

The prose is pedestrian at best, with a very limited vocabulary. It doesn't build to match plot climaxes, and continually describing every characters' reactions with the same words is particularly grating. Plot developments are spelled out in great detail, as if readers are assumed to be stupid. Canavan has invented a number of words and for things that have no parallel in the real world this is fine, but why make up your own words for things that already exist? When you obviously mean rats and spiders, coffee and vodka, why not just say so? Flicking to a glossary is annoying enough at the best of times.

This book came highly recommended by someone near and dear to me and I wanted to like it, but I just didn't. Sorry.

Brillllliant series to read, at the end you really wish they made it longer, you just never want it to end really. I recommend just giving the series a try, and the people who like to think and live out books in their minds (you know what I mean) this is a MUST read series

I read TONS of fantasy books - ranging from George R. R. Martin to Stephen King. Having read Martin's books, finding GOOD, grown-up fantasy novels has been a chore. The Magician's Guild, Book One, started off a little slow as the characters and plot was introduced in great detail. Once a couple of chapters go by, the action begins and the lead character, Sonea, is running from house to house, fearing for her life. By the end of the book, I found myself eager for more. I opened the wallet and very eagerly paid for the next two books. Great story, I highly recommend it. -- Anthony (and Danielle)

I agree with many of the other reviewers who've criticized the stilted style, predictable plot, dull characters and bland setting. I picked this one up at the book store on a whim - not knowing anything about the author. That's a few dollars I wish I had back. If you're interested in coming-of-age stories in fantasy settings and are over 13 years old, avoid this book. There's nothing here you can't easily find elsewhere in a better-written and more thought-out package. Ms. Canavan should fire her editor and get someone who can distill her work into something more worthwhile.

Leaves you wanting to read what happends next. Charming and strong main character and supporting characters. Canavan spins a lovely and intriguing world of fantasy with class issues affecting societal relations with each other.

I bought this book awhile ago and read it while I was in hospital. I could not put it down and read The Magicians' Guild

in one day flat. Since then I have read every other book by Trudi Canavan and can honestly say I love her work. I would recommend this book to anyone particually someone who wants to try fantasy fiction. Trudi Canavan's work is easy to read unlike some fantasy books and it is easy to get into the mind of her characters.

The plot was very very simple thus making it predictable. I also thought the book was longer than is should be. Much of the it centered around catching Sonea. Again predictable. However, it was enteraining. I would not put Trudi on par with Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan, Raymond Fiest etc. but she does capture some of the key ingredients for a decent fanstasy novel.

If you enjoy cozy mysteries that contain very little violence, sex, profanity, or even blood, you might also enjoy this cozy fantasy. By the end of "The Magicians' Guild," the bad guy is revealed, order is restored to the magical community, and the heroine and her friend from the Thieves' Guild appear to at least have a chance of living happily ever after. There are a few loose ends, but this book is the first of the 'Black Magician' trilogy, so a teaser is to be expected.

If this is your first fantasy, "The Magician's Guild" is a fairly decent read. If it's your hundredth, then you'll recognize the plot, background, and characters: poor, but courageous heroine is cursed with a magical talent that is getting stronger by the day, and is not under her control. The only people who can save her belong to the hated Magician's Guild and she would rather die than deal with those meatballs. Her friends in the Thieves' Guild hide her as long as they can, but eventually her uncontrollable magic is exploding walls and setting whole blocks of slum on fire. The heroine finally gets with the program in the Magicians' Guild, and much to her surprise discovers that some of the practitioners are actually pretty decent folks.

Most of the story is taken up by the heroine's struggle to keep hating the magicians, in spite of the fact that the reader can spot from a million miles off that she's going to become one of them.

Cozies tend not to have much in the way of suspense, complex characters, or imaginative settings, but if they are your cup of tea, then "The Magicians' Guild" is recommended reading.

The world setting is fairly common, the language decent but alas, the story was broken. The chase scene occupied the bulk of the book but was barely interesting. The characters are dead and do not evolve. Even David Eddings whose works I grew past liking them, is much better than this. If you are interested in a similar storyline, try Harry Potter instead.

I'm on page 315 of 365 and have kept reading because I'm stubborn. I also kept thinking, "something's got to happen." Unfortunately, it never did. With all the good fantasy out there, please don't make the mistake of starting this trilogy. I was constantly asking myself, "where is this going?" Maybe that will be answered in the last 50 pages, but come on, what's up with making me wade through 315 pages with no real goal or direction? Sad, sad, sad. Very mundane, vanilla fantasy. This book adds nothing new, unique or exciting to the genre. If you're looking for good fantasy, read the Fionavor Tapestry trilogy by Guy Gavriel Kay, anything by Salvatore, Illium by Dan Simmons was wonderful and unique (Sci-Fi that reads like fantasy.

Although it starts off nice enough, I found the book boring. It isn't bad that when you read enough fantasy of SF, this one doesn't stand out, and after 50 pages one can already outline what is going to happen before the end, page 462. I must admit, the author has good writing skills, but that is it. After 170 pages, nothing changed, the characters are dull and don't develop, the scenery doesn't alter and there is an awful lot of repetition of the storyline, while by now you know how it all is going to end, namely good. Otherwise there wouldn't be a part 2, let alone 3, which I am NOT going to read. I'd say that this story could have been written in one book, so the trilogy is just a moneyspinner. My advice is; there are some great fantasy books out there, so do not waste your time or money on this one.

This work is okay as far as books go. It was well written and easy to follow, but lacked the intense action for which I read these for. She can take a lesson from Brian S. Pratt who wrote The Unsuspecting Mage. There he kept the pace fast and the outcome very uncertain.

I enjoyed this book , and look forward to the next one.

it's nothing as involved as Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, but it's a good trilogy with a few suprises along the way. fairly engrossing but no complicated characters or more than a couple of plots to keep up with. overall a good set of books, without having to wait around for sequels (so read them while you wait on your other, many, series).

This novel is not particularly well written, and unfortunately, the plot flows along rather obvious paths. The characters are not developed in a meaningful way, and even the protaganist comes off as one dimensional. All in all, skip this one.

The authors writing style is unique and well worded and paced. The story is captivating and quickly becomes a page-turner. The magic system in the Black Magician Trilogy is different from most fantasy novels and provided an interesting novelty. The characters embrace their own personalities and interact well. Overall the Magician Guild is a worthy purchase.

I'm not an avid fantasy reader but everything about Trudi Canavan's first book, the Magician's Guild, feels cliched. First of all there is a Magician's Guild and a Thief's Guild, and I have played enough RPGs to know those are fantasy staples. Mix that lightly with a vaguely mideval European flavored world. Dash in some characters that haven't fully ripened. The end result is a plot that feels half-baked.

In this kingdom every year the king has the magician's guild chase the poor and downtrodden out of the city. Needless to say, the poor don't care much of this turn of events but they are no match against the forces of the magicians' magic barrier. That is until a slum girl named Sonea uses the latent magical talent within her to penetrate the barrier. Suddenly this unassuming girl is running for her life, thinking that the magicians will try to kill her because they don't want anyone outside the good-old-boy network to have magic. The Guild Magician's must track Sonea down before her uncontrolled power destroys the city.

The plot itself is okay, but it's like Canavan was trying to stretch a the story to twice the length it needed to be. The characters never really seemed to come alive either. The first half of the story is pretty dull because very little of interest happens to Sonea as she hides out and the guild rushes around trying to find her.

The second part fares a little better when Sonea begins to learn the ways of magic, but it remains a very flat and dull book. The story ends just as it seems ready to roll. I'm a little suprised that what was a little throw-away detail is what will become the plot that will carry the rest of the triology. Maybe the next book will be better because it may have a larger focus, but I'm not eager to find out.

I found the books well written and engaging. I especially loved the 3rd book. She brought it all together for a climatic ending. I couldn't put the book down and found myself wondering what was going to happen next.

Only read this series if you have already gone through Mercedes Lackey's works, this is very similar and not as well done as the Valdimar books:The Last Herald-Mage

I have been reading fantasy books for many years and i should know better than to buy a book because i like the cover but,well,that is exactly what i did with this book.The cover makes the book look quite sophisticated which made the shock i received upon reading the book all the more stark! I cannot,for the life of me,understand how people on this site have given this book five stars? It is,essentially,a book that i would have enjoyed reading when i was nine or ten years old.How any adult can find anything of merit between these pages is,well,quite frankly,beyond belief! If you are an adult and you like this book i prescribe the following medication:Read some Guy Gavriel Kay novels,try going out once in awhile,get drunk and have sex,get in a fight! Hell,just be a grown-up and stop reading childrens books.
This is the kind of book that gives fantasy a bad name.It belongs in the childrens section and then i wouldn't stumble upon it and waste my hard-earned cash - mummy stopped my pocket money years ago!