The Iron Trial (Magisterium #1)

I got an eGalley of this book to review from NetGalley. This is the first book in the five book Magisterium series. The second book will be titled The Copper Gauntlet and is scheduled to release some time in 2015. I actually liked this book quite a bit, it is an action packed middle grade fantasy full of wonderful magic. It does however have many many parallels to the Harry Potter series.

Callum has always known his parents were mages. Callum’s dad however, hates and fears magic and is desperate to have Callum not be involved with any magic what-so-ever. When Callum hits twelve he is required to be tested for his magic ability and see if he is ready to enter the Magisterium. Callum and his dad hatch a scheme to ensure that Callum will fail all the magical testing and be free of the magical world forever. However despite his best efforts, Callum ends up admitted to the Magisterium and learning magic. He also finds out that learning magic is a lot more interesting and not nearly as deadly as his dad would have him believe.

I actually liked this book a lot. I loved the elemental magic and enjoyed the characters. I love the little elemental lizards and the Chaos ridden dog that Callum and his friends befriend. There is a lot in this book about being different and making friends. There are also a lot of fantastical scenes and creatures throughout which I absolutely loved. The way these scenes and creatures are described is wonderful and the scenes are easy to pictures and really come alive.

Callum is terrified of magic and originally a bit of an outcast. However, he is forced to work with two other students that are training with him and eventually they all end up working as a team. There is a lot of character growth here for all of the characters; I really enjoyed them all. There is a good mix of boy and girl characters too.

However, you can't help but draw a million parallels between this book and The Harry Potter series. I mean it's really, really similar in multiple aspects. You have the boy is should have died when he was a baby but didn’t (Callum). You have his two quirky friends (a girl and a boy) that end up being his sidekicks of sorts. You have the wise old mage who trains them (exactly like Dumbledore). Oh, and then there is the Magisterium (it’s like an underground Hogwart’s). Oh, and what about the Great Enemy who totally reminds me of Voldemort? The only thing really different is that the characters work with Elemental Magic.

The above being said, when I could quiet down my brain as is made constant comparisons to Harry Potter, I did enjoy it a lot. I think my son, who is just starting to read middle grade level books, will really really love it. Is this book as good as Harry Potter??...uh no not really. However it still is well written, fast-paced, entertaining and engaging. I really enjoyed reading it a lot and look forward to future books in the series.

Overall an excellent middle grade fantasy. Recommended to those who enjoy middle grade fantasy and can look past all the Harry Potter parallels. I enjoyed the magic, the fast-pace, and the characters. Honestly I haven't enjoyed a Holly Black book this much since the Spiderwick Chronicles.

First Reviewed on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1086390895?book_show_action=false

Lets be honest here. This is a cross between Percy Jackson and Harry Potter and can easily be fan fiction for both. Clare is so unoriginal in her ideas and I am appalled that Black would co-write a book series like this.

Harry Potter Similarities:

1. The dynamic trio.

2. The raging war.

3. The very similar Voldemort bad guy.

4. The very similar Malfoy character.

5. School for magic.

Percy Jackson Similarities:

1. MC disabled.

There is only one J.K. Rowling and one Harry Potter.

There is only one Rick Riordan and one Percy Jackson.

Stop Stealing Ideas!

By all means, if you are going to write a book with similar plot points, at least develop the characters differently and make the overall plot unique.

There are a million stories about Vampires, Witches, Werewolves, Elves, Ghosts... the list goes on. My point is they all have a unique plot.

Authors do not steal from one another!

I don't even think Clare has any original ideas since all she writes about is the Shadowhunter world. And we all know that stemmed from her Harry Potter fan fiction. Like I'd really love to see her come out with an awesome book series that didn't already originate from someone else's imagination.

This book wasn't even interesting. The plot moved along slowly and there was hardly any world building. Like at least in Harry Potter and Percy Jackson there were likable characters. Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are heroes. They saved the day. This MC was very boring and unlikable.

Overall, I think I'm just going to stop supporting Cassandra Clare until she can come out with a totally original idea.

I wanted to like The Iron Trial (Magisterium #1). Really, I did. I enjoyed Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter series, and although I haven’t read any of Holly Black’s books yet (shame on me), others have told me what an amazing author she is. Granted, the synopsis of this book read like a summary of Harry Potter, and I saw the similarities, but I still hoped the book would be different enough. Alas, turns out it wasn’t.

The basic plot eerily resembles Harry Potter. A young man, Callum Hunt, goes to a magician’s school to learn control his magic. Except, Call doesn’t really want to go – all his life, his dad told him to stay away from magic. His dad wants him to fail The Iron Trial, the rest that allows certain kids into magic school, called the Magisterium. But despite Call doing everything he can to fail, he gets accepted anyway. He’ll discover what secrets the Magisterium holds, and if it’s really as horrible as his dad warned him about…

All right, so I’m all for how people should still be allowed to write books about kids going to magic school. Harry Potter did it, sure, but it’s been done before, and it’s been done after (I’m thinking “The School of Good and Evil, which was also about a magic school). But…There’s a difference between having the same basic plot (kid goes to magic school), which is no biggie…and rehearsing just about every single thing from the Harry Potter books.

The villain here is a one-dimensional baddy called “The Enemy”, supposedly because people are too afraid to say his name. Ring a bell? The main character has two best friends: a boy and a girl (again, Harry Potter similarities). And then the most OBVIOUS one – at birth, called was marked by the Enemy. The parallels are MORE than just ‘kid going to magic school’, and they’re annoying. They made me roll my eyes. They even made me upset. I can only tolerate so many similarities, people.

On top of that, the book just doesn’t have anything original. Not a single thing. The plot is boring and overused, bordering on cliché. The characters are stereotypes and two-dimensional. The magic system is flawed, the world building needs serious work. Connecting to any of the characters, even Call, was almost impossible. The pace is slow, especially from the moment Call enters the Magisterium, and it drags on for pages on end, even taking some detours in the plot.

The surprise at the end was a fun twist, but one that I saw coming from miles away. I know I’m not a middle grader and that middle graders might love this, but I seriously doubt it. Kids are picky nowadays. They too want good world building and characters they can root for. So even if the writing isn’t always stellar, they at least want a decent plot and plenty of action, none of which they’ve given here.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of the many ARCs I picked up while I was at BEA this summer. I was extremely excited to snag The Iron Trial as I’m a fan of both Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. I couldn’t wait to see what the result of their two creative minds coming together would look like.

What I Liked

The characters are very well developed. You get a good feel for all of them–including a good number of the more minor characters. The amount of time crafting and building up the backstory of the main characters was great in the sense that going forward in the series you really know where they’re coming from. The main character, Callum, was particularly fun to learn about since he actually doesn’t know much about himself or the world he’s fallen into due to his father keeping him in the dark. As details of the magic world is revealed to Callum, the reader gets the chance to react as respond as he does.

The magic system. Anything that has to deal with the elements is a win for me. The mantra, of sorts, is, “Fire wants to burn. Water wants to flow. Air wants to rise. Earth wants to bind. Chaos wants to devour.” I really liked this as it gives power to the elements that the mages are ultimately manipulating.

The twists. While I predicted some of them, I can honestly say I was surprised by a few near the end. I’m very interested in seeing how it turns out. The way some things are revealed left me questioning the motives of certain characters, or why they never acted on things when they most definitely should have.

What I Didn't Like

The pacing. This is definitely what I call a “set up” novel. The world is defined and the characters get a lot of backstory. While I loved learning about the characters, I really wish there had been more action. Every so often dangerous things were hinted at, but nothing “exciting” (action-wise) really happens until the last 50 pages. Granted, there are some nice twists in there at the end, which is great for the future of the series.

Inconsistencies. Sort of. This was a world building thing that I may have missed while reading. For most of the book I was under the impression that when the kids leave for the Magisterium they’re there for their schooling year-round. There was an emotion in the selection process that felt final to me, and the way the characters spoke, it sounded like they’d be separated from their families the entirety of their magic education. That is not the case. They go home for the summers. The way the world is built it feels weird that going home for the summer would be the case (or even allowed).

More magic action, please. There was promise of some really cool stuff–challenges where the students had to either work together (or compete) in different tests to show what they have learned so far. There was only one of these scenes. While I understand it would have probably been repetitive to visit a lot of these, I think another one would have been nice… and perhaps less time spent with organizing sand granules by color (there are lots of pages dedicated to this, which serves a purpose… to a point).

In The End...

…I really liked The Iron Trial. I think for the first book, it did a really great job setting up for the rest of the series, and I’ll definitely pick up book two. If Goodreads is correct, there are at least four more books, which makes sense since that matches the number of years that the kids go through at the Magisterium.

If kids (probably 8+) are looking for something with magic and adventure, I would definitely steer them in this direction. The Iron Trial is a very promising start to the Magisterium series.

The Iron Trial is the start to a five part series that centers on twelve year old, social outcast Callum Hunt. Growing up Call is constantly told by his father the dangers of magic, and how it was responsible for his mother's death. Thus, embedding in Call's head that he must never use magic.

The Magisterium is a school for magic where the students learn how to control the different types of elemental magic. When the time comes for Call to be tested to enter the Magisterium, he is determined to fail all the tests, so that he never has to deal with magic. However, he fails miserably at failing, and winds up being accepted as an apprentice. As Call is suddenly thrust into the world of magic he will make friends, foes, and face many challenges along the way.

I did not really have high expectations for this book at first, but as the story progressed I found myself completely engrossed. The writing style flowed smoothly and kept my attention. There were also some major plot twists that had my jaw dropping and my mind blown. I also thought that the characters were so likable. Callum's sarcastic comments had me smiling throughout the book, and the side characters had some interesting personalities as well.

A lot of people have been comparing this to Harry Potter. I would have to disagree for the most part. The magic system is completely different, the plot line is completely different, and the characters are completely different! The things that reminded me of Harry Potter were that it was about a magic school and the character Tamara. Tamara reminded me of Hermione at first, but as I read on I realized that they were quite different from each other. I feel as if anything magic or magic school related will always be compared with Harry Potter even if their differences outweigh their similarities. In this case I think people are really nit-picking, and I honestly do think that they have more differences than similarities.

Overall I give this a solid 4.5 stars. It was fast-paced and interesting enough that I just didn't want to set it down! The characters were absolutely endearing, and the plot twists had me absolutely mind-boggled! I highly recommend this for anyone who wants a fast, fun read that will leave you wanting more.

I'm a little divided on this particular title. I gave it four stars because I really enjoyed it, however it was really similar to Harry Potter and I think that needs to be noted. I don't just say this because there's a magic school that kids go to in their preteens. Lots of book series have that and it happens to be a setting I really enjoy reading about. This also had a past war that people haven't forgotten and a baby that survived something they shouldn't have during that war which was at the end of the war. It had survival beyond death through manipulation of the soul. It has an orphan boy, though not in the form of the main character but one of the two major secondary characters. The three most used characters are two boys and a girl and the main character himself is a boy who has something special about him. The school features strange passages that are easy to get lost in. I think there are a few more but those are the ones that come to mind. I can almost see the what if between this book and the other. So that part of it kind of bothered me. I know similar plots are common in all fiction but this one just had so many similarities it seemed impossible not to notice them.

That said despite the similarities Clare and Black did make the story their own. They presented interesting characters with unique obstacles you don't often see in YA or at least I don't see that much in the fantasy style YA and middle grade novels I gravitate toward. Callum Hunt is crippled, he has multiple metal pins holding one of his legs together and never really had the opportunity to do a lot of the physical things most kids take for granted. He has a lot of pent up anger not just because of his disability, but because of how most people treat him because of it. He's never had the opportunity to have friends before. He's sarcastic and rebellious and I really loved hearing the story through his point of view because of that funny, humorous personality he has. Cal's personality more than anything else is what made me really love the book.

The Magisterium offered well described magical settings which were a world all their own and interesting training techniques for students. I also found it refreshing that Cal didn't want to go there. To him it wasn't some wondrous, amazing opportunity, but his worst nightmare come to life. The school, its staff and students grow on Cal as the book progresses and that definitely offered a unique and interesting perspective.

I really would recommend it and look forward to future titles in the series.

THE IRON TRIAL was okay. It was entertaining enough, but I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it didn’t feel like I’ve read this story before. The characters – a trio with two boys and a girl – and the premise – characters with magical abilities going away to a school for others with their abilities and being “sorted” into “houses” – were too similar to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson for me to really LOVE this story. I think the most exciting part of the book, for me, was the twist at the end because, while I’d sensed while reading that Call was ~different~, I hadn’t managed to guess the nature of this difference.

I listened to THE IRON TRIAL on audio, and I probably enjoyed it more in this format than I would’ve in print. Paul Boehmer is very expressive, and does a great job performing all of the different character roles. As an audiobook to have on while doing other things, I think this one would be a solid pick.

Despite the fact that I personally didn’t enjoy this book, I’d still recommend it to students. I think there are a lot of elements that elementary school students would enjoy, such as adventure and friendship, and fantasy readers will probably eat it up. I think Percy Jackson lovers in particular will enjoy this one – Call is very sarcastic, so the voice is very similar.

Great series starter! I listened to this on audiobook and I have to say the narration was superb! The author gives us well developed characters, lots of drama, and some great tension. There are plenty of twists and secrets, lots of figuring out who can be trusted. This first year Call finds that he has the possibility of friends and a place to belong--if only he can truly trust and accept them. This is a great deal about his journey to trust and develop his own self worth. All his life he's been told that magic and the Magisterium are evil. He finds himself torn between his father's beliefs and lessons and his growing excitement and love for his new powers and his current environment. The magic lessons are hard and often tedious and confusing. He and his fellow roommates and friends, Aaron and Tamara, are at often at odds in the beginning--not an instant friendship but one that grows in a believable way. I really enjoyed the book/audio. My only disappointment was that there wasn't more emphasis and variety in the magical lessons. I know this was probably to prove the point that magic is hard and usually not glamorous, and also to make sure the focus stayed on relationships and story development, but I was disappointed nonetheless. Otherwise the action, mystery, twists, characterization, and inventiveness kept me riveted!

WOW!! That's my first reaction after finishing this book. GO READ THIS BOOK PEOPLE!! I have read all of Cassandra Clare's books and deeply loved them, so I knew I had to read The Iron Trial. This book was no exception to Cassandra Clare's greatness. I absolutely loved The Iron Trial! I don't read very many middle grade books, but I can honestly say that I loved this book. I read The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices with my jaw practically on the floor and it was the same way in this book. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black make an amazing writing team in this book. The writing is smooth and the pacing and flow of the story was perfect. I couldn't tell from one author to the next who wrote what. The Iron Trial is a fun and inventive fantasy story. The world building is phenomenal and the magic system is creative. I loved the concept of bending the elements of air, fire, water, earth and chaos with magical control. The history and secrets were mysterious and alluring. The devoured souls and chaos-ridden animals were a fantastic touch to the dark and haunting setting and the Magisterium itself was filled with creepy wonderment. After that huge plot twist at the end, how can you not want to read on? I am looking forward to seeing where the rest of this series goes!

I loved reading this book from start to finish! It reminds me of why I love the middle-grade fantasy genre so much! Holly Black and Cassandra Clare enhances the imagination in The Iron Trial. 

The main character, Callum Hunt, wasn't the typical 'hero' I thought I would find. He has flaws and an attitude to match them. But, he has some very great qualities that overshadow his flaws and makes him into someone any kid or adult can appreciate. His father has his opinions that influence Call, but, ultimately it is Call's decision on whether he wants to accept who he is...or throw it away. As I read this book, I watched Call transform into a sullen, chip-on-his-shoulder kid, to a wonderfully talented young man who has a very big secret. 

Loved, loved, loved reading this book and can't wait to read the next in this series. I recommend to all children and adults!

A young boy with a mysterious past and a scar suddenly finds himself thrust into a magical school with two sidekicks, a boy and a girl, who soon become his best friends and help him to understand his past and withstand a prophetical future. Sound familiar? If you're thinking another Harry Potter, you're right.

There's nothing really new here...Callum Hunt is a young boy who is forced to attend a magical school to develop his latent powers. He pairs up with a boy and girl who grow into his best friends. They have adventures and find out Callum has a dangerous secret that could destroy them all. Harry Potter, much? I wish the co-authors had changed something...anything. Maybe had the protagonist be a girl instead of a boy? That's what really holds the story back for me. The entire time I kept thinking this was just a retelling, and one that wasn't as good as the original. Even the setup of the book is Potter-like right down to the font and the beginning of each chapter with a cool drawing above the beginning. That, in the end, lessened my pleasure.

And, yet, I found myself really liking the story, the characters, and the writing. The characters are intriguing, the writing is solid. Still.....I can't more than half-heartedly recommend it. From two amazing authors, it was a bit of a disappointment. I wanted more and, because of the similarities, my brain couldn't help but do the comparisons automatically.

Callum Hunt lost his mother when he was a baby to the Mage Wars. His father has taught him that the Magisterium is an evil place and the masters teaching the young mage will get him killed much like what happened to his mother. When he goes to take the Iron Trial, a series of tests to see if he will be chosen to become a mage and study at the Magisterium, Callum is determined to fail the tests. Much to his dismay, no matter how terrible his showing at the tests, Callum is still chosen by Master Rufus to enter the Magisterium.

When first hearing of this book I was interested to read it but put it off for quite a while due to it being aimed at the middle grade audience. I really shouldn’t have worried as the book read quite nicely even for an adult such as myself. It was just a wonderful fantasy read that I would often even forget the actual supposed age of the characters in the story as they went about their adventures. There are a few reminders here and there that these are supposed to be twelve year olds we are reading about but believe me, the maturity level was probably greater for them for the vast majority of the story than some adult books.

Being probably one of the very few people left that has not read the Harry Potter series yet I can’t say whether this series is similar to it or not. What I will say though is I did enjoy it quite a bit. If anything I was somewhat reminded of the Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare, I could compare Simon starting that academy and feeling a bit left out and Call entering the Magisterium and getting a hard time to start. Other than that though it had a life of it’s own and I think anyone interested in a good fantasy read and tales of magic would enjoy this no matter what their age.

Overall, very enjoyable start to this series and would definitely recommend taking a chance on this one.

A huge thank you to the authors and the publisher for sending an autographed copy of this book when winning a Goodreads giveaway for the Copper Gauntlet. Receiving a free copy in no way reflects upon my review and all thoughts are my own.

Absolutely loved it! Between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, the first book from the Magisterium series shows a lot of promise and definitely has the material to go far!

What is the story about? Callum Hunt, a 12 year old kid, was born with magic but has always been told by his father that he should never use it. His father tells him that magic is dangerous, that older mages use younger mages for their own sinister purposes and that they will manipulate him. When the time comes for Callum to take his entry test, the Iron Trial at the Magisterium, things don't go as expected. Instead of not using magic, Callum produces very powerful uncontrolled magic that leaves an impression. When he's chosen to be an apprentice, he doesn't know how much his life will change. Living in deep underground caves and tunes, separated from his father, Callum will learn the truth about magic and most importantly, himself.

I highly enjoyed this book in full. Really liked the system of magic and the Magisterium, the Iron Trial and the tasks and the magic teaching system. Very creative and refreshing!
I fell in love with the characters. Callum is a victim of bullying in the "human" world because of a serious leg injury that leaves him limping, probably for the rest of his life. On the contrary of what we read in the Harry Potter saga, Callum doesn't want to be a mage, he doesn't want to be an apprentice in the Magisterium. But he fails at failing, completely. He doesn't trust people and always expects the worse from them but, at the same time, he's courageous and is eager to prove that his leg doesn't define him and that he can actually be good at something.
The supporting characters are also very good. Tamara and Aaron really bring some fun and spice to Callum's life along with Jasper that becomes his rival from day 1.

I don't have enough words to recommend this book. It's highly addictive, impossible to put down, packed with adventures, action and magic. A must-read!

What happens when you fail at failing? Meet Callum (Call) Hunt. His dad has warned him about the danger of magic for as long as he can remember, but never got into specifics. Now he’s been summoned to a test, the Iron Trial which will determine his ability to be accepted at the Magisterium, a super secret underground school for magicians. What he doesn’t know is what happened in the bloody confrontation when he was an infant and what his father found that led to the fierce prohibition on magic.
Despite his best efforts to fail the tests, Call is whisked away to the school where he finds himself rooming with teens Tamara and Aaron. What follows involves the classic battle between good and evil, learning to be comfortable in his own skin and adopting a totally forbidden pet while developing trust and friendship with his new roommates. The story includes very interesting creatures, Some of the oddest food around, battles, a dandy twist near the end and a nice ride as Call learns his place in the world, as well as what was and wasn’t true about his past.
Four more books are planned (two out as of this review), so young readers hooked by this one will have plenty to anticipate. It’s an engaging story with lots of action and mystery to go with the wizardry.

Reader thoughts: Fun! This is a mix of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but with a new twist: the MC doesn't want to be at the magic school place. Also, the "person of prophecy" is not the MC but his best friend.

The end was surprising and helped this book stand on its own without sounding so cliche.

The setting was different, too. HP went to a castle, PJ to a camp, Col to a bunch of tunnels. This made it feel more like a prison than an adventure, which helped add to Col's dad's ideas about how the Magisterium is bad.

I was starting to get a bit bored of the book until Havoc showed up. Chaos wolves!

Col was very rude. Yes, he has a gimp leg. Yes, he has few friends. But, he's so rude it's no wonder they don't try to talk to him much! He even brags about it, saying, "You're never a jerk, so I have to be a jerk for the both of us!" at one point. Does he eventually warm up to Teresa and Aaron? Yes. Does he deserve their friendship? Not really. We didn't get a good bonding scene with them. I wanted more.

The magic wasn't well-defined, but I think that's a lack of time, not a lack of limitations. Hopefully there will be more structure to the magic system in the next book. For instance, why can only one type of mage use chaos? What is soul, really? What else can earth magic do, other than heal? If you can move sand with your mind, can you move anything with your mind (like people?). Do these activities only take concentration or also physical strength?

Writer thoughts: As noted, this book is reminiscent of HP and PJ. This works very well for MG and YA readers. Normal boy suddenly told he has magic and whisked off to magic school, where he is special even among magic users. Also, he gets told his parents are/were magic users and possibly famous. At age 12, kids don't feel special. They're just hitting the age where friendship isn't natural, school is stressful, and parents are dumping expectations on their shoulders without any of the confidence that comes from experience.

Also, this story structure works because it uses school (something this age group is familiar with) and common frustrations (like boring teachers) and combines these with magic (something extraordinary to make it all interesting) and action (readers can fantasize about how their lives might be awesome if they could fight bad guys, OR they appreciate how nice it is to not have to fight bad guys in middle school).

I picked up an ARC of this book at the very first BookCon (when it became its own event and not just the last day of BEA open to the public). I had the privilege of listening to a panel discussion with Holly Black, Cassandra Clare and Maggie Stiefvater (I know, right!?) and Holly and Cassandra talked about what it was like to write this book as a partnership. If I remember correctly, they said they came up with the idea to write a book like Harry Potter, but with a twist. And boy is it a major twist!

I can’t say too much without giving it away, but it adds a unique element to the overdone kid-goes-away-to-magic-school storyline. Callum Hunt doesn’t want to go to the Magisterium, and so when his trial comes up he fails, and fails spectacularly. Only instead of being rejected, Call finds himself admitted to the strange, underground boarding school, and makes friends with another boy and girl at the school. It is a little darker than the earliest Harry Potter books, but there are many similarities. That is until Clare and Black put their own unique spin on the trope, and you can’t help wanting to read more.

A MG Contemporary Fantasy that rises above the obvious comparisons to Harry Potter.

BOOK DETAILS:
The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare, read by Paul Boehmer, published by Listening Library (2014) / Length: 10 hrs 37 min

SERIES INFO:
This is Book #1 of 2 (so far). Book #3, The Bronze Key, is currently scheduled to be released on 8/30/16.

SUMMARY:
There has been some controversy surrounding this series. With detractors calling it out as a Harry Potter rip-off and it's supporters touting the many differences. I have to say that I definitely see the similarities (beyond just the "kids in a magic school fighting a bad guy," which frankly JK Rowling did not invent) and consider it to be firmly "inspired by." That's not necessarily a bad thing though.

There are many differences; and with the twist at the end, the authors take this in a totally different and intriguing direction. So, controversy aside, I really like it and am eagerly awaiting the next book.

Note: I am adding a "Diversity" tag to this, as Callum has a physical disability in the form of a lame leg.

CHARACTERS:
Callum Hunt: Not a "bad kid" yet is often in trouble (usually for rescuing animals). He is being raised by an eccentric single father, who has taught him to hate & fear magic and the Magisterium. He has been picked on and excluded because of his disability. He has a tendency to say obnoxious things when feeling defensive or uncomfortable.

Tamara & Aaron: The other two members of our trio. We don't get to know them indepth in this book, but will be learning more in the next.

Master Rufus: I am some serious concerns about his teaching methods, especially considering the young age of his students.

WORLDBUILDING:
The majority of this book takes place inside the Magisterium, which is located underground in a series of caverns. Each student has their own room, which makes hiding things and sneaking out easier (as a very light sleeper, I always wondered why Ron & Harry's dorm mates did wake up). Getting lost and/or running into something dangerous is sometimes a possibility. And there is no way for the students to leave without help.

PLOT:
This books starts out on the dark side for MG, with a slaughter of innocents being discovered. Another darkish thing is that, once Callum is selected, he has no choice about going and is taken from his father by force (hopefully not a spoiler, since the whole point of the book is that he has to go when he doesn't want to). Children who aren't selected, or who fail their first year, have their magic sealed and their memories altered; this leaves them forever feeling as if they are missing something.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS:
--Havoc - a magical pet
--Glowing walls while traveling in a boat (sounds beautiful)
--The social room where they eat treats and watch magically projected movies
--The fact that certain important things happen to someone other than Callum.

I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT: Celia. Am I jaded if I find her oblivious cheerfulness a bit annoying? And aren't they a little young to start with crushes

NARRATION:
The narrator has a fairly deep voice, so don't expect the dialog to sound like actual 12 year olds. / The speed was good, I was able to listen on regular speed (rather than my usual 1.25 speed) / He did a good job capturing Call's attitude and sarcasm, and with general emoting & pacing.

WOW!! That's my first reaction after finishing this book. GO READ THIS BOOK PEOPLE!! I have read all of Cassandra Clare's books and deeply loved them, so I knew I had to read The Iron Trial. This book was no exception to Cassandra Clare's greatness. I absolutely loved The Iron Trial! I don't read very many middle grade books, but I can honestly say that I loved this book. I read The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices with my jaw practically on the floor and it was the same way in this book. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black make an amazing writing team in this book. The writing is smooth and the pacing and flow of the story was perfect. I couldn't tell from one author to the next who wrote what. The Iron Trial is a fun and inventive fantasy story. The world building is phenomenal and the magic system is creative. I loved the concept of bending the elements of air, fire, water, earth and chaos with magical control. The history and secrets were mysterious and alluring. The devoured souls and chaos-ridden animals were a fantastic touch to the dark and haunting setting and the Magisterium itself was filled with creepy wonderment. After that huge plot twist at the end, how can you not want to read on? I am looking forward to seeing where the rest of this series goes!

I loved reading this book from start to finish! It reminds me of why I love the middle-grade fantasy genre so much! Holly Black and Cassandra Clare enhances the imagination in The Iron Trial. 

The main character, Callum Hunt, wasn't the typical 'hero' I thought I would find. He has flaws and an attitude to match them. But, he has some very great qualities that overshadow his flaws and makes him into someone any kid or adult can appreciate. His father has his opinions that influence Call, but, ultimately it is Call's decision on whether he wants to accept who he is...or throw it away. As I read this book, I watched Call transform into a sullen, chip-on-his-shoulder kid, to a wonderfully talented young man who has a very big secret. 

Loved, loved, loved reading this book and can't wait to read the next in this series. I recommend to all children and adults!

A young boy with a mysterious past and a scar suddenly finds himself thrust into a magical school with two sidekicks, a boy and a girl, who soon become his best friends and help him to understand his past and withstand a prophetical future. Sound familiar? If you're thinking another Harry Potter, you're right.

There's nothing really new here...Callum Hunt is a young boy who is forced to attend a magical school to develop his latent powers. He pairs up with a boy and girl who grow into his best friends. They have adventures and find out Callum has a dangerous secret that could destroy them all. Harry Potter, much? I wish the co-authors had changed something...anything. Maybe had the protagonist be a girl instead of a boy? That's what really holds the story back for me. The entire time I kept thinking this was just a retelling, and one that wasn't as good as the original. Even the setup of the book is Potter-like right down to the font and the beginning of each chapter with a cool drawing above the beginning. That, in the end, lessened my pleasure.

And, yet, I found myself really liking the story, the characters, and the writing. The characters are intriguing, the writing is solid. Still.....I can't more than half-heartedly recommend it. From two amazing authors, it was a bit of a disappointment. I wanted more and, because of the similarities, my brain couldn't help but do the comparisons automatically.

Callum Hunt lost his mother when he was a baby to the Mage Wars. His father has taught him that the Magisterium is an evil place and the masters teaching the young mage will get him killed much like what happened to his mother. When he goes to take the Iron Trial, a series of tests to see if he will be chosen to become a mage and study at the Magisterium, Callum is determined to fail the tests. Much to his dismay, no matter how terrible his showing at the tests, Callum is still chosen by Master Rufus to enter the Magisterium.

When first hearing of this book I was interested to read it but put it off for quite a while due to it being aimed at the middle grade audience. I really shouldn’t have worried as the book read quite nicely even for an adult such as myself. It was just a wonderful fantasy read that I would often even forget the actual supposed age of the characters in the story as they went about their adventures. There are a few reminders here and there that these are supposed to be twelve year olds we are reading about but believe me, the maturity level was probably greater for them for the vast majority of the story than some adult books.

Being probably one of the very few people left that has not read the Harry Potter series yet I can’t say whether this series is similar to it or not. What I will say though is I did enjoy it quite a bit. If anything I was somewhat reminded of the Shadowhunter series by Cassandra Clare, I could compare Simon starting that academy and feeling a bit left out and Call entering the Magisterium and getting a hard time to start. Other than that though it had a life of it’s own and I think anyone interested in a good fantasy read and tales of magic would enjoy this no matter what their age.

Overall, very enjoyable start to this series and would definitely recommend taking a chance on this one.

A huge thank you to the authors and the publisher for sending an autographed copy of this book when winning a Goodreads giveaway for the Copper Gauntlet. Receiving a free copy in no way reflects upon my review and all thoughts are my own.

Absolutely loved it! Between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, the first book from the Magisterium series shows a lot of promise and definitely has the material to go far!

What is the story about? Callum Hunt, a 12 year old kid, was born with magic but has always been told by his father that he should never use it. His father tells him that magic is dangerous, that older mages use younger mages for their own sinister purposes and that they will manipulate him. When the time comes for Callum to take his entry test, the Iron Trial at the Magisterium, things don't go as expected. Instead of not using magic, Callum produces very powerful uncontrolled magic that leaves an impression. When he's chosen to be an apprentice, he doesn't know how much his life will change. Living in deep underground caves and tunes, separated from his father, Callum will learn the truth about magic and most importantly, himself.

I highly enjoyed this book in full. Really liked the system of magic and the Magisterium, the Iron Trial and the tasks and the magic teaching system. Very creative and refreshing!
I fell in love with the characters. Callum is a victim of bullying in the "human" world because of a serious leg injury that leaves him limping, probably for the rest of his life. On the contrary of what we read in the Harry Potter saga, Callum doesn't want to be a mage, he doesn't want to be an apprentice in the Magisterium. But he fails at failing, completely. He doesn't trust people and always expects the worse from them but, at the same time, he's courageous and is eager to prove that his leg doesn't define him and that he can actually be good at something.
The supporting characters are also very good. Tamara and Aaron really bring some fun and spice to Callum's life along with Jasper that becomes his rival from day 1.

I don't have enough words to recommend this book. It's highly addictive, impossible to put down, packed with adventures, action and magic. A must-read!

What happens when you fail at failing? Meet Callum (Call) Hunt. His dad has warned him about the danger of magic for as long as he can remember, but never got into specifics. Now he’s been summoned to a test, the Iron Trial which will determine his ability to be accepted at the Magisterium, a super secret underground school for magicians. What he doesn’t know is what happened in the bloody confrontation when he was an infant and what his father found that led to the fierce prohibition on magic.
Despite his best efforts to fail the tests, Call is whisked away to the school where he finds himself rooming with teens Tamara and Aaron. What follows involves the classic battle between good and evil, learning to be comfortable in his own skin and adopting a totally forbidden pet while developing trust and friendship with his new roommates. The story includes very interesting creatures, Some of the oddest food around, battles, a dandy twist near the end and a nice ride as Call learns his place in the world, as well as what was and wasn’t true about his past.
Four more books are planned (two out as of this review), so young readers hooked by this one will have plenty to anticipate. It’s an engaging story with lots of action and mystery to go with the wizardry.

Reader thoughts: Fun! This is a mix of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, but with a new twist: the MC doesn't want to be at the magic school place. Also, the "person of prophecy" is not the MC but his best friend.

The end was surprising and helped this book stand on its own without sounding so cliche.

The setting was different, too. HP went to a castle, PJ to a camp, Col to a bunch of tunnels. This made it feel more like a prison than an adventure, which helped add to Col's dad's ideas about how the Magisterium is bad.

I was starting to get a bit bored of the book until Havoc showed up. Chaos wolves!

Col was very rude. Yes, he has a gimp leg. Yes, he has few friends. But, he's so rude it's no wonder they don't try to talk to him much! He even brags about it, saying, "You're never a jerk, so I have to be a jerk for the both of us!" at one point. Does he eventually warm up to Teresa and Aaron? Yes. Does he deserve their friendship? Not really. We didn't get a good bonding scene with them. I wanted more.

The magic wasn't well-defined, but I think that's a lack of time, not a lack of limitations. Hopefully there will be more structure to the magic system in the next book. For instance, why can only one type of mage use chaos? What is soul, really? What else can earth magic do, other than heal? If you can move sand with your mind, can you move anything with your mind (like people?). Do these activities only take concentration or also physical strength?

Writer thoughts: As noted, this book is reminiscent of HP and PJ. This works very well for MG and YA readers. Normal boy suddenly told he has magic and whisked off to magic school, where he is special even among magic users. Also, he gets told his parents are/were magic users and possibly famous. At age 12, kids don't feel special. They're just hitting the age where friendship isn't natural, school is stressful, and parents are dumping expectations on their shoulders without any of the confidence that comes from experience.

Also, this story structure works because it uses school (something this age group is familiar with) and common frustrations (like boring teachers) and combines these with magic (something extraordinary to make it all interesting) and action (readers can fantasize about how their lives might be awesome if they could fight bad guys, OR they appreciate how nice it is to not have to fight bad guys in middle school).

I picked up an ARC of this book at the very first BookCon (when it became its own event and not just the last day of BEA open to the public). I had the privilege of listening to a panel discussion with Holly Black, Cassandra Clare and Maggie Stiefvater (I know, right!?) and Holly and Cassandra talked about what it was like to write this book as a partnership. If I remember correctly, they said they came up with the idea to write a book like Harry Potter, but with a twist. And boy is it a major twist!

I can’t say too much without giving it away, but it adds a unique element to the overdone kid-goes-away-to-magic-school storyline. Callum Hunt doesn’t want to go to the Magisterium, and so when his trial comes up he fails, and fails spectacularly. Only instead of being rejected, Call finds himself admitted to the strange, underground boarding school, and makes friends with another boy and girl at the school. It is a little darker than the earliest Harry Potter books, but there are many similarities. That is until Clare and Black put their own unique spin on the trope, and you can’t help wanting to read more.

A MG Contemporary Fantasy that rises above the obvious comparisons to Harry Potter.

BOOK DETAILS:
The Iron Trial by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare, read by Paul Boehmer, published by Listening Library (2014) / Length: 10 hrs 37 min

SERIES INFO:
This is Book #1 of 2 (so far). Book #3, The Bronze Key, is currently scheduled to be released on 8/30/16.

SUMMARY:
There has been some controversy surrounding this series. With detractors calling it out as a Harry Potter rip-off and it's supporters touting the many differences. I have to say that I definitely see the similarities (beyond just the "kids in a magic school fighting a bad guy," which frankly JK Rowling did not invent) and consider it to be firmly "inspired by." That's not necessarily a bad thing though.

There are many differences; and with the twist at the end, the authors take this in a totally different and intriguing direction. So, controversy aside, I really like it and am eagerly awaiting the next book.

Note: I am adding a "Diversity" tag to this, as Callum has a physical disability in the form of a lame leg.

CHARACTERS:
Callum Hunt: Not a "bad kid" yet is often in trouble (usually for rescuing animals). He is being raised by an eccentric single father, who has taught him to hate & fear magic and the Magisterium. He has been picked on and excluded because of his disability. He has a tendency to say obnoxious things when feeling defensive or uncomfortable.

Tamara & Aaron: The other two members of our trio. We don't get to know them indepth in this book, but will be learning more in the next.

Master Rufus: I am some serious concerns about his teaching methods, especially considering the young age of his students.

WORLDBUILDING:
The majority of this book takes place inside the Magisterium, which is located underground in a series of caverns. Each student has their own room, which makes hiding things and sneaking out easier (as a very light sleeper, I always wondered why Ron & Harry's dorm mates did wake up). Getting lost and/or running into something dangerous is sometimes a possibility. And there is no way for the students to leave without help.

PLOT:
This books starts out on the dark side for MG, with a slaughter of innocents being discovered. Another darkish thing is that, once Callum is selected, he has no choice about going and is taken from his father by force (hopefully not a spoiler, since the whole point of the book is that he has to go when he doesn't want to). Children who aren't selected, or who fail their first year, have their magic sealed and their memories altered; this leaves them forever feeling as if they are missing something.

HIGHLIGHTS / CAUTIONS:
--Havoc - a magical pet
--Glowing walls while traveling in a boat (sounds beautiful)
--The social room where they eat treats and watch magically projected movies
--The fact that certain important things happen to someone other than Callum.

I COULD HAVE DONE WITHOUT: Celia. Am I jaded if I find her oblivious cheerfulness a bit annoying? And aren't they a little young to start with crushes

NARRATION:
The narrator has a fairly deep voice, so don't expect the dialog to sound like actual 12 year olds. / The speed was good, I was able to listen on regular speed (rather than my usual 1.25 speed) / He did a good job capturing Call's attitude and sarcasm, and with general emoting & pacing.

I saw "The Iron Trial" on a Goodreads list and thought it looked interesting despite seeing several reviews complaining that it was a Harry Potter rip off. I saw a couple reviews defend the book, though, and assumed its critics were probably exaggerating the similarities.

I was wrong. It really is Harry Potter fan fiction. It isn't bad. In some ways I would say it is superior to Harry Potter. The thing that always bothered me about Harry Potter was the moral simplicity. "The Iron Trial" does not have that problem. The Harry Potter universe was much better developed, though and this book helped me appreciate that.

I will probably won't read the sequels. I give it 3 stars because I can't give it a higher rating than I would give the first Harry Potter book. I would recommend it for kids as well as adults who like HP fan fiction, kids books, and fantasy.

My Thoughts On The Book:

I went into this book knowing that people have already said that it's quite reminiscent of Harry Potter and I'm not ashamed to say that I can see why as when you break it down into it's more basic parts they are very similar. For example both revolve around one young boy who finds out he can do magic and is sent to magic school, makes two good friends (one boy and one girl), fights an enemy that who was once a student at the magic school but turned bad and both have at least one dead parent. Put that way they both sound like they are exactly the same but in reality they really are quite different.

Callum Hunt lives with his father, he has a bad leg caused by an accident when he was a baby, an event that left him without his mother. Callum knows he is able to do magic, he's been able to do things inadvertedly for some time and he knows that his father is a mage, a magic user. Callum's father doesn't want Callum to go to the magic school, where those who show magic abilities go to learn how to control and use their magic..... The Magisterium. When the day comes that Callum must take the test that allows kids to go to The Magisterium his father tells him that he MUST fail the tests, that he cannot under any circumstance go to magic school, the place and the people are dangerous and he doesn't want Callum there at all. Callum does as he is told and manages to royally muck up every test put in front of him but against all the odds he STILL gets chosen to attend magic school. So separated from his father Callum goes off to The Magisterium determined to get out of it as soon as possible but as the days, weeks and months pass he finds himself enjoying learning about magic while discovering certain truths about himself and it's with these truths that the books really start to diverge paths. The major truth about Callum is the biggest twist to the story so obviously I can't reveal what it is without spoiling the book but it is big and game-changing.

The Iron Trial is the first book in a five book series and seeing as there are five 'years' to magic school learning I am guessing that each book will be covering each year at school like Harry Potter did and I already have a sneaking suspicion that this series is going to be a good one if the first book is anything to go by and I guess I'm not the only to think that seeing that I've read that the first book has already been optioned for filming, I'm not surprised as it good be a very good move as long as they get it right and show how different it is to Harry Potter, while still being similar.

What is there to love about this book?

Oh, so much is good about this book but the first thing that pops into my head are the wonderful illustrations that were in my E-ARC and I hope they are all present in the finished copy too. They are by the artist Scott Fischer and are simple gorgeous.
They are beautiful and fit the book so very well.

The authors have done a great job of making the book different from other books of this type, people have compared it to Harry Potter (and I can agree with them on that) and Percy Jackson (which I haven't read myself so I can't comment on that) BUT it is significantly different in many ways too and it's the differences that make the book special for me. The Magisterium has a different way of teaching to Hogwarts and rather than 'houses' the students are each apprenticed to a Master. Callum finds himself under the tutelage of Master Rufus along with fellow students Aaron and Tamara. As a group they quickly bond and find ways to work together as a team, ways to improve themselves as individuals and as a team.

The world building of the book is excellent and as the book progresses y we learn more and more about the world and Callum's reality and it is an intriguing world. It had a great mythology and back-story to it with a magical war and an undefeated and dangerous enemy

Was there anything not so good?

In the beginning the similarities to other books are all that you can see but as you get further into the book you begin to see how different this book is but I guess some might not be able to see past the similarities and find it off-putting. People may even be put off by others comparing this to the mighty Harry Potter, Harry Potter purist may avoid this on purpose but I would say to give the book a go as it's a different kettle of fish altogether.

Apart from that the only really niggle I had with it was that I wanted it to be a much bigger book with more detail about the events of the first year at the school as there were big chunks of time that were glossed over completely and personally I would have liked to see more of what they were learning in these spaces, to see more of how the main threesome's friendship grows and changes. In the grand scheme of things though, it is just a minor niggle.

Was it an interesting read?

It was but it was a short read finished in just a couple of sessions. I think all the information needed was in there but I just wanted a little more whether that be a bit more background or a bit more of the present times. All in all though it was an interesting beginning to a series that I'm sure will grow and progress as the it goes on and I have the feeling that each book will give a little more of the mythology and backstory but I'm just a bit impatient as I just want to know it all right now, my bad!

Was it enjoyable to read?

As a grown adult reading a children's book I found it to be a terrific read, it didn't feel particularly like it was a kids book, the language was everyday and easy to follow, it was creepy where it needed to be but obviously without the sheer ugliness that more adult books would show. It was a refreshing read and an engaging read that I just devoured in just a couple of sittings, very impressive. I can say that I had my suspicions about which direction this book was going and I made a early prediction about what was going to happen and can happily say that I was totally wrong, the book had me fooled and the ending completely turned the book on it's head, it was a fabulous ending which will make the series very interesting in the future.

Was it a well written book?

As far as a children book goes yes it really was. The book has a great tone to it, the pacing is perfectly written and you get a really good feel for the characters and the world. The world building is so good and the mythology is easy to comprehend and follow. Each of the characters has their place and function and they are so easy to empathize with or dislike in the case of some, one character in particular had me completely fooled about his character until the moment their true intention was revealed and I did not see their change of character coming at all, very good stuff indeed. There is nothing complicated about the book in any way, it's an easy breezy and refreshing read with an ending that I didn't see coming and that was a complete surprise.

Would you recommend it to others?

As a Harry Potter fan myself I can see the similarities between the two franchises but I can honestly say that by the end of The Iron Trial you won't see this series as a Harry Potter knock off as it's quite different and the differences between Harry and Callum will be clearly defined. this book is a great start to what I truly hope to be a fantastic series in it's own right. It's a genuinely unique book in it's own right and Callum has a future that really needs watching closely as I have no idea what it going to happen to him next after such a twist of an ending. I loved it and I think if you like the sound of it put Harry to back of your mind and give this series a chance as it deserves it on it's own merit...... my advice, give it a go, what have you got to lose?

The Iron Trial is a nice addition to the middle grade fantasy genre that feature boarding schools of the magic variety. I’ve read a few of them now over the years and I still think they are fun. I do however think I might have enjoyed this one more if I weren’t in the mood for something with a bit more of a mature teen feel.

These kids entering the school are the typical age of 12. Anyways Callum (or Call like a telephone call – I’m weird and just had to verify this by listening to part of the audiobook) has been training much of his life to fail The Iron Trial test that grants the kids entrance into the school. His father hates magic, I’m assuming because of the prologue where his wife is murdered and his then infant son Call is maimed. So Call grew up with a father that hates and fears magic. And Call? Well he’s a surly kid that I don’t feel sorry for or even really like. He has a disability because of his leg being broken as an infant – instead of rising above his handicap he seems to use it as an excuse to be a brat. He doesn’t exactly feel sorry for himself obviously but he always expects people to treat him differently and then also doesn’t make a real effort to be nice even if folks are nice to him. He does turn a lot of that around as the book progresses thankfully because if it didn’t I don’t think I could have continued.

He winds up partnered with two other kids, Aaron who seems nice and Tamara who is quite a bit stuck up in the beginning. They are chosen by one of the masters of the Magisterium (the magic school under a mountain) to be his apprentices. At first you think these kids are going to be at odds but wind up developing bonds. It was really nice to see the relationship between these three develop and change over the course of the book. I have to admit here that the role I assumed would be taken on by Call was not and that Aaron might end up being a bigger character then the first part of the book left me believing. I really enjoyed the way this played out. I do think Tamara was given a little bit too typical of cliche of a role but not one that I found to be incorrect or ill fitting. For not liking her as much in the beginning I ended up liking her much more by the end.

The magic system is one that I think kids will enjoy but I wasn’t overly impressed as I was reading it for my own pleasure. This is definitely one where I would say kids 8 to 11 would enjoy it more. I know this might sound silly but reading it made me feel old versus some other kids books I’ve read which instead make me feel nostalgic (which is a feeling I much prefer). Do you know what I mean? Like watching a show or reading a book that you know is targeted at a certain age group but enough is included for adults such that they will enjoy it too. This one didn’t quite fit into that bracket for me. So ultimately The Iron Trial isn’t one of those middlegrade books that I would recommend to adult readers who enjoy the occasional kids read. Overall, it was a quick and easy read but definitely targeted younger readers.

The Iron Trial is the Middle School version of Harry Potter. I found this book to be rather good and a disappointment at the same time. I just hope the series doesn't continue for around 6-7 books as Cal grows up. I would like to see the book continue in it's own direction and not feel like it's trying to copy or appear like Harry Potter or etc. And when it came to the two authors, I just thought their own individual novels were almost better than what this was. I just expected more out of these two.

The main point of the whole novel, at least from what I gathered, was how Callum Hunt didn't want to be a Mage. To put it in perspective, everyone at a certain age, goes through a test to see if you are picked up to be trained as a mage. If you fail, you go home and back to a normal life; if you pass you go on to be trained by a small group of mages and go through the Iron Trial.

The characters, Callum, Aaron and Tamara, all seemed to work together really good. They were so simple and well done, what hurt was it all seemed so similar... Oh yea, HP again. What did I say before, do your own thing. Callum seemed to be the dimwit who wasn't trained at all, and of course Aaron and Tamara have been informed/trained as good as they could, coming from magical families. It was slightly different from HP, but it has some similarities to the old novel, that I find it just disappointing.

Now I want to touch on the whole magic bits in this novel. Earth, Fire, Wind and Water are your normal typical elements, and they are just usd over and over, I like the little twist with Void being in there as well. However the void seems to make things crazy or chaotic, and people born able to control Void are rare and extremely sought after. Another twist is that if you consume certain parts of the element, you can become stronger in that element. Who would eat earth, or a match, or blood (oxygen for air)? It's unique, but how it's described is just silly.

Now the plot of the whole bit is what brought this novel back around. The start is with Callum's father and describing part of an ongoing war with mages and a person known as The Enemy of Death, a powerful void mage. Sarah Hunt and their child are present for what would be a massacre, and Alastair is left to find them with a cryptic message of "Kill the Child" which more or less foreshadows the rest of the book. The book then takes off with Callum as he enters the trial and then into The Iron Trial. It is a pretty standard, follow the dotted line till the end, where finally in the last few chapters, the book opens wide up. I loved the twist at the end, and brings a great dynamic to the series, I just hope they stick with it.

The Iron Trial has it's fair share of HP comparisons, and relates a lot to it, but I feel the audience target is a younger age group than what HP was at the time. I found the characters pretty standard, and was hoping for a bit more dynamic. At times it just seemed like they were trying to hard with the amount of characters they were putting in the novel, that I think it hurt them instead of helping. The ending is what I feel saved this book from completely being dull and boring. It's worth the read, but remember there are similarities and it may upset you, but I feel the novel is worth the time and effort to read the first novel.

I'm struggling to review this book, since it succeeds or fails greatly on each of several different dimensions. However, I have been using this bookshelf to review books from the point of view of a writer, and so I will proceed in that direction.

As almost every other reviewer has pointed out, there are large, and obvious, parallels to Harry Potter and his world. At times, the overlap is so great that it distracted me from the actual story. So this dimension gets a big thumbs down. Yes, we could say that some of these parallels are simply story elements that work, or that have become (or were before) memes in YA sci-fi, but that doesn't fully cover the problem, sorry.

So if I pretend that this series was written first, where do I stand? Turns out theme is a big negative. I'm all in favor of moral ambiguity and complexity, even in mid grade fiction, but this book wasn't ambiguous, it was very clear: the ends justifies the means. In fact, this is the big ah-ha moment for one of the secondary characters.

The overall plusses were reasonably good pace and a good reader. I might not have finished if I had been reading, not listening to the audio book.

I very much enjoyed this story of a young reluctant mage. Callum Hunt was raised by his father to hate magic. His father lost his wife and almost lost Callum in the last magical war. But Callum is called test to become a member of the next class at the Magisterium and neither he nor his father can refuse the testing. His father is coaching him to fail.

Despite spectacular, and messy, failures at all of the tests, Call is chosen anyway by Master Rufus and set on the path to be a mage. Master Rufus also chooses Aaron Stewart and Tamara Rajavi which throws the three of them together. Aaron is an orphan who has grown up in foster care. Tamara is the daughter of two mage council members. Then there is Call - angry, sarcastic, crippled in one leg. The three forge a friendship as they work together to learn what Master Rufus teaches them. Aaron and Tamara are Call's first friends, the first one to ever stand up for him.

The problem in this story is that, while there is a signed Peace Treaty ending the most recent mage war, no one believes that the Enemy of Death has really decided to accept peace. The Enemy of Death is a mage skilled in chaos magic. Those mages are called makars. Most mages work with earth, air, fire and water. The mages at the Magisterium have been searching for another makar for years so that they would have something to counter the Enemy of Death. Meanwhile, they are fighting off chaos-ridden animals and fearing chaos-ridden humans.

What I enjoyed about the story most was Call's journey from angry misfit to apprentice mage. I liked the setting in a rather magical cave system. I liked the weird foods that were served for meals. I enjoyed watching Call make friends. I liked that he stood up for himself against school rivals like Jasper who was jealous that Call was chosen as Master Rufus's apprentice instead of himself.

I didn't see that surprise at the end coming and I completely understand the decision that Call made regarding it. I'll be eager to talk to other readers to find out what they think of Call's decision. And I will be especially eager to read more in this series to see how the decision plays out. I can't wait to share this book with my middle grade readers.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Extremely entertaining start to what I’m sure is going to be a great series. It is set in a dark world and brimming with magic, adventure, and fun characters!

Opening Sentence: From a distance, the man struggling up the white face of the glacier might have looked like an ant crawling slowly up the side of a dinner plate.

The Review:

Callum Hunt has been told his entire life that mages are evil and that if he is ever to attend the Magisterium he will be tortured. Growing up his father taught that magic is bad and that it’s the reason his mother is dead. But at the age of 12 anyone that possesses magic has to attend the Iron Trials. Most kids would do anything to pass and get into the Magisterium, but Callum wants nothing more than to fail. He does his best to do just that, but unfortunately for him he ends up getting into the Magisterium anyways.

Callum soon discovers that not everything his father taught him was true. Sure there are some interesting things that take place at the Magisterium, but for the most part Callum is really enjoying his time there. For the first time in his life he has true friends and learning magic has been a lot more fun than he expected. But the more Callum learns the more he comes to realize that there is a lot about his past that he doesn’t know and some that he wishes he would have never discovered!

Callum is a really great character that was easy to like. He is a little goofy and totally awkward at times, but I loved that about him. One of the things I liked best is that for the most part he is fairly average so you don’t expect him to do anything extraordinary, but you find yourself rooting for him when he does. The fact that he is just a normal teenager also makes it easier to relate with him. He has the same insecurities that all of us have had at one point or another, and it made him feel so much more realistic. While he definitely grew in the story he still has a lot of growing up to do, and I am excited to see where his story goes next!

Aaron and Tamara become Callum’s closest friends while at school. Aaron is the nicest person and he is one of those people that everyone likes. He is very talented at pretty much everything, but he isn’t cocky about it in anyway. As his story unfolds you learn to admire him even more because his past isn’t a happy one. Then there is Tamara, she grew up with extremely strict parents that expected a lot. She is very intelligent and driven, but she is also very uptight and snotty at times. At first I didn’t particularly like her, but as the story progresses I came to understand and respect her. The friendship that these three developed was really great and a huge part of the book. They make a wonderful team together, and I can’t wait to go on more adventures with them in the future books.

The Iron Trials is a fun story full of adventure, action, and magic. It has a fantastic dark setting that is unique and very intriguing. The whole cast of characters were fun and interesting to get to know. The pacing was done perfectly and the plot had some great twists that I wasn’t expecting at all. There was great humor laced throughout the book, and there was also tons of suspenseful moments. I did listen to the audio version of this book and I thought that the narrator did a wonderful job. I would highly recommend listening to this if you are a fan of audio books. I personally think that fans of Harry Potter will enjoy this series. The story is completely different, but it has a similar feel to it that just reminded me of HP. I am personally a big fan of both Clare and Black so I was excited when I heard that they were writing a middle grade series together and suffice to say I was not disappointed. I can’t wait to get my hand on the next book to see where they take the story. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is looking for a fun middle grade book!

Notable Scene:

“You are about to enter the halls of the Magisterium,” he said. “For some of you, this may be the fulfillment of a dream. For others, we hope it may be the beginning of one. To all of you, I say, the Magisterium exists here for your own safety. You have a great power, and without training, that power is dangerous. Here, we will help you to learn control and teach you about the great history of mages like yourself, dating back through time. Each of you has a unique destiny, one outside the normal path you might have walked, one you will find here. You may have guessed this when you saw the first stirrings of your power. But as you stand at the entrance to the mountain, I imagine at least a few of you are wondering just what you’ve gotten yourselves into.”

Some of the kids laughed self-consciously.

“Long ago, in the very beginning, the first mages wondered much the same thing. Intrigued by the teachings of the alchemists, particularly Paracelsus, they sought to explore elemental magic. They had limited success, until one alchemist realized that his young son was able to easily do the same exercises with which he struggled. The mages discovered that magic could be performed by those with an inborn power and was performed best by the young. After that, the mages found new students to teach and to learn from, seeking all over Europe for children with power. Very few have it, perhaps one in twenty-five thousand, but the mages gathered up those they could and began the first school of magic. Along the way, they heard stories of untrained boys and girls who had set fire to houses and burned in the flames, who had drowned in rainstorms, or had been drawn up into tornados or pulled down into sinkholes. With teaching, the mages learned to walk through lava unscathed, to explore the deepest parts of the sea without an oxygen tank, even to fly.”

FTC Advisory: Scholastic provided me with a copy of The Iron Trial. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

So I went back and forth over reviewing and rating this one for a long time and I can’t even pinpoint exactly why I went back and forth so much. There were just some things about it that didn’t sit well with me. However, after thinking about it I realized I really liked the story. The book was fun and the magic was cool and the twist was pretty awesome.

Callum Hunt is our hero and he is your typical hero in some ways but he isn’t. He has a bad leg and has always been the guy left out. For the most part, I liked Callum. He was fun and silly and just a kid. Callum though is one of the things that bugged me. He had a tendency to be annoying at times and he made some decisions that made me crazy. However, he is a kid and I need to remind myself of that. Yeah, I’m going to know what the correct decisions are, but Callum isn’t going to. So yeah, he made me crazy but he should. I still like him and found him funny.

The secondary characters Tamara and Aaron were also a lot of fun. They were good friends for Callum and he really needed friends. Those three worked very well together and made a good team.

The plot in The Iron Trial is a lot of fun. The world of magic is pretty cool and a school of magic is always fun. There is always added shenanigans that come along with situations like this and I always seem to enjoy them. The story was enjoyable and it was interesting to see Callum go from hating the world to finding it to be the one place he finally fits in. Now I have to discuss the twist because it was very very good and watching it play out in later books is going to be very interesting. I thought I had guessed it right, but nope I was wrong and I loved that.

All in all, The Iron Trial is a good read and perfect for younger readers and is one older readers can enjoy too. Holly Black and Cassandra Clare teamed up and the result was great. I cannot wait for more from this series.

This review has been crossposted from my blog at The Cosy Dragon.com. Please head there for more in-depth reviews by me, which appear on a timely schedule.

Callum doesn't know what he is, or why he's at the Magisterium. But he knows he doesn't want to go somewhere that there are eyeless fish waiting to eat him, and there is magic running rampart that is the same as that which killed his mother.

Apparently this is a middle grade series, but maybe that was made it so pleasant to listen to. Each word was perfectly chosen, and I didn't find myself impatiently waiting the narrator to move through the scenes.

I loved the reader, his deep grumbly voice was perfect for Master Rufus. I did feel like sometimes I didn't know who was speaking, but it was entirely context dependant. I think some of the text could have become readily boring, but because it was read and I didn't have a perfect memory of the sentence structures, it worked for me. This was especially true of the sand-herding exercises.

This could feel like a rip-off of Harry Potter, but it really isn't. The dangers feel much more real, and they are consistent, like the authors have actually worked out what the complete series is going to be like. Also Harry is always a hero, and he's always nice to everyone. Doesn't that get a bit cloying at times?

Callum doesn't make you like him. And he seems to be going out of his way to get on everyone else's nerves. But inside there is a soul that wants to do the right thing, as angry as it is. Aaron and Tamara provide a more rational backdrop to him, and make it possible for Call to change.

The end is a twist! You guess from the beginning what might have happened, but there isn't anything to support your thoughts until later, and by that time it's too late! You're already committed to reading the novel from page 1.

I don't think this novel is meaty enough for me to want to read it a second time, so that makes it a 4-star novel. But it's a very good one, and I'd highly recommend it to beginning fantasy readers. I can't wait for the second book in the series to be released as an audio book - I'll gladly spend some of my commuting time devoted to it.

You can read this review and more on my blog, Caught Read Handed.

Call’s father has always told him to stay away from magic, that magic is what killed his mother, and so unlike the other kids at the Iron Trial, he wants to fail. Unfortunately, one of the teachers at the Magisterium, Master Rufus, sees something in him, and suddenly Callum Hunt is somewhere he’s been warned will kill him.

I think my favorite part of this book was Call. He’s not your average protagonist. He’s kind of a jerk (seems like I like jerk main characters. Remember my review of Firecracker?). He’s abrasive, insubordinate, says the wrong things, and pushes people away when they try to befriend him. It takes a little while to understand him and why he does this, but once you do, you can’t help but care for him.

A lot of people have compared (or criticized) this book to Harry Potter – there’s a young boy who goes to magic school, befriends another boy and girl, and has to fight an evil wizard. Okay, yes, those are indeed very similar to HP, BUT The Iron Trial is also unique. The magic is probably the main way it’s different – mages use the elements to create and change and destroy. The focus is on nature and the elements, which is really cool. There are creatures called elementals who’ve been consumed by their element, and chaos-ridden animals and people who have a piece of the void inside them. I’m not going into the whole Clare debate blah blah blah. I liked the magic, characters, and ideas, and that’s what matters.

I felt that Call’s friends – Tamara and Aaron – as well as the other characters were well-developed and full. On the other hand, I think there were a few too many minor characters and I would constantly be confused which character was doing what.

One last thing: No one, and I mean NO ONE, will see that twist coming at the end. It was wholly unexpected, a crazy twist that was both awesome and strange. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book.

The bottom line: The Iron Trial is a fun, unique take on magic school and child wizards. I had a few issues (too many minor characters; middle that was a little drawn out), but I enjoyed it overall. I loved the main character and the world that Holly Black and Cassandra Clare have created.

The Iron Trial is the new series from Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, and boy am I excited about this series. I’m a major fan of Cassie’s and love her Shadowhunter world so I couldn’t wait to get my grabby hands on this book, which is something different from her. I am ashamed to say that I haven’t read anything from Holly Black, but she is most definitely in my TBR, extremely overflowing pile (why aren’t there more hours in the day!?!).

So we’re introduced to Callum Hunt, your average 12 year old boy, who loved to be a nuisance to adults and was quick witted with his sarcastic remarks. Call lives with his father, Alastair, his mother had died when he was just a baby in a war. And maybe I was not telling the entire truth, Call isn’t just an average boy, he’s a mage, so he has magical power. Right off that bat we know that Alastair is not a fan of magic or the other mages and encourages Call to purposely fail at The Iron Trail. The Iron Trial a test set for young mages to take to hopefully get into the Magisterium, a school for magic. Call doesn’t have to try hard to fail because he’s doing a pretty great job at it, getting the lowest score out of aspirants, he got a negative score. But that didn’t stop him from getting chosen, and getting chosen by the first senior mage, Master Rufus. This clearly didn’t bode well with Call’s father, some of the other aspirants, and took Call by completely shock. Call was now about learn about a whole new world with Master Rufus, Tamara, and Aaron.

Once everyone arrived to the Magisterium they went their separate ways and began to learn magic. Fire wants burn. Water wants to flow. Earth wants to bind. Chaos wants to devour. The mages pull strength and magic through those, fire, water, earth, and chaos.

With this being the first installment in the Magisterium series there was a lot of back story, a lot of what happened, what could happen, and what they need to do now to stop it. We learned a lot about the back stories of the mages and the past wars they encountered. For me this book was a lot of information that we needed so it kind of went slow for me. The training for the magic took time and patience throughout the book but was greatly rewarded through the test and trial and tribulations the characters went through. Sometimes I think the first book in series tend to go slow because we need to learn about the history and with The Iron Trial it was that, but man that ending made up for the slow times. I wish I could spoil it for you, well not really, but man it was totally worth it. The ending alone set up for a great series to come. Sometimes you kind of get a feel for what the outcome may be but no way.

So if you’re a fan of either of these ladies pick this up, if you’re a fan of fantasy pick this up, if you want an adventure this series is for you. I can’t wait for the second installment. I can already tell this series is just going to get that much better and twisty.

I adored re-reading this book. And I'm so glad that I decided to do so before reading book two. I adore these two authors. They are both awesome. I have read and loved more books by Cassandra, though :) So far I have loved everything I have read by her. Which is so exciting. And just. Ahh. This middle grade book. It is all kinds of special. I love the writing. It's stunning. And the story is so exciting too. I always enjoy reading about magic. While sort of done before, this book is so different and unique. I loved it.

I'm not sure what to say about this precious. Where to begin. It is too short. I wish this book had been even longer. Which means I'm a bit depressed about book two being even shorter, and still taking a whole year to publish. Ugh. I can't stand how slow publishing is. Sigh. But it will be worth the wait, I'm sure. Cannot wait to start it next. But a bit nervous, since I heard some bad things about how Tamara is behaving. And it bothers me already. Hoping it won't be a big deal; hoping to love the book like crazy :)

Anyway. The Iron Trial is a stunning book. It has gorgeous writing. The story is incredible. And the characters are all adorable. Okay, fine, I mostly just loved Callum. The main boy, whom is twelve. Just, Call is the bestest. He is so cute. And kind, though not always very nice. He has a good relationship with his dad, but I still felt like he had a crappy childhood, because he did not have any friends. And that just broke my heart so much. Reading about how kids treated him before.. So not okay. Sniffs. It hurts a lot.

Because Call has a bad leg. And it sounds so painful and awful and I really hope it will be more about his leg in the later books. I think that would be awesome, as I kind of love the broken characters type. Sigh. But yeah. I hated that Call had such issues with his leg. It was so heartbreaking to read about. Yet the very best thing to read about too, because yeah. Call is all kinds of strong. Yet he still hurts. And it just breaks my heart. I just want people to love Call. And I was so glad when he made friends at the school.

This book is about a school for kids with magic. And I'm not saying more than that. Just that I found it to be all kinds of amazing. Love the classes; though we don't see too much of those, which I was happy about. This book is mostly about friendships. And Call making friends. Like Aaron and Tamara. I must say that I loved Aaron a whole lot, and I think he and Call can end up as great friends. I really hope so. I like Tamara too, but reading about her this time, I did not love her much. Hope that my feelings change.

There is also a whole bunch of other characters to read about. And I liked them all. This time I also seemed to love Jasper, whom was kind of really mean to Call. But I'm thinking he's getting better. I also seemed to adore Celia. I think I ship her and Call now :D They would make a cute couple. There is so much I could say about this book. But I won't say much more. Just that it is exciting. And surprising. And I liked the plot a whole lot. I think these five books are going to be amazing. So so excited for them all.

<i>"I see through the masks of skin you wear," the Devoured continued. "I see your future. One of you will fail. One of you will die. And one of you is already dead."</i>

So curious about what will happen in the next four books. I think it will all be awesome. And I simply cannot wait to read the other books. I'm sure I will love them all. Sigh. But so worried. Because of what the Devoured said. Hmph. And about the secret about Call. It can't end good, can it? Sniffs. I really do hope it ends well. It must. I have hope. Just, yeah. I simply cannot wait to read more from this world. More about Call and Aaron and everyone. Just so glad that I love this book so much :) It's very amazing.

I think you should all read The Iron Trial. Because it is exciting and fun and all kinds of awesome. I really liked reading it this second time. And I know I will read it many times more. It is a book that I won't get tired of reading. And I think you would all love this book too. Because, yeah, it's amazing. Call is the most adorable. But the other characters are pretty great too. And Havoc is the cutest wolf. And the story is just so fantastic. I just wish this book had been much, much longer. But yes. I loved it lots. <3

<i>He wished just once that he got to play. He might not have been as fast as other kids or as able to keep his balance, but he was full of restless energy. He was exempt from a gym requirement because of his leg; even in elementary school, when he'd tried to run or jump or climb at recess, one of the monitors would come over and remind him that he needed to slow down before he hurt himself. If he kept at it, they would make him come inside. As though a couple of bruises were the most awful thing that could happen to someone. As though his leg was going to get worse.</i>

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I first read this book from September 21st to 22nd 2014. See my review here: http://carinabooks.blogspot.no/2014/09/review-iron-trial-by-cassandra-clare.html
I read this book for the second time from September 6th to 7th 2015. See my book recommendation here: http://carinabooks.blogspot.no/2015/09/book-recommendation-iron-trial-by.html

This was a book that was interesting to read. I found that Callum Hunt was not what you would consider your traditional hero. Callum Hunt is going through a path that he doesn’t expect nor does he want the life that will come if he does not fail The Iron Trial.

I really found that the first part of this book really grabs your attention. There is some great mystery that starts and you realize that Callum is not like other children when a warning is written from his mother who has died knowing some horrible thing is going to happen if this child is allowed to live.

We are fast forward to a couple of years, when Callum is 12 years old and must take a test. I was reminded of Harry Potter when I read this. It took me back there to that place of discovering a new world. I really like discovering new worlds and all the cool things that come from discovering a new place to escape to. In some ways, what Callum tries to do is fail the test. He has been warned by his father not to pass the test, but fail it because Callum’s magic is dangerous and destructive. His father doesn’t want him to die.

Yet he still gets picked for the Iron Trial and gets picked to go to the school and his father is stunned along with Callum. Callum’s father goes nuts at this news and literally thinks that Callum should be trained by him and no one else, yet Callum just calmly accepts these things and realizes that maybe he has a future learning about magic.

As we go through his first year of training, we find that he makes friends and sometimes as children often do, get into some interesting mischief and trouble. I really found myself liking that Callum is making friends and learning things that are going to prove useful. Plus he is learning about the history of magic and things that his father has never told him.

Plus there were so many great twists, that this book took later on in the book. I really love how things are not what they seem. Plus Aaron and Callum we learn are destined to be great rivals, not friends. It seems that things were kept from Callum that he never even knew about himself. Aaron is a rare mage, who the Magisterium really needs to protect and that his element is chaos as well. Callum learns that he might not be a hero, but destined to be a villain. He refuses to believe this about himself. We each choose who we are I believe. Destiny and fate is what we make it, but Callum is worried about his future, but decides to live in the now.

I enjoyed this book. It kind of has Harry Potter parallels, but I still found it great.

I've been hearing people gush over both Holly Black and Cassandra Clare since I got back into reading this year, but to be quite honest, I had never read anything by either author! Lucky for me, I was approved on NetGalley to read and review an advanced eBook of the pair's new book, The Iron Trial. This is the first book in a new, middle grade series called the Magisterium. Once I heard magic was involved, I couldn't wait to read it!

The Iron Trial follows Callum Hunt, a 12-year-old boy who grew up with his dad. Call knows there is something different about his family, as his dad always tells him about the dangerous war that killed his mother. This war took place between the mages, magical people who can control the elements. Call is now faced with the difficult task of failing The Iron Trial – the test all magic-prone kids must take to determine whether or not they will be accepted to the magic school called the Magisterium. Call does everything he can to fail this test, but, of course, things don't go quite according to plan and Call is ripped away from his dad to try and learn the ways of the mages. Readers follow Call as he adapts to life in the Magisterium, and tries to determine whether it is the dangerous place his father warned him it would be.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Iron Trial, but before I get into my personal thoughts I do want to address the Harry Potter comparisons. There are many elements of The Iron Trial that reminded me of Harry Potter, but I hesitate to say the are copied. Because both of these series take place in magical worlds, there is bound to be some overlap. Do I think certain choices were interesting based on the Harry Potter connection? Yes. But the overall story in The Iron Trial is so different from Harry Potter that I do not think it is a copycat novel. Instead, I liked reading a book with Harry Potter influences because that's one of my all-time favorite series. I would definitely recommend it for Harry Potter fans!

Moreover, The Iron Trial a fun and easy read, but it's an unpredictable one. I never knew which way the story was going to go, and that made me want to keep reading. The story flowed quite well, and all of the surprising elements made logical sense in hindsight. I think The Iron Trial is perfect as the first book in a series. The world-building was done very well, and I loved how the authors set up the story for the next book. I am really impressed with The Iron Trial and can't wait for the next book to be released!

I highly recommend The Iron Trial for readers of all ages, especially those who love fantasy and magic. It is well-written and imaginative, and just tons of fun. Of course, I gave it a 5 star rating on Goodreads.

First Thoughts:
Though there are similarities to HP, I found this to be nothing at all like HP. It’s it’s own story-line and it was very good! I really loved this book and can’t wait to find out what will happen next!!!!

What’s The Iron Trial about?
It’s about a group of kids who start out by going to a testing to see if they will get picked to go to the Magisterium and be apprentice under the Masters. Callum’s father has told him all his life about how bad magic was and that he needs to do his best to fail the test so he can come home. So Callum tries his best to fail but gets picked anyway.

Call knows nothing about magic yet he is picked by one of the greater Masters to study under. This causes a rift between him and another kid who wanted his spot. Their are two others that are studying under the same Master. Tamara and Allen both who were top of the leader board on the testing.

Since Call knows nothing about magic he also knows nothing really about the history of magic or exactly how his mother died. He learns about the Enemy of Death, he is a Makar who went bad. They have went to war with him a few times and right now they have a treaty, but the Masters are on the look out for another Makar who will be able to hopefully one day defeat him.

Call and his friends learn how to use their magic and Call learns that he sort of likes magic and feels conflicted because his father hates it. He also learns some things about himself that his father has told him about.

It has some great twist and turns in the story and the ending is what really has me wanting to know what happens next.

What I liked about this novel:
Although there are some similarity to Harry Potter as everyone seems to lash out about, I found it to be nothing like HP. If I went on similarities to this book or that book, then I am afraid I would never read a book again. So just because this book contains children, magic and a villian doesn’t not make it a Harry Potter rip off.

Okay now that that is off my chest.. I loved this book!! I loved that it’s about elemental magic, no wands here. They use there minds and the elements to do their magic. Most of them can call upon Earth, Wind, Fire and Water but there are a few select that can use Chaos. Those that can use Chaos are the Makar.

Call’s story is interesting. I find talking about this book difficult as I don’t want to give anything away. I found it interesting that he comes from magic but yet knows nothing about it because of his father. His father blames the mage for his wifes death and now wants nothing to do with them or the Magisterium. So pretty much everyone else knows exactly what they are going into and Call has no clue.

I love how I thought I knew how things were going to go until the last proabably 30% or so and I was totally thrown for a loop. If you think you might know how this book is going to go without reading it then I bet you don’t.

What I didn’t like about this novel:
Not a dag-gum thing! That is my hillybilly speak for I didn’t really find anything in it that I disliked. I totally loved the last part of this novel even though it does leave you wondering what is going to happen and you might think it’s a little cliffy, but not sure how else it could have ended. So well done!

Last thoughts:
If any of you follow my reviews you probably know I dont gush that much about a novel, but I really enjoyed this one. Not going to say that everyone will be like me, but what is stopping you from giving it a try!! It’s a great novel IMHO and if you like middle grade fantasy books with cool magic then I think you will enjoy this one. So put aside your snarly it’s a HP ripoff and give it a try before you snarl then if you don’t like it, snarl away.

What happens when two of the best YA writers unite to write a novel? The result is The Iron Trial, a magical fantasy that introduces a wonderful new world full of intrigue and mystery. In a letter I received with my advanced copy, the authors wrote that they wanted to write something that readers would feel as if they knew what was going to happen, but would quickly be proved wrong. Black and Clare definitely succeeded on their mission because The Iron Trial's plot is filled with surprising twists and turns that will make readers want to read this book from start to finish.

Callum Hunt has been taught by his father that the Magisterium is evil, that they are the reason for his mother's death. Cal is told to fail his entrance exam to the Magisterium, but a series of strange events lead to Cal being picked despite his extremely poor score. Now Cal must perserve at his magical school, even though he has a disability that holds him back.

Cal is a protagonist that readers will absolutely love and will easily root for. It's extremely important to have characters with disabilities in literature because there are so many disabled people in the world and they aren't properly represented in novels. Though one of Cal's legs doesn't function properly and he can't participate in physical activities alongside his classmates, he doesn't let his leg hinder him. I found it amazing how Cal would find such clever ways to accomplish physical tests using other methods that were strictly logical and that didn't require Cal to physically exert himself.

Though there have been complaints that The Iron Trial sounds very "Harry Potter"-esque, this series opener sets it self apart from Rowling's books. The beginning gave off a Potter vibe, but after the first couple of chapters The Iron Trial became its own distinct, wonderful novel. I am confident that readers of all ages will fall in love with Callum Hunt and his friends, in the same way that readers fell in love with Harry Potter. Pretty soon, a legion of readers will want to travel to the Magisterium for themselves!

The world of the Magisterium is filled with so much wonder and secrets; I'm so excited to get to further explore this world in the next 4 novels. I really want to know what else lurks inside this world and the authors do a thorough job of setting up this world. The way magic runs in this world is unlike anything readers have seen and the magic system in this book is more Avatar: The Last Airbender (the TV show, not the atrocious film) than the magic in your average fantasy novel. There is a more of a focus on the elements and controlling them than just transforming objects or making potions.

The Iron Trial has the same signature humor that is found in Clare's Shadowhunter novels and Black's Curseworkers series. The jokes are extremely on point in this novel and they add a lighter tone to some of the darker moments in Callum's journey. Readers will absolutely love watching Callum and his friends interact because of the special relationship they share and the banter that comes out of their mouths. Readers will feel close to their little group and will embrace them despite their shortcomings and mistakes.

Readers will be bewitched by The Iron Trial and will feel compelled to continue this series, no magic necessary. Those who miss the adventure, humor and excitement of Harry Potter will find The Magisterium series to hit the spot and soothe their cravings for more magic. Black and Clare will surprise readers with the ending of book one and there is a cliffhanger that will fill readers with woe if they don't have the sequel on hand. I'm ready to see more of the Magisterium and I just know that this will be an adventure that I won't easily forget.

When it comes to the fantasy genre, boarding schools have been used so many times over – Harry Potter, Vampire Academy, Hex Hall – that you come to expect certain things. There is always a chosen one, there is a powerful enemy faction that needs destroying, etc. Magisterium, for the first half, clings to these tropes – in fact, I felt it was like the darker version of Harry Potter. Callum Hunt and other kids who show the potential for magic powers are inducted into the Magisterium at the age of 12 for training to control their unfocused powers. They pass each year and earn the metal on their cuff (similar to the beads in Camp Half-Blood) and there are five elements that they can use (similar to Vampire Academy). The fifth element, being from the Void, is dangerous to wield and only a select few can do so.

The prologue itself sets the story like you have it mapped in your head. Callum is so obviously the chosen one, or the dangerous one, depending on how you look at it. He is naturally going to pass the Iron Trial, though he doesn’t want to come to the Magisterium. The reason for his unwillingness is the fact that his father, a former mage, has drilled into his head from childhood that magic can only bring death and destruction. Naturally, Callum is wary of staying and fights it from the start. Magic school progresses – magical things happen, yawn! Callum’s sass is the only thing keeping you going here – because he recognizes the darkness in the school. But! The second half is the game-changer.

Clare and Black just smash all our preconceived ideas about how the book might progress and introduce the chosen one and the antagonist. I was left screaming ‘Oh my God’ in head, when that happened, (well, to be honest, I didn’t see that coming) and then during the climax I was ‘ooh, what will happen in the next book now?’. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what constitutes a good series – leave your readers wanting for more. The writing and the pacing, were, well, brisk, and at times, it felt rushed, but things slowing down in the second half plateaued the plot progression. The development of a bond between the three – Call, Aaron and Tamara, was expected but not realized until the time when Call volunteered to be Aaron’s counterweight. For a middle grade, this one packs a ton of feels, and I am just looking forward to how their friendship will play out with the plot of the book.

All I can say in conclusion is that – go read this, even if it feels like a Harry Potter redo. The book is good and I expect a lot from the sequel (fingers crossed).

No Spoilers whatsoever in this review.

Why is it harder to write a review for a book that I really loved than one I just liked? I was so excited about this book it was hard to write in complete sentences. Hehe!

I am very conservative with my 10 star ratings, only books that are my absolute favorite that I know I will read again and again get a perfect score. The Iron Trial gets 10 Stars!

Many of the reviews on Goodreads compared this book to Harry Potter. I think fans of Harry Potter will like this book, but this is NOT a Harry Potter copy! The plot, the characters, and the magic are all unique and different.

My short summary: (This only the setup for the beginning of the book.)

Twelve year-old Callum Hunt, called Call, is always getting in trouble at school and being bullied over his bad leg. Call knows about magic, but his father hasn’t used it since Call’s mother died when he was a baby. It’s now time for Call’s Iron Trial to see if he’s to be trained in magic, but Call’s father has told him that the Magisterium is evil and he has to fail his trial.

My Review:

Call’s not your perfect protagonist. He has an abrasive personality, always saying the wrong things. He complains that he doesn’t have friends, but when people try to befriend him, he’s mean to them. I think because he’s never had friends he has trouble trusting people. It takes a little while to warm up to Call, but I liked that he wasn’t the usual narrator.

Aaron is your typical orphan protagonist. Call calls him Captain America, good looks, nice, talented, and makes friends easily. There are numerous other minor characters and if I had a complaint about this book it was that there were so many minor characters that they were hard to keep straight.

Though I got to read The Iron Trials early I also pre-ordered it. Yes it’s that good!

Sorry I didn’t say much about the actual book, I wanted to be careful not to give anything away. Just read it!

I only wish it was longer!! I want more!!

Can I have the next one now? Please?

The Iron Trial: 10 Stars!

Point of View: Third (Call)

Well written and almost rivitting.

This book was lent to me by a student of mine.
Well, I din't quite think much about it as I had Name of the wind to read.
My thought was that it would be nice if we can read and return it.

Oh no...
There was the catch.
As I started into the book, I found myself drawn into it and moving ahead.

Somehow, a book about magic school draws attention back to Harry Potter.
I can say that the magic in this book is slightly dense than HP.

Also,
I fear.
I fear that the kind of magic explained here in more a natural one.
That is, in HP, the magic was external mostly. You need a wand and spell in the minimum.
Here, it is not so.
The magic is what what resides inside us and also the one that we intend to command.

That makes this book slightly real.

@Authors - Well done effort

Summary: Callum Hunt has been told by his father that he must fail his entrance test to the Magesterium. He tries his best, getting the lowest score of all the applicants, but is chosen for entrance nonetheless. Call’s leg was badly broken when he was a baby, and he’s never been able to play sports or do a lot of things other kids could do. Expecting to hate the Magesterium, he is surprised to find himself enjoying the chance to uncover his magical powers and to make friends for the first time. But there are hints of a dark secret about his past, one that may put an end to his magical powers forever.

Cons: Callum Hunt is a first cousin, barely removed, of Harry Potter. A boy who survived a massacre as a baby (with scarring effects), entering a magic school at age 12, teaming up with a boy and girl who become his best friends, a former student who has embraced the Dark Side…to say this book is derivative is an understatement.

Pros: There’s a reason kids love Harry Potter. It’s a great story. And this story, for all its seeming lack of originality, is a fun story as well. The authors put their own creative mark on the magic school, located somewhere in or near Luray Caverns in Virginia. The action is engaging and pretty much non-stop. I’m not always the best at seeing what’s coming next, but I was totally surprised by the ending, which leaves the reader eager for Book 2.

Wow - a brilliant new magical series is born! The book is skilfully written, with characters you can easily relate to and settings so brilliantly depicted you feel you could be there, watching the events unfold. Don't be fooled into thinking this is going to be just another version of J.K. Rowling's 'Harry Potter' series . . . there are similarities in that the main character, Call, doesn't fit in to his school and is picked on by others and he is magically talented but that's where the stories part company.

Call doesn't want to go to magical school - the Magisterium - because his father has always warned him about how bad it is and how it killed his mother. The Magisterium is an underground school in every sense of the term - it is in a cave system, with no windows and lots of hidden pathways and caverns. Call has to be tested because his parents were both magically talented. He is determined to fail the tests and really tries to do so. Fairly obviously, he doesn't succeed in that and that's as much as I'll share here because you really do need to read this to find out what happens next - and keep reading to the end because there's a dramatic twist in this tale that will leave you reeling. I can't wait to read the next book in this series, I really want to know what happens next!

This is probably aimed at teenagers but it can certainly be enjoyed by adults, too. I hope someone in the film industry also reads it as it could so easily be another brilliant block buster film series if it carries on in the same manner.

Thank you, so much, to the authors, publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this brilliant book. I'll volunteer to read any other books in this series as soon as they are published in exchange for reviewing them honestly, as I've done here!

Callum Hunt's father has been training him his whole life for the test to enter the Magisterium - training him to fail, that is. His mother was killed by one of the many wars the Magisterium was involved in, and Call's father determined to protect him from their sinister machinations. But Call can't hide.

I am a huge fan of Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare usually manages to be entertaining. Thus I had mixed but high hopes for THE IRON TRIAL. And, after reading THE IRON TRIAL, "mixed" sums up my reaction pretty well.

I am a sucker for magic school stories. There's something wonderful about that particular combination of the fantastic and the mundane. The almost-failed-the-test Call is put into the same group as two high achievers: Aaron and Tamara. Together, they sort sand. Yeah, their magic lessons take awhile to get really interesting. I did like the way Black and Clare showed that magic was work and shortcuts could go horribly awry. I also liked the relationship between the three students, which develops pretty naturally. (I didn't like that by the end of THE IRON TRIAL Aaron and Call had both developed special powers and Tamara hadn't.)

My main issue with THE IRON TRIAL is that Call acts incredibly guileless for someone who has been warned about the Magisterium his entire life. He starts off telling the other students his suspicions, but he quickly falls into the patterns of school life and never thinks that anything that happens is sinister. Perhaps his father could've gone into more depth about why Call should be wary, even though his father only has small pieces of the whole picture.

Fans of Harry Potter will enjoy the magic school story as well as the central friendship. (THE IRON TRIAL doesn't do as much to distinguish itself from Harry Potter as it could, honestly. Perhaps THE COPPER GAUNTLET will diverge farther.) Fans of Percy Jackson will enjoy the diverse cast. THE IRON TRIAL is a fun little read for young fantasy fans, but there's little to distinguish it from the current crop of middle grade fantasy.

THE IRON TRIAL by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare is the first book in the exciting new Magisterium fantasy series.

While most readers are likely to agree that the magic school setting is very reminiscent of Harry Potter, the unexpected twists and turns of the plot make it an excellent example of a "first book" in a series. By the end of the book, readers will be asking when the next one will be released.

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare make a dynamic writing team. While Black generally writes for children, Clare is better known as a young adult author. This winning combination works well for this new series.

While there’s nothing particularly special about THE IRON TRIAL (Lexile 830L), it’s likely to be a hot item in most libraries. It’s a quick read and a good lead-in series for children without the reading skills to be success with the HARRY POTTER books (Lexile 880L-980L).

THE IRON TRIAL was number three in the GoodReads Choice Awards for 2014, so it’s sure to be popular with middle grade youth.

For information about Holly Black, go to http://blackholly.com/.
For information about Cassandra Clare, go to http://www.cassandraclare.com/.
For activities and online games related to the book, go to http://irontrial.scholastic.com/

( I read an ARC of this book. This book will be released on Sept. 9, 2014.)

All of Cassandra Clare's and Holly Black's books are definitely for an older audience, but this is their first middle grade novel, it is very clean and would be appropriate for ages eleven plus.

Callum's dad has always told him to do one very simple thing, fail every test you are given in the Iron Trial. The Iron Trial is a series of tests that children are given to see if they have the magical abilities to be put into the Magisterium. The Magisterium is the school for magic, but you must do well in the Iron Trial to get in. Callum's dad has always told him that the Magisterium is a terrible place where the professors kill and conduct experiments on the kids that go there. Callum tries his best to fail, but he is still chosen as one of the students to enter the the school. As Callum learns more and more about the Magisterium and the people that go there, he realizes that it may not be as bad as his dad has always told him. As Callum and his new friends look further into the schools past they begin to uncover secrets that should have never been found, and what the kids decide to do with this information could save or destroy everything they love.

I loved this book! My biggest problem with it was that it did have a lot in common with the Harry Potter series, but luckily there was enough new material that helped me over look all the Harry Potter parallels. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you enjoyed any of their previous books.

My favorite character was Aaron, but I cannot explain why without spoiling the book.

This book had no romance, no language, and minor violence, (mostly involving magical duals.)

Five out of Five Stars

I love Holly Black, which is the main reason I'm giving this book 3 stars. I love the way writes about faeries and how much she knows her stuff. Tithe is one of my favorite books ever. That said, I'm having a really hard time reading this book because of all the similarities with Harry Potter. I find myself constantly rolling my eyes while I read and can't stop comparing both stories. Finding out your're special, getting into magic school, finally having friends (a boy and a girl) after being an outcast your whole life, meeting a good-natured boy that's not really sure why he is at magic school (a la Neville Longbottom) and being taught by a wise wizard whose name is not Dumbledore. Every time I start a new chapter I feel like "been there, done that". Not really sure if it's worth the effort to even finish it.

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare usually always write very captivating stories. I am sure that any story where children get drafted into a magical school is going to get a lot of comparison to Harry Potter, but I thought the authors did a good job making it distinct from Harry Potter. First, the protagonist Call isn't the savior of the magical world. In this book he is more of the screw up, side kick role though he gets his own staring role at the end. Tamara is the token female/super ambitious type though. At least for the first book, I thought Black and Claire did a good job of balancing describing the world, getting to know the characters, and still having a funny plot with enough action in it. I felt like the Magisterium was enough different from other magical world that it didn't get boring. Callum Hunt is an interesting and likable enough character. I will definitely read the next book. All that being said though, it is missing that something that keeps you up late reading and would make it the next Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.

I freakin' loved this book so much! I can definitely see why some people were comparing to to Harry Potter. However, I think that comparison only fits if you take the book at face value.

The Iron Trial is book one in the Magisterium series by two YA powerhouses. This book tells the story of Callum. A teenage boy that has magical abilities but has yet to utilize them as his father refused to let him. Callum's mother was killed in a magical war not too long after he was born. Callum's father found his mother's body and saw that she had scratched "Kill the child" into the wall of the cave where she was killed.

Fast forward a few years to when Callum is chosen to attend the Magisterium, a special school created for the most talented of kids to learn how to harness their magical abilities. Dead set on flunking out, Callum has no intention of trying to learn anything while there.

After making two of the best friends that he has ever had and finding a stray wolf pup in the woods, Callum needs to decide if he is going to stay through his first year at the school or quit when given the chance. Callum is thrown through quite a few loops while at the Magisterium and learns who he really is.

I really really really liked this story and can't wait to read the next one!

I did enjoy the audiobook of this but for a middle grade fantasy read it was just okay. I think because it's called The Iron Trial I expected a series of trials, not really what I got. Call and his friends go through a lot of weird training exercises at the Magisterium and get into some trouble but nothing where I thought any of them were in danger because it played out so light-hearted. I am obsessed with the animals Call brings back home, the lizard and the wolf pup, so I hope the animals continue to play a role throughout the series. The strong point in this series is the characters, they make me want me to continue with this series more than the story does. I think the audio makes a better way to tackle this series versus reading it. I will get the audio for The Copper Gauntlet.

Book #30 Read in 2016
The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Two of the hottest paranormal authors in the YA realm team up to write this series, which is scheduled to consist of five books; this is the first one. Call is selected to try out for a magic school which his father definitely does not want him to attend. Call struggles to find out what his magic is and what secrets his father has hidden from him all of these year. This reminds me a bit of Harry Potter though not as well-developed as that series. That being said, it was a good, quick read--perfect for middle schoolers or high schoolers. I will continue this series; #2 is in my TBR pile and #3 comes out in September.

Review - (4 stars) When I saw there was a book written by BOTH Holly Black (author of Doll Bones and co-author for the Spiderwick Chronicles) and Cassandra Clare (author of The Mortal Instruments series) I was intrigued! Who wouldn't be!? Both authors have amazing reputations for fantasy for middle and high school fantasy. The Iron Trials, book one in the Magisterium series was an sure to get any fantasy fiction enthusiasts attention.

I agree with the reviews who are saying there are similarities for the Harry Potter series. The three main characters include Callum who is unaware of his famous magical past, Aaron who epitomizes the hero figure and Tamara the ultra bright, slightly snobbish type (yes, two boys and one girl). They are sorted into groups to be led by a magician in the ways of magic. They find there is an ultimate evil magician they must defeat eventually. The book series is definitely geared towards lower to middle grade students.

But given there are similarities between the Rowling's famous trios and Black/Clare's group of fledgling magicians; it seems there are enough differences in the story line to "get over" the comparisons.

The length of the book is good for a "quick read", there is plenty of action and suspense and the characters are a nice mix of personalities to keep the readers interested. Perhaps the similarities to the Harry Potter series is just what the story needs to help kids open the book to a new series. Personally, I liked the book and can't wait to read the next in the series, "The Copper Gauntlet" due out September 2015.

Book one of the "Magisterium" series, YA greats Black and Clare team up to bring young readers the story of Callum Hunt, a twelve-year-old, who is fearful of magic and the Magisterium, a school for young "mages." Hunt's father Alistair blames the mages for his wife's death and encourages Callum to fail his entrance exams. Even though Callum attempts to fail, the Magisterium accepts him anyway, and he begins his tutelage under Master Rufus. Befriending Aaron and Tamara, the trio begin their first year of training. In much the same way as Harry, Hermione, and Ron explored Hogwarts, Callum, Aaron, and Tamara explore the mysterious halls of the Magisterium. With twists and turns on every page, and in every hall, Black and Clare create a new world for the imagination, one that is so enticing, the sequel couldn't get here any quicker. Reviewscomingatya.blogspot.com

THE IRON TRIAL by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare is the first book in the exciting new Magisterium fantasy series.

While most readers are likely to agree that the magic school setting is very reminiscent of Harry Potter, the unexpected twists and turns of the plot make it an excellent example of a "first book" in a series. By the end of the book, readers will be asking when the next one will be released.

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare make a dynamic writing team. While Black generally writes for children, Clare is better known as a young adult author. This winning combination works well for this new series.

While there’s nothing particularly special about THE IRON TRIAL (Lexile 830L), it’s likely to be a hot item in most libraries. It’s a quick read and a good lead-in series for children without the reading skills to be success with the HARRY POTTER books (Lexile 880L-980L).

THE IRON TRIAL was number three in the GoodReads Choice Awards for 2014, so it’s sure to be popular with middle grade youth.

For information about Holly Black, go to http://blackholly.com/.
For information about Cassandra Clare, go to http://www.cassandraclare.com/.
For activities and online games related to the book, go to http://irontrial.scholastic.com/

( I read an ARC of this book. This book will be released on Sept. 9, 2014.)

All of Cassandra Clare's and Holly Black's books are definitely for an older audience, but this is their first middle grade novel, it is very clean and would be appropriate for ages eleven plus.

Callum's dad has always told him to do one very simple thing, fail every test you are given in the Iron Trial. The Iron Trial is a series of tests that children are given to see if they have the magical abilities to be put into the Magisterium. The Magisterium is the school for magic, but you must do well in the Iron Trial to get in. Callum's dad has always told him that the Magisterium is a terrible place where the professors kill and conduct experiments on the kids that go there. Callum tries his best to fail, but he is still chosen as one of the students to enter the the school. As Callum learns more and more about the Magisterium and the people that go there, he realizes that it may not be as bad as his dad has always told him. As Callum and his new friends look further into the schools past they begin to uncover secrets that should have never been found, and what the kids decide to do with this information could save or destroy everything they love.

I loved this book! My biggest problem with it was that it did have a lot in common with the Harry Potter series, but luckily there was enough new material that helped me over look all the Harry Potter parallels. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you enjoyed any of their previous books.

My favorite character was Aaron, but I cannot explain why without spoiling the book.

This book had no romance, no language, and minor violence, (mostly involving magical duals.)

Five out of Five Stars

I love Holly Black, which is the main reason I'm giving this book 3 stars. I love the way writes about faeries and how much she knows her stuff. Tithe is one of my favorite books ever. That said, I'm having a really hard time reading this book because of all the similarities with Harry Potter. I find myself constantly rolling my eyes while I read and can't stop comparing both stories. Finding out your're special, getting into magic school, finally having friends (a boy and a girl) after being an outcast your whole life, meeting a good-natured boy that's not really sure why he is at magic school (a la Neville Longbottom) and being taught by a wise wizard whose name is not Dumbledore. Every time I start a new chapter I feel like "been there, done that". Not really sure if it's worth the effort to even finish it.

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare usually always write very captivating stories. I am sure that any story where children get drafted into a magical school is going to get a lot of comparison to Harry Potter, but I thought the authors did a good job making it distinct from Harry Potter. First, the protagonist Call isn't the savior of the magical world. In this book he is more of the screw up, side kick role though he gets his own staring role at the end. Tamara is the token female/super ambitious type though. At least for the first book, I thought Black and Claire did a good job of balancing describing the world, getting to know the characters, and still having a funny plot with enough action in it. I felt like the Magisterium was enough different from other magical world that it didn't get boring. Callum Hunt is an interesting and likable enough character. I will definitely read the next book. All that being said though, it is missing that something that keeps you up late reading and would make it the next Harry Potter or Percy Jackson.

I freakin' loved this book so much! I can definitely see why some people were comparing to to Harry Potter. However, I think that comparison only fits if you take the book at face value.

The Iron Trial is book one in the Magisterium series by two YA powerhouses. This book tells the story of Callum. A teenage boy that has magical abilities but has yet to utilize them as his father refused to let him. Callum's mother was killed in a magical war not too long after he was born. Callum's father found his mother's body and saw that she had scratched "Kill the child" into the wall of the cave where she was killed.

Fast forward a few years to when Callum is chosen to attend the Magisterium, a special school created for the most talented of kids to learn how to harness their magical abilities. Dead set on flunking out, Callum has no intention of trying to learn anything while there.

After making two of the best friends that he has ever had and finding a stray wolf pup in the woods, Callum needs to decide if he is going to stay through his first year at the school or quit when given the chance. Callum is thrown through quite a few loops while at the Magisterium and learns who he really is.

I really really really liked this story and can't wait to read the next one!

I did enjoy the audiobook of this but for a middle grade fantasy read it was just okay. I think because it's called The Iron Trial I expected a series of trials, not really what I got. Call and his friends go through a lot of weird training exercises at the Magisterium and get into some trouble but nothing where I thought any of them were in danger because it played out so light-hearted. I am obsessed with the animals Call brings back home, the lizard and the wolf pup, so I hope the animals continue to play a role throughout the series. The strong point in this series is the characters, they make me want me to continue with this series more than the story does. I think the audio makes a better way to tackle this series versus reading it. I will get the audio for The Copper Gauntlet.

Book #30 Read in 2016
The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Two of the hottest paranormal authors in the YA realm team up to write this series, which is scheduled to consist of five books; this is the first one. Call is selected to try out for a magic school which his father definitely does not want him to attend. Call struggles to find out what his magic is and what secrets his father has hidden from him all of these year. This reminds me a bit of Harry Potter though not as well-developed as that series. That being said, it was a good, quick read--perfect for middle schoolers or high schoolers. I will continue this series; #2 is in my TBR pile and #3 comes out in September.

Review - (4 stars) When I saw there was a book written by BOTH Holly Black (author of Doll Bones and co-author for the Spiderwick Chronicles) and Cassandra Clare (author of The Mortal Instruments series) I was intrigued! Who wouldn't be!? Both authors have amazing reputations for fantasy for middle and high school fantasy. The Iron Trials, book one in the Magisterium series was an sure to get any fantasy fiction enthusiasts attention.

I agree with the reviews who are saying there are similarities for the Harry Potter series. The three main characters include Callum who is unaware of his famous magical past, Aaron who epitomizes the hero figure and Tamara the ultra bright, slightly snobbish type (yes, two boys and one girl). They are sorted into groups to be led by a magician in the ways of magic. They find there is an ultimate evil magician they must defeat eventually. The book series is definitely geared towards lower to middle grade students.

But given there are similarities between the Rowling's famous trios and Black/Clare's group of fledgling magicians; it seems there are enough differences in the story line to "get over" the comparisons.

The length of the book is good for a "quick read", there is plenty of action and suspense and the characters are a nice mix of personalities to keep the readers interested. Perhaps the similarities to the Harry Potter series is just what the story needs to help kids open the book to a new series. Personally, I liked the book and can't wait to read the next in the series, "The Copper Gauntlet" due out September 2015.

Book one of the "Magisterium" series, YA greats Black and Clare team up to bring young readers the story of Callum Hunt, a twelve-year-old, who is fearful of magic and the Magisterium, a school for young "mages." Hunt's father Alistair blames the mages for his wife's death and encourages Callum to fail his entrance exams. Even though Callum attempts to fail, the Magisterium accepts him anyway, and he begins his tutelage under Master Rufus. Befriending Aaron and Tamara, the trio begin their first year of training. In much the same way as Harry, Hermione, and Ron explored Hogwarts, Callum, Aaron, and Tamara explore the mysterious halls of the Magisterium. With twists and turns on every page, and in every hall, Black and Clare create a new world for the imagination, one that is so enticing, the sequel couldn't get here any quicker. Reviewscomingatya.blogspot.com

I received an ARC copy of this book at BEA 2014 and it was one of the books I got that I was most excited for. The Iron Trial is technically a middle grade novel but it read like people of any age would enjoy it. The Iron Trial did not disappoint, I fell in love with this world and the characters. The pacing was perfect and there was just enough action and mystery to keep me interested. I flew through this novel in a few short hours and was left craving the next in the series, sadly The Iron Trial has just been released so i may be waiting awhile.
I love these characters! Poor Callum, he will have some tough decisions to make in the future and I can't wait to find out what he decides. He is a pretty awesome character. I also really enjoy Aaron and Tamara. They seem to all have secrets and I can't wait to find them out haha. Plus with that ending I need to know what will happen to our hero. I would recommend this novel to fantasy lovers.

Almost an exact replica of Harry Potter, but for some reason I still liked it. Weird.

Nutshell:
Magical world, kids go to magical school. Two guys and a girl become close friends and get themselves into trouble while trying to defeat the bad guy. One of these boys happens to be connected to the bad guy in some way.

I seriously could be describing Harry Potter in just my "Nutshell" alone. It's the only reason that I gave it 3 stars, for the sheer exact copy of someone else's story. Problem is, I still liked it.
The characters are very likeable, even the Draco Malfoy-like character in this book has redeeming qualities. It's also still awesome to go back into the magical world. So, if you're missing all things Harry Potter this might be a quick fix. But it's nowhere near as good as the original.

My 12 year-old daughter loved it and cannot wait for more books from this author. She asked to write a review for this book and her review is below:

"Love this series. I already read all three books in the series. Can't wait till the 4th book. Sometimes I can't believe this isn't a best seller. Definitley for all ages. There is more mystery than plot and action. For once the main character isn't the best. He isn't the worst but he's not the best. He has a history like no other and as you get into the series, he finds out things about himself that isn't good. I recommend this book to all ages depending if they like mystery more than action."

I've only read the first three Immortal City by Cassandra Clare and nothing yet by Holly Black, but I was really excited for this release. I was a bit disappointed, even though it was a fine book.

The similarities toward Harry Potter are just too obvious. They are everywhere: Plot, characters, twists, ideas, story … It was like reading a Harry Potter fan-fic all over. And I didn’t like it. I don’t mind that there are a few similar ideas but this was way too much

But the story did have some great parts too. I really like the beginning and the whole “magic thing” was fine. I liked the idea about Makars and their counterweights. The Chaos magic was pretty nice too.

All in all it was a fine book. I could imagine buying it to others but I'm not sure I will read further myself.

I was so entranced by this book that I read the entire thing in only two days. I've read enough reviews on here talking about the parallels between this book and Harry Potter. Yes the main character is a boy who goes to magic school and yes eventually becomes friends with a male and a female, but beyond that it's not the same. It's like saying "The Hunger Games" and "Divergent" are exactly the same. They have things in common but their plot points and characters are vastly different. The main character here "Callum; aka Call" doesn't want to go to magic school because dear old dad has told him all his life about the evils of magic school. I liked the struggle of Call because in the beginning he really doesn't want to be at magic school and wants to do all he can to be expelled, but over time he starts to like the school and that becomes a problem because he promised his father he would do all he could to leave.

I loved that magic in this book isn't easy to do. That becoming good at magic would take lots of concentration and lots of patience. I loved the relationships in this book especially the relationship between father and son. At first he believes everything his father says but over time he starts to doubt if his father even loves him. The plot is excellent and there were several things that happened that I didn't see coming.

My only compliant about this book is that when Call is first taken away to the "magisterium" the father and son pair is told that he won't see his father until the second summer of being there, because at the time of the first summer break the new students would still have too little "control" to be able to go home. That was my "impression" because the book tells it like so many of the parents are heartbroken because they won't see their child for what seems a long while.

I don't know why more people aren't reading this book. Maybe because it's only the "first book" and many people won't start reading until probably book 3 or 4 comes out. I've read the Harry Potter books extensively, both of Cassandra Clare's series (Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices), and many books in both fantasy, magic, and dystopian genre's. I honestly liked this better than Mortal Instruments because it was more light hearted and innocent feeling. Mortal Instruments has it that most shadowhunters die young and in the series you can count that the bad baddie will become a even worse baddie. That doesn't make it a bad series but at certain times it can be pretty dark.

Callum needs to fail the entrance exams for magic school, but he's accidentally very good at it. He doesn't want to make friends, but sharing space makes them at least friendly.

But there's a major threat to the magic world, and maybe Callum is the answer. Or at least, the person who finds out the right questions to ask.

Harry Potter Checklist:
Boy who grew up without magic, check.
Magic burst out in unexpected ways, check.
Scar from childhood magical encounter, check.
Messy black hair, check.
Dead parent, check.
Clever teachers, check.
Clueless administration - sort of.
Bad guy with spies in school - check.
all-white cast of main characters - happily, no check.

Many people will dismiss this series as a Harry Potter knock off. Let me counter that. Just because there is magic and a character loses one or more parent and there is an identity crisis, does not make a book a copy or knock off of Harry Potter. Any of these elements have present long before Harry Potter to begin with.

Iron Trial is a collaboration between Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. Callum Huntis the sole survivor of a magical massacre that left his father distrustful of magical and the magical world. As a result, Callum's magic is wild and he had inherited his father's distrust. He goes into the Iron Trial determined to fail, despite his worst efforts, he is taken by the Magesterium to be trained, sure it means his death.

Despite his worst fears, Callum learns to enjoy his lessons and makes friends, but all is not well in the magical world and old enemies will rise and difficult decisions will be made.

I haven't read anything by Holly Black yet but I picked up this book because Cassandra Clare was co-writing it. I'm a little bias when it comes to her writing, only because I'm in love with her Shadowhunters Series(no matter how many she will make.) When I heard the third book of this series was coming out, I figured I should hurry up and finish this first one then buy the next two. I first got this book a few months after it came out in 2014 and it's just taking me a few years to get into it and read it.

At first it was hard to read, I've been in a slight reading slump for a while and I haven't been reading a lot (very sad about that) but anyway, thanks to Audio books I was able to finish this book.

When I picked up this book and started to read it, I thought Callum was going to be about 17, only because that's the ages in Shadowhunters. Now that I'm 18, it felt weird reading about a younger character. It was harder to relate to some things. I also figured out that Callum is not pronounced like Calum (Only going by how the audio book says it). Anyway, the whole storyline felt a little like Harry Potter. I don't know why, but it might've been because they were 12 and could do magic? Nethertheless, it was still a great fun little read to help me get into reading about. Now I just have to pick up the second and third book and get all caught up!

This is Susan's son, first off. I want to start by saying that I didn't purchase this from the store; I happened upon it in a local bookstore while looking for books with my mom over the weekend. The cover caught my eye, so I read the synopsis, which intrigued me, so I bought it. I got home that afternoon and had it read that evening. I normally don't describe books as page turners, not because I don't read (far from it; I actually need to look into getting another bookshelf since mine is getting kinda full), but because unless a book is just so dreadfully dull that even picking it up is a challenge, once I dive into a book, I generally don't come out again until it's finished. That said, I can definitely ay that The Iron Trial does deserve the page turner description for the plain and simple fact that I went into it not really knowing what to expect and was captivated.

As to the book itself: many reviews are noting similarities to Harry Potter and rightfully so. Harry Potter is perhaps the single most well known example of the "magic academy" storyline of the modern age, so any series that takes place in a magic school is bound to draw comparisons. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as people who loved Harry Potter are that much more likely to pick this book up and enjoy it. When I first began reading, I'll admit I was initially dismayed when real world locations were being discussed as I'm not overly fond of what I consider "conventional" contemporary fantasy; too many young, whiny protagonists that are singled out as the Chosen One with long-suffering mentors soured me on the genre. But then I really got into as I began to notice the initial similarities to Harry Potter.

With that said, those similarities can best be described as they both take place in a world where magic exists and is kept secret, with preteen magicians being tapped to go to a mysterious school in a vague location; both have magical wars in their histories instigated by evil mages with intimidating names (Voldemort for Harry Potter, the Enemy of Death for Magisterium) who have the nebulously nefarious goal of conquering death. Both share roughly similar dynamics and character archetypes, such as the wise, yet exceptionally eccentric, master who gives lessons in an infuriatingly vague fashion, the snobby rival who's convinced his lineage obviously makes him better than others, things of that nature.

However, that's pretty much where the similarities end (beyond one or two specific items). Where Harry Potter flitted around pop culture, The Iron Trial embraces it quite openly. One character is, in fact, directly compared to Marvel's Captain America and both Star Wars and The Hobbit are mentioned by name, as is the band Led Zepplin. Where Harry Potter takes place in magnificently ancient and thoroughly magical castle far from anything and only reached by a secret train, The Iron Trial takes place in an extensive underground cave system reached by a fairly mundane school bus that actually makes a pit stop at one point. Where Harry Potter has witches and wizards signed up from birth and receiving a letter on their 11th birthday, The Iron Trial requires young aspirants, aged 12, to undergo the eponymous test to demonstrate that they enough magical capacity to handle magic, while those who don't are turned away.

Further, the character dynamics couldn't be more different. The protagonist, rather than being unsure, a little naive, and inherently friendly, is more cynical, a lover of snark, and also torn with himself; he was raised to hate magic, but finds himself enjoying it greatly. The lead female, rather than coming from muggles, is from an old magical line, was raised to be an overachiever, and was actually somewhat condescending towards the protagonist at first. The best friend, rather than being a bit of a goof and a slacker, is in fact quite serious and hard working. The mentor takes a far more direct hand in their education, while the rival acts the way he does due to his own insecurity rather than any sense of superiority.

As mentioned by others, the greatest difference is the system of magic: rather than being traditional magic, with spoken spells and wand movements, Magisterium features magic based around the elements. Specifically, they seem to be based around the godai, or five element principle of Japanese philosophy, where the elements are fire, water, wind, earth, and void (Iron Trial's chaos is often said to be "of the void"); indeed, the Magisterium symbol with the five elements that can be seen on the cover and elsewhere is reminiscent of the gorintou, a stone tower used to represent the godai found mainly in Buddhist and Shinto shrines.

The comparisons to Harry Potter aside, with the way the narrative flowed, as well as some of the developments, I actually felt a few similarities to the Traveler's Gate Trilogy by Will Wight, in addition to some of the works of Trudi Canavan, thanks to how the magic is actually employed; since I loved those books, as well, this is by no means a bad thing. In fact, I view it as a positive, because it makes the story more familiar, while its differences allow it to stand on its own, like an old friend you're seeing through new eyes.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable book and I'm eagerly awaiting the second; despite that, however, I decided to rate the book 4 stars simply because, while the main characters are decently fleshed out, Callum more than others (obviously, as it's his story), the supporting characters just aren't really there. With only a few exceptions in an adequately sized cast, the rest are just names on a page. That said, in addition to being fairly short (by my standards), this is only the first book in a series of a projected five, so I'm much more lenient than if it were a stand alone novel. The story was pretty fast paced, with its own unique twists and turns, with questions answered and mysteries raised, so I think if people enjoyed Harry Potter and can accept the similarities as trappings of the genre, they will really like this book.

"This wonderful adventure of a book takes the contents of fantasy and real-life and binds them together to add vivid depth to the characters and scenes."

In this magical fiction novel called The Iron Trial, the beginning to a five book long journey based upon five years to complete the Magisterium, we follow the life of twelve-year old Callum Hunt who takes on a series of breathtaking and lamentable events. Call’s a magician, but he’s probably the only magician who doesn’t want to set foot into the Magisterium, an astounding school for sorcerers of any type. This wonderful adventure of a book takes the contents of fantasy and real-life and binds them together to add vivid depth to the characters and scenes.

The Iron Trial is a well-woven journey full of magical events that will change everybody’s lives and unlock the most terrible, tragic, and bizarre secrets from deep within. Call is set to encounter a number of dangerous tasks whereby he discovers strange and dark secrets about his own soul within messages in a black box. He was very hard-headed and disrespectful towards others initially but eventually bonds with Tamara Rajavi and Aaron Stewart who end up being his protective teammates. He does however have a strong affection towards helpless and abandoned animals, and takes risks to save them. He was afraid of magic in the start, for his father explained it to be a very dangerous weapon. Also, to his disadvantage, Call has a sprained ankle which lowers his chance of succeeding in part of the Magisterium test. These details plus more add twists to the plot that centers about an atypical character.

The intriguing world of Callum Hunt and his cohorts is often compared to that of Harry Potter’s. However, this page turner deserves its own merit as one will discover there are definite distinctions between those two characters and that this is no Harry Potter retread. For example, Call is apprenticed to Master Rufus like all the other students who each find themselves under the tutelage of a Master unlike at Hogwarts.

I recommend this book to all readers seven to nineteen years old. I enjoyed this book because of the unique story that follows Call and the distinctive personalities of every character in the story and most of all the fabulous unexpected twist at the conclusion. The story is pretty easy to follow with a driving plot, refreshing and engaging which makes the book a short read – leaves one wanting for more! Don’t let this one go by.

Review by Young Mensan Ethan R., age 9, St. Louis Area Mensa

It was not until at 88% that I found out why Callum was the protagonist. But then again, why would you pick such an ignorant and foolhardy boy as the protagonist? I mean, even the plot could have been somewhat enjoyable, had it not been for the "hero", whose antics were just plain stupid at times.
Also; my god was the world—building lacking.

I thoroughly enjoyed Iron Trial. I liked the dynamics between the characters and how Callum starts to see a world beyond what he grew up learning as a child.
One thing that troubles me about this book is the need Callum felt to keep knowledge he learned secret from the adults/mentors in his life. This is a failing common to many middle reader and young adult books. I am a bit concerned that it may suggest to young people that adults are not trustworthy and that can create divisions for upcoming generations.

I wanted to like this so much more than I did.

People have been saying it's a Harry Potter rip-off. I see what they mean, though I don't readily agree. There are certainly echoes of HP (magic school, three main kids, a girl and two boys, ect.) and the villain is very Volodomort-like, especially when you get toward the end of the book. But I didn't find it to be AS blatant a rip-off as some of the other reviews say.

A problem I had with it was the amount of telling that was in the book. I know with middle grader there's bound to be some telling. But this was too much. The passive voice left me bored throughout most of the story. The book was oddly paced, I couldn't invest in any of the main characters, and I was indifferent about the twists.

In the end the book was a disappointment.

I think a good story can come from this. The world was interesting enough to keep me reading. And if the reviews for the next book sound more hopeful, I'll give it a shot.

For now, though, I'm kind of glad to be done with this.

2/5

First impressions

Got the chance to receive an ARC of The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare. The cover caught my attention from the very beginning, three young kids surrounded by a mysterious fog, ready to attack an unseen enemy. It was until I received the ARC that I found out (srsly…) about the fact this was a book about three friends going to a magic school. Sounds familiar? yes, I know.

Story

If you do a quick search in Goodreads, you’ll find mixed opinions about The Iron Trial, but many of them point to the similarities with the Harry Potter series. For example:

-Young kid with uncertain past that struggles to find purpose in life
-Secrets from the past trying to haunt the present of the protagonist
-Two boys, one girl team.
-Multicultural environment
-Villain who wants to live forever
-Villain who finds a way to live forever

Yes, there are many, many similarities, but the focus of this story takes another direction. Besides, the style of writing is very different. While Harry Potter is also aimed to young readers, The Iron Trial uses a really simple language to convey almost everything, and this is what makes the worldbuilding weak. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed every chapter, there’s a lot of action and mystery, but there was a lot of potential for the readers to immerse in this fantasy world.

Characters

There are no ‘houses’ in this story, the Masters are the ones in charge to take their own apprentices and develop their skills in the elements: fire, water, air, earth and chaos. There are many Masters and I’m sure we’ll get to know them better in the next installments but in this first book I felt them shallow. We know their names and some bits of their past, but there’s no connection. In the other hand I feel Black and Clare did an excellent job with the students. They do feel like real teenagers.

Conclusion

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are big names in the bookish world right now and while I haven’t read anything before from any of them I’m sure The Iron Trial will draw many of their fans, the question is if the success of this collaboration will be result of talent or fame.

Rating: ★★★

I received an ARC from Scholastic in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Thank you Doubleday Children's for providing me with an advanced reading copy for review.

By reading The Iron Trial, the first book in the Magisterium series, I think I have signed up for an amazing adventure. Even though this book seems more like a set-up for what's still to come, I immensely enjoyed reading the story of Callum Hunt and his first experiences with the Magisterium. Now let's head into the deeper stuff.

Starting off with the characters, a lot of them already have my love. All well developed and each with their backstories. All of those quickly caught my interest, and I started to care for a lot of the characters. Not only Callum with his snarky comments, or Tamara who easily stands up for herself, or Aaron with all the surprising events involving him. Other characters such as Jasper, Celia, Drew,Warren, Rufus, and Alistair form a surprisingly fantastic combination with the other three main characters you'll get to love. And Havoc. I can't ever forget that cute little wolf I would adore to adopt, if not for that little thing.

Moving onto the world, I am thoroughly drawn into it. It is without a doubt, suitable for the story and genre and is most of all, original. I'm rather sure when I say you have never come across a world like this. The world itself is a lot more darker than you would normally encounter with a middle grade. Surely I was quite surprised with that, because I honestly didn't expect it to turn out like this. On the other hand, that doesn't mean I liked it less. In fact, because of this surprising touch to it I enjoyed it so much more. I understand why Call doesn't want to leave anymore at the end of the school year. I wouldn't either. Intriguing is the number one word to describe it all. The world of Magisterium has compelled me. Even though The Iron Trial is the first book and focuses on the world building and its history, there is still a lot undiscovered and I would love to read more about it.

The only thing that fell a bit short and so caused the four stars instead of the five, was the plot and pace in general. I didn't feel like there was much plot present in this book because of the constant amount of world building and character development. I didn't like how they were trained as apprentices and I would have loved to gain some more insight on their training as a whole. I still wonder what the actual meaning was of the sorting out of the sand. It surely increased their focus and patience, yet I do hope that some more action-packed lessons are set for the sequels.

Feel free to set those prejudices towards this book because it's supposedly a Harry Potter rip-off aside, and let me tell you why. Just because J.K. Rowling wrote a world-wide known series about wizards and witches, doesn't mean that the woman holds the copy right to everything written in that particular genre. I do understand that it's never possible to completely write a book different to Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. Once you head towards that particular genre, you'll always going to end up with similarities, no matter how hard you try. There will always be someone calling it a rip-off from something else. But let me repeat myself again: it's not because someone else gets wildly popular in a particular genre that it's impossible for others to write in that genre too. Dear God, for now I'm patiently waiting until everyone reads this book and then all stop with judging.

So to everyone out there thinking this was going to be yet another Harry Potter rip-off: it isn't. The Iron Trial is a magical thrill ride on its own and filled with amazing characters, plot twists and a fascinating world. Despite the small resemblances to other middle grade's I've read and the slower pace, I still loved reading the book. I cannot wait to see what the rest of the series holds, but I don't think I will have the patience to wait another year. Dammit.

This book took me a while to get into, I am not sure if it is just because JF is not my normal genre, but I was quite surprised it took me halfway to really like the book considering Cassandra Clare and Holly Black are the authors! Once I hit the halfway mark it was a lot easier to read and enjoy. I am not sure if I am ready for 4 more books that are going to be in the series, but I am curious as to how everything will pan out for Call, Aaron and the rest of their friends. Interesting book just slow for me to get into at first.

It is Call, Aaron, and Tamaras adventures that makes my heart beat and my head pound. Each time they learn new spells, eat yummy lichen, play in the gallery, do crazy stunts, sneak around and get into crazy trouble with elements, i wish i can go to The Magisterium and do it myself. If you like Harry Potter, the Stolen Kingdom and other action and adventure stories that include magic, this is the story for you. Horray For The IRON TRIAL!!!!! :) :) :) :D

***

After slogging through this book, I’d give it three clumps of lichen just based on the ending alone (if you read the book, this will make sense.)

What originally attracted me to this book was its amazing cover. I loved the art style, and the death-eater-looking bad guy that dominates the scene (more on the Harry Potter similarities below.) The trio of kids below was a nice complement and created an air of conflict before I even opened the book. So, the cover rocked.
Once I opened the book and began reading, I found myself really intrigued by the prologue. The writing’s voice was interesting, and the scenario really got me hooked: A lone stranger, climbing the icy face of a mountain only to discover that a massacre had taken place. He finds an abandoned baby boy. Next to the little tike were the words etched in ice, “kill the child.”

Hook, line, and sinker. I was in.

And then… the story started. At first, I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I had a hard time getting into this book. After giving this some thought, I think my initial issues with this book were rooted in the poor pacing, and the lack of real conflict early in the book. I’ll explain these after the book blurb:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial.

Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail.

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him.

So he tries his best to do his worst – and fails at failing.

Now the Magisterium awaits him. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future.

The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, my issues are centered in the pacing, and lack of real conflict early in the book.
Pacing - This book is really a setup for the series, which is nothing new. Not all book 1’s have to spend so much time initially setting up each character and his or her backgrounds, though. My guess is, ultimately, the authors decided to make such a great prologue with such a compelling hook, because the beginning of the story was so slow. It’s a technique that buys the writers time to do all the info dumping they want. In a way, it worked with me, as I almost gave up on the book a couple of times but didn’t because I wanted to see what that prologue was about. I’m glad I didn’t give up, too, as the last quarter of the novel was quite good.

Lack of conflict early on - While this story had magic, and mysterious secrets, it really didn’t feel like it did. At first, I wondered if the descriptions just left me wanting. Then, the three protagonists met a fire elemental named Warren; a lizard that seemed devious and mischievous, and I was instantly paying more attention to the story than I had before. I then realized, that this lizard represented a real conflict appearing in the story for the first time. Sure, Callum Hunt, the main protagonist, had a father that was seriously against him going to the magisterium, but it was expected for him to go, and everything pointed to him going, even though he tried to fail. The Mages wouldn’t allow him to skip school. This conflict didn’t feel real. And, yeah, there were bullies that would pick on Callum, but it seemed obvious that the adults and Mages would protect him somehow. That conflict didn’t feel real either.

But when Callum (spoilers coming) steals Warren, the fire elemental, and some key information about his past, the story takes a different, more risky turn. They get lost, and Callum’s forced to rely on Warren to navigate the dark caverns of the magisterium. Suddenly there was a real conflict. The reader could sense that Warren had dual motives, but wasn’t sure what they were. Things got real from there on.

Later, the true Makar (the chosen one) is revealed as someone other than Callum, and that other person is the only one that can beat the enemy of death. Then, the twists began. While Callum wasn’t the Makar, like the authors surely wanted the readers to believe he was. We learn that he has a much more twisted fate in store for him, and, to be fair, the twist was a really good one. For me, the last quarter of the book made up for all the rest.

Side note: There are a LOT of reviewers that hate on this book for some of its parallels to the Harry Potter series. While I can see where they are coming from, I didn’t feel like these similarities were so blatant that it hurt my personal reading experience. That said, I did notice a couple of things here and there that broke the “spell” momentarily, but I got my groove again fairly easily.

In short, if you can get by on the excitement produced in you from the prologue to last through the first 3/4 of the book, you will likely enjoy the twisted ending, and the real internal conflict it produces in Callum.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The characters are full dimensional. Although I noticed some similarities to Harry Potter, this book marches on its own. It is well written with a good tempo and I did find it difficult to put down and do my own work. When I did finish it, I didn't do my work. I picked up the second book in the series.

One of those books you don't want it to end. Ok so I thought of Harry Potter too
but it was different - enough so that I got totally engaged in this outstanding story and didn't think of the other at all. I really enjoyed Call and how he thought throughout the book. Now we have to wait until September 2015. I teach middle school English and will definatly get more copies to share with my students. I haven't read a book this good for awhile and can see this series becoming the next must read.

Callum "Call" Hunt's dad wants him to fail the Iron Trial (a test to detect acceptable and better magic). But his dad wants him to fail. His dad claims the Magesterium (the school you go to if you pass The Iron Trial) has wrecked his life and killed his mom. But Call fails at failing…

I started reading this book with my 10-year-old son, but found myself reading further (to myself, after we had stopped) because I just couldn't put it down! As engrossing to me as Harry Potter, and I love that I was already familiar with Holly Black (I had read the Spiderwick Chronicles with my two older sons years ago). I was disappointed with the ending (edge of your seat kind of stuff) but it will be great to see where the series heads with the choice that the main character made at the end. I'm anxiously awaiting book #2. Highly recommend (I am a 38 year old mom of 5). It will be hard to wait until it's published.

3.5 stars

*I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

The thing is, I love Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. They both have written some excellent books, so I was very excited when they announced they were going to write a book together. So my expectations were pretty high and it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Now the story is definitely written for middle-graders. This becomes very clear from the age of the main characters and the overall lack of complexity in the writing and some parts of the plot. Still normally that wouldn't be a bother to me. It's just something you need to take in mind.

I read this story in two sittings. The first time I stopped, I was exactly at the half of the book and like I tweeted, my first thought was 'Harry Potter.' Usually I don't look for comparisons between books, but this time it felt so upfront, it was impossible not to notice. It's of course not an exact copy, there are just a lot of similarities and you get that same feeling with the two books. Which you can consider a good thing, since I'm somewhat comparing The Iron Trial with Harry Potter, though the level is definitely different.

This is the first time I believe, I gave away my thoughts before finishing a book and it quickly became clear I judged too fast. Call might not be the hero I thought he was supposed to be. These authors will put you on a false trail, and I walked right into it. That's not to say I wasn't right about some smaller, but still important details. I am very curious how this will all play out. The hero and villain are not who you expect, the plot development isn't as straight forward as you thought and there is still so much to learn about this world of magic.

It's mostly because of the whole Harry Potter feeling that made me gave it this 3.5 star rating. I realize it's not easy to co-write a book, but with these two authors I just expected more. The writing on it's own was great and the story flows very well, though I do believe there is some complexity missing (therefore making this a book for middle-graders). I think thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, boys and girls will very much enjoy the story of Call and his friends. Without the spoilers I just need to add that it's definitely the second part of the book that convinced me to read the next one in this series.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Here are some of my extra thoughts on the story and mainly the character Call. Do not read this if you haven't read the book, because it will spoil everything!!!

As to why I get the whole Harry Potter feeling on this story and this was before I came to the end. From the beginning I suspected Call was a very powerful wizard, and the reason that his dad kept him away from the Magisterium was because Call's mom got killed by the bad guy and the Magisterium didn't fulfill their promise of protecting the innocent.

What I also suspected was that the Enemy left a little piece of himself in Call. Since Call was the only one surviving that massacre when he was a baby, it made it a bit suspicious. Therefore I believed in a powerful Call, that he would have an affinity with chaos magic and well you can see why I started imagining some great battle between him and the Enemy.

So it definitely took me by surprise when it became clear that Aaron is the hero, the one who will have to defeat the Enemy. This changed the whole dynamic between Call and his friends. Because now it felt like Call wasn't the main big topic, but Aaron. So I believed we might get a tale from the best friend's pov, which looks very promising. Except there is of course still the issue of what is so special about Call then?

Another major spoiler!!!

Apparently Call is the reincarnation of the Enemy. That guy died on the battlefield many years ago and transferred his soul into Call's body. So I might have not been completely right on the part of a piece of the Enemy sitting within Call, instead he is the Enemy. Still feeling some Harry Potter vibes though. Call doesn't remember anything from his life as the bad guy, so he's hoping he can still be a good guy now and hopefully nobody finds out or they will want to kill him.

But how do you blame someone who doesn't remember? Somebody who is no longer evil and in this lifetime has done nothing wrong? I'm definitely left feeling WTH!

It's this second part of the book that convinced me to read the next one in this series.

**END SPOILER**

This is one of my favorite fiction books thats bound to become a popular world series later on. Magisterium is a five book series that started with The Iron Trial. My story? I was shopping at Costco and me and my family went to the section that sells books. I was looking for a good new book and found this on top of a different pile. The cover looked very interesting to me and curiousity took over. I read the summary and it absolutely thrilled me to no end. Sadly, I didn't get it. The next time I went, I found the book again and my aunt decided to get it for me. Now imagine a small girl reading on her cozy bed. After one night for about 45 minutes, I was unknowingy up to page 105! Soon, I ended up finishing the book in 3-4 days. When you read this book, your curiousity will take over about what Call, Tamara and Aaron will do on the next page.

It didn't even occur to me that this book was geared to the middle school level until I read the comments! I should point out that part of my obliviousness comes from reading the book first, *then* reading the comments (it's a built in book club).
"The Iron Trial" transcends its labels, which makes it a darn good read.
Congratulations to Ms. Clare and Ms. Black on a successful collaboration. I enjoyed "The Iron Trial" immensely, and am looking forward to book 2, "The Copper Guantlet".

Most of the book felt like a fairly decent middle grade Harry Potter Wannabe. It was okay but I thought I could see where it was heading. Then the book took some turns and went some places that I totally had not foreseen. I'm pretty impressed now, and feel like I have to read on to see what happens.

The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare is an interesting and fun read; a simplified Harry Potter. Much is the same in the two story lines, such as the mystery of the protagonist's parents, his powers, friends and education. I still enjoyed The Iron Trial and appreciate the arc from Scholastic Press and NetGalley! Anyone who loved Harry Potter will relate to and enjoy the story of Callum Hunt in The Iron Trial!

I had a hard time deciding how many stars to give this. I was going to give three because the story is "okay" but...I'm just to disappointed to like it AT ALL. I was excited for this release. I am a huge Cassandra Clare fan (I don't believe I have ever read anything else by Holly Black).
I was extremely disappointed in this book. Honestly I can't believe it even made it to publishing because it is so blatantly Harry Potter.

Honestly a book this size should have taken me just a couple hours to get through...I was stuck on this one for almost a week. Refusing to give up on it because I spent $16 on it at walmart. I was so angry about it being an HP knockoff that I just couldn't bring my self to read it and would have to set it down after just a few pages. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this didn't start a lawsuit ( they have been started for far less). The authors and publishers should be ashamed to have put their names on this book.

I could sit here all day and type out everything in this book that is re-worked HP. Its insane.

I gave the two stars because the story itself is "okay" but I have decided it has irked me enough that I just don't like it. I wont be spending money on the next books in this series as I already have three sets of HP books and can just read those instead of buying all of these.

I am seriously just disappointed in the whole situation.

I started reading this book with my 10-year-old son, but found myself reading further (to myself, after we had stopped) because I just couldn't put it down! As engrossing to me as Harry Potter, and I love that I was already familiar with Holly Black (I had read the Spiderwick Chronicles with my two older sons years ago). I was disappointed with the ending (edge of your seat kind of stuff) but it will be great to see where the series heads with the choice that the main character made at the end. I'm anxiously awaiting book #2. Highly recommend (I am a 38 year old mom of 5). It will be hard to wait until it's published.

3.5 stars

*I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

The thing is, I love Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. They both have written some excellent books, so I was very excited when they announced they were going to write a book together. So my expectations were pretty high and it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Now the story is definitely written for middle-graders. This becomes very clear from the age of the main characters and the overall lack of complexity in the writing and some parts of the plot. Still normally that wouldn't be a bother to me. It's just something you need to take in mind.

I read this story in two sittings. The first time I stopped, I was exactly at the half of the book and like I tweeted, my first thought was 'Harry Potter.' Usually I don't look for comparisons between books, but this time it felt so upfront, it was impossible not to notice. It's of course not an exact copy, there are just a lot of similarities and you get that same feeling with the two books. Which you can consider a good thing, since I'm somewhat comparing The Iron Trial with Harry Potter, though the level is definitely different.

This is the first time I believe, I gave away my thoughts before finishing a book and it quickly became clear I judged too fast. Call might not be the hero I thought he was supposed to be. These authors will put you on a false trail, and I walked right into it. That's not to say I wasn't right about some smaller, but still important details. I am very curious how this will all play out. The hero and villain are not who you expect, the plot development isn't as straight forward as you thought and there is still so much to learn about this world of magic.

It's mostly because of the whole Harry Potter feeling that made me gave it this 3.5 star rating. I realize it's not easy to co-write a book, but with these two authors I just expected more. The writing on it's own was great and the story flows very well, though I do believe there is some complexity missing (therefore making this a book for middle-graders). I think thirteen and fourteen-year-olds, boys and girls will very much enjoy the story of Call and his friends. Without the spoilers I just need to add that it's definitely the second part of the book that convinced me to read the next one in this series.

**SPOILER ALERT**

Here are some of my extra thoughts on the story and mainly the character Call. Do not read this if you haven't read the book, because it will spoil everything!!!

As to why I get the whole Harry Potter feeling on this story and this was before I came to the end. From the beginning I suspected Call was a very powerful wizard, and the reason that his dad kept him away from the Magisterium was because Call's mom got killed by the bad guy and the Magisterium didn't fulfill their promise of protecting the innocent.

What I also suspected was that the Enemy left a little piece of himself in Call. Since Call was the only one surviving that massacre when he was a baby, it made it a bit suspicious. Therefore I believed in a powerful Call, that he would have an affinity with chaos magic and well you can see why I started imagining some great battle between him and the Enemy.

So it definitely took me by surprise when it became clear that Aaron is the hero, the one who will have to defeat the Enemy. This changed the whole dynamic between Call and his friends. Because now it felt like Call wasn't the main big topic, but Aaron. So I believed we might get a tale from the best friend's pov, which looks very promising. Except there is of course still the issue of what is so special about Call then?

Another major spoiler!!!

Apparently Call is the reincarnation of the Enemy. That guy died on the battlefield many years ago and transferred his soul into Call's body. So I might have not been completely right on the part of a piece of the Enemy sitting within Call, instead he is the Enemy. Still feeling some Harry Potter vibes though. Call doesn't remember anything from his life as the bad guy, so he's hoping he can still be a good guy now and hopefully nobody finds out or they will want to kill him.

But how do you blame someone who doesn't remember? Somebody who is no longer evil and in this lifetime has done nothing wrong? I'm definitely left feeling WTH!

It's this second part of the book that convinced me to read the next one in this series.

**END SPOILER**

This is one of my favorite fiction books thats bound to become a popular world series later on. Magisterium is a five book series that started with The Iron Trial. My story? I was shopping at Costco and me and my family went to the section that sells books. I was looking for a good new book and found this on top of a different pile. The cover looked very interesting to me and curiousity took over. I read the summary and it absolutely thrilled me to no end. Sadly, I didn't get it. The next time I went, I found the book again and my aunt decided to get it for me. Now imagine a small girl reading on her cozy bed. After one night for about 45 minutes, I was unknowingy up to page 105! Soon, I ended up finishing the book in 3-4 days. When you read this book, your curiousity will take over about what Call, Tamara and Aaron will do on the next page.

It didn't even occur to me that this book was geared to the middle school level until I read the comments! I should point out that part of my obliviousness comes from reading the book first, *then* reading the comments (it's a built in book club).
"The Iron Trial" transcends its labels, which makes it a darn good read.
Congratulations to Ms. Clare and Ms. Black on a successful collaboration. I enjoyed "The Iron Trial" immensely, and am looking forward to book 2, "The Copper Guantlet".

Most of the book felt like a fairly decent middle grade Harry Potter Wannabe. It was okay but I thought I could see where it was heading. Then the book took some turns and went some places that I totally had not foreseen. I'm pretty impressed now, and feel like I have to read on to see what happens.

The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare is an interesting and fun read; a simplified Harry Potter. Much is the same in the two story lines, such as the mystery of the protagonist's parents, his powers, friends and education. I still enjoyed The Iron Trial and appreciate the arc from Scholastic Press and NetGalley! Anyone who loved Harry Potter will relate to and enjoy the story of Callum Hunt in The Iron Trial!

I had a hard time deciding how many stars to give this. I was going to give three because the story is "okay" but...I'm just to disappointed to like it AT ALL. I was excited for this release. I am a huge Cassandra Clare fan (I don't believe I have ever read anything else by Holly Black).
I was extremely disappointed in this book. Honestly I can't believe it even made it to publishing because it is so blatantly Harry Potter.

Honestly a book this size should have taken me just a couple hours to get through...I was stuck on this one for almost a week. Refusing to give up on it because I spent $16 on it at walmart. I was so angry about it being an HP knockoff that I just couldn't bring my self to read it and would have to set it down after just a few pages. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this didn't start a lawsuit ( they have been started for far less). The authors and publishers should be ashamed to have put their names on this book.

I could sit here all day and type out everything in this book that is re-worked HP. Its insane.

I gave the two stars because the story itself is "okay" but I have decided it has irked me enough that I just don't like it. I wont be spending money on the next books in this series as I already have three sets of HP books and can just read those instead of buying all of these.

I am seriously just disappointed in the whole situation.

kept my interest enough to want to read the next in the series. similarities to HP are there, but far enough removed not to irk me. it seemed like the authors did just enough to make it credible, but i wish they had put a bit more thought into the build up and character development. but hey its a kids book and something to read until a better book is found.

It was a fantastic, thrilling page turner and I'm so impressed that the authors actually managed to genuinely shock me with the plot twist. It gets a 4 star rating because - though few and far between - there are some small aspects that made me think of Harry Potter, I also felt that the relationships needed more effort as they felt somewhat… shallow? Overall though it was amazing and had me up until one o' clock in the morning reading it.

SPOILERS BELOW

Ummm… Can we talk about that twist? I thought Call was a Makar (just a Makar,, not the Enemy) and the reason his mum scrawled "kill the child" was because she didn't want him to be a pawn. It would've explained his dad's behaviour too. Yeah… did not see that coming, at all.

If you like Cassandra Clare's other writings, you'll enjoy the Iron Trial. She and Black set up an interesting world with engaging characters and enough twists to keep things interesting. Clare plays with similar themes as in her Shadowhunter world, such as nature vs nurture, but it's different enough not to feel like a rehash. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

As a huge Harry Potter fan, I was wondering how this book would compare. However, I learned a long time ago never to compare anything to Harry Potter. This was a great story and I truly enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next book!

My 11 year old read this and loved it and said I should read it. I did and really enjoyed it. This is told from a boy's POV which was great and I liked that it showed his disability which made him feel real and relatable.

I don't really get why people compare this SO MUCH with Harry Potter. I read it and re-read the first book on the Harry Potter series and, well... the only coincidence I could find is that they have three protagonists, two boys and a girl, and they learn magic -- and in the Iron Trial, the latter is so much more about balance and the elements, while Harry Potter is more about the spells and potions et cetera.

For a middle grade it does give a very good read. There are reviews comparing it to Harry Potter but most magic boarding type settings will now forever give that feel. I didn't love the settings and grew bored with the toad stools and other cavey decor but it does have potential.

Great characters that i fell for easily, especially the two main boys. The ending is wonderful and I can not wait for the next! I'm anxiously awaiting what the next book will bring and hope it has a better more tightly written setting.

My third grade daughter bought this at the school book fair. At first, it seemed like another version of Harry Potter, but as we continued to read we found some dark twists and turns that we hadn't expected. This is another great read from Scholastic books! Looking forward to the next book in the series!

great book. i have really enjoyed all 3 books that have come out so far! the only issue i have so far has nothing to do with the story but i guess i would say the series over all, & that is the fact that so far, each book is getting smaller than the 1 before it (i own them in hardback). i usually kind of like for the books to get a little bigger page count wise as a series progresses, so that's why i gave it 4 stars instead of 5, for me the rating has nothing to do with the actual story at all.

Fire Wants To Burn.
Water Wants To Flow.
Air Wants To Rise.
Earth Wants To Bind.
Chaos Wants To Devour.
-Chanmi.Soh
Get Ready For The Iron Trial And Its Adventures That Await You

From a long time fan of Holly Black, this book is amazing. Did not disappoint! I love her style of writing and the foundations of her plots are always solid. Handles too-easy-to-dislike characters with an existence that makes you feel empathy and a sense of understanding; what humans were intended to do... :)

I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to finish this book or not because the beginning was rather slow. All in all, I'm glad I did because of the surprise towards the end of the book. So worth the read, can't wait for book 2.

*I received this book from Scholastic in exchange for an honest review*
(Note: This is my dad's the store account)
The full review is posted on my blog.
http://themortaljessica.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-iron-trial-book-review.html?m=1
I loved it, you should read it, and I'll leave it at that so you can check out the review on my blog. :)

to say i loved the iron trial would be an understatement i love the story and plot and characters i love call and how he wanted to fail all this tests to get into magic school so funny.... Cant wait for the The Copper Gauntlet to come out in September of 2015 ! I'll be counting the down the days.

I was unsure what to rate this book at first. My biggest peeve is that it was way to much like Harry Potter. Being written by Cassandra Clare, I was hoping for something more original. Way too much descriptions and not enough action as well. The characters were okay, but nothing overly memorable. Unsure if I will pursue this series...

Great New Series. I really enjoyed this book and am sad to see that the next one doesn't come out until September. This is a wonderful story about friendship, growing up and discovering one's self. I highly recommend it.

This book has a wonderful plot! We listened to the audio version on a road trip, and it was so well done and entertaining.

It had twists and turns throughout. Just when we thought we knew what was going to happen, the authors threw us a curveball. Can't wait to read the next book!

Two amazing authors combined their skills to create a gripping fantasy adventure to start off their Magisterium series. While every kid given the chance to enter the Magisterium is thrilled, Call is told by his father that the magic school is a wicked, horrible place.
But, when things take an unexpected turn, Call must face his fears and decide
what to do. Should he trust his father? Or should he stay with his new friends?
A fun and exciting story that you won’t want to put down.

Even though I didn't finish this, I won't give it just one star, because this probably has some potential. To me the it was hard not to compare this to Harry Potter, also this may be geared more toward a middle school student. I found Call to be a very unlikable character and since I am a busy mom, I have passed on finishing this and have moved on to the next book on my list.

one of the best books i have ever read because some of the characters are funny. My favorite part is when cals dad makes cal try to fail in the test to go to the magisterium and one of the masters chooses him anyways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) ;) :) :) :) ;) ;) ;) ;) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :). #1 book

I am always skeptical about reading a new fantasy series. They usually take a hundred pages to get deeply immersed. This book was no different.
After the plot started to develop I became really interested in reading the next chapter. By the end of the book I really wanted to find out where Call and Aaron were headed.

I lovedddd the twist at the end of the film. It reminds me a long of Harry potter but, with some differences here and there and the concept of magic is brilliant and creepy. I read in three days i loved it

This book was a good read with plenty of twists. You expect the main character to be the hero, but then all focus shifts to it being his best friend, but plenty of more twists up until the end. This book was enjoyable enough to want to to get the second book in the series as soon as I could.

This is a interesting introduction to the Magisterium books, a bit short but still a good book. It is slightly spooky, quite funny, and very repeatable so you can read it over and over again and have things still be a surprise. If you are a young adult (and who like fantasy books) this book might be interesting for you.

Book was well written in an easy to ready and easy to get hooked style. The story was engaging and kept my attention long after putting the book down. Overall a very easy read, took two days to finish it.

Entertaining, but it was obviously book one of a series. But a page turner... till it simply stopped rather than came to a clean conclusion. That said, I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

This book is AMAZING! I've read nothing anything like it before, ever. Lots of clever plot stuff and easy to relate to as a kid. And for all you haters, just because a book has to do with magic does NOT mean it is like Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does not have a copywrite on writing about magic!

I really wanted to give this book just one star (and I will tell you why), but couldn't because at least writing, pace and atmosphere were very interesting.

This piece of two authors is a copy of Harry Potter in my eyes. A poor one. Everyone has read Rowlings masterpiece and there is nobody who can tell me that this isn't very similar to her work. I am really disappointed that Clare and Black, two authors who have been so successful and are in charge of many ideas, have done this. The story itself is very good but I can't get past the feeling that so much has just been copied. They haven't even tried their best to hide it. In the words of the authors: They failed at failing.

I am really not the type of a reader who draws similarities between different stories and their plots. I am writing myself at the moment so I know the difference between getting inspiration from different topics (because you can't invent magic, vampires, dragons, elements, witches - most of this is historical and open knowledge for everyone) and copying specific ideas from certain stories. I am the last one to think about plagiarism when reading books, but this time, there was no chance not to think about the many similarities to Harry Potter.

First, our main character is a young boy - a magician, of course. There is nothing wrong about that, also because Callum (I really hate that name by the way) is different from Harry. They are not very much alike, but their background is. He survived a massacre, does that occur somewhere else? Oh, it does. Because his mother was killed -at least not his father. Yeah, it sounds familiar. The boy who lived. And in addition to that, I have to point out something from the ending, so please:
If you haven't read it and don't want to ruin it, don't go on reading, this is a spoiler. But if you know Harry Potter, it really isn't.
The enemy, who is all powerhungry by the way, has probably left a piece of himself in Callum when all that stuff happened in the past. Does that also sound familiar? It does, again.

He has two friends, a boy and a girl. Reminds me also of Harry Potter, even if these two do not resemble Ron and Hermione, there is a sour taste in it. Then we have a rich and arrogant kid. Well, hello Draco Malfoy 2.0. Even the cover looks a little like the Harry Potter ones!

The Magisterium is something I won't compare to Hogwarts, also the name is much cooler in my opinion and it's an interesting place. Part of why I didn't rate this with one star. They have own ideas, so I really don't get why they have made so much of Harry Potter into it, especially the soul part. You really see here that Clare started her career with Harry Potter fanfiction and it seems that she wasn't afraid of taking that to another level (greetings to E.L. James here). It is such a pity because this story had so much potential. There is nothing wrong with an academy for magic and young kids who enter it but please, don't do it this way. I have thousands of ideas how this story could have been much better. If I were J. K. Rowling, I had talked to my lawyer, really.

The writing was really good, as usual, and also everything besides certain "ideas" was fine. The setting, the characters, the development and how the story ended different than expected.

I liked the story but I can't bring myself to give it a better rating. As an aspiring author, I am against using certain ideas from very popular stories. Harry Potter is the most successful fantasy work besides Tolkiens Lord of the Rings, so you just have to be careful and as a writer, you know that. There are too many similarities and I can't believe how publishers wouldn't notice them and just pass them off. So I am very disappointed, even if it's a good read. I would have made it a young adult series and would have made Callum older, that would have taken it to another level and some of the similarities would have been erased with that. Just like this. In my opinion, the great potential has gone to waist, because the Magisterium is a very interesting place.

This is just my personal impression, and I understand if other readers have different meanings about it. These are my thoughts only, don't count it as a fact. You will have fun reading this but you won't get past the last page without thinking twice about Harry Potter. Of course you can't compare the two pieces, because Harry Potter is just exceptional and there is nothing like Rowlings story. I will still buy the next installment, I am certain that there will be one. That is, because I am hoping the similarities will vanish and we will get a great story. I hope so.

This is definitely for a younger audience than Mortal Instrument. The plot was ok and the words are easy to read. I think, my second grader might enjoy the series. I felt the ending was short and abrupt but a younger audience probably won't care.

I started reading this book thinking it was going to be super lame, but after the first three chapters I couldn't put the book down!! It is a great book for tweens (I am one) and is good for adults to.

I LOVED this book. Magic wizard school, hidden from everyone? You would think bit overdone right? Well nope! I thought it was mostly original, surprising, and the characters were interesting, and the plot was cool, the cliffhanger was awesome. You think you had it all figured out, but you were wrong! I just. love. this. book. I even gave it to my friend, and she loved it too! So I highly recommend you try this book.