The Magician's Guild

The Black Magician Trilogy: Book One

By: Trudi Canavan

Narrated by: Richard Aspel

Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Sonea is caught up in a confrontation between the hated Guild magicians and the angry youth of the slums. To her dismay, she discovers that she possesses the same powers as the reviled magicians. To avoid capture, she must seek protection from the city's feared underworld, The Thieves. In return, she must use her powers for them, but her magic never seems to do quite what she intends it to.

©2004 Trudi Canavan (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Critic reviews

"The first part of the Black Magician Trilogy, this captivating tale has already been hailed by critics as a 'must for lovers of good fantasy'." ( Marie Claire)

Enjoyable Story.

I was entertained by the story and did finally get emotionally caught up in Sonea's welfare. But it took a long time before the story really exposed any emotion from Sonea for me to connect with. And many parts of the story seemed to go on forever, instead of moving to the event that the story was leading up to.
The narrator did an excellent job. I could easily differentiate between characters, and enjoyed the smooth, entertaining narration. I probably will eventually invest in the sequel.

The Novice

Trudi Canavan has a wonderful imagination. This book is a great beginning. Hope to enjoy many more of Ms. Canavan's offerings.

A good trilogy

I really like these books they are well written. If you liked the Mist Born series I would highly recommend these. There are three obviously, in this trilogy, but the author has started another trilogy that follows these. Only the first one is out so far and I can't wait for the next one.

black magician

i love these books. well done. i liked the narrator very much. can't believe these aren't movies.

great book!

love this book series! one of my favorites, listen to it again and again!

This might become something ...

I listen to Fantasy and SciFi, nothing but for about three years now. I'd like to think I've developed an ear for a good story in the making. This sounds like a good story. I think the author lays quite a few plot threads and if she can keep them together this will be a great series. Narrator does an excellent job, which may mask some of what the book lacks in depth but I do recommend this book for Fantasy listeners.

great story of growth

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recomend this to friends because of the way Canavan shows misunderstanding, struggles, challenges, friendship, blackmail and much much more.

Any additional comments?

I would recomend this book to anyone who wants to see personal growth, understanding, and trusting both the criminal underworld and later magicians

Amazing

What a wonderful start to a breathtaking series!! I can say this with the utmost confidence as this is my 2nd time listening!'nn

An enjoyable trilogy. A decent performance.

This is an enjoyable trilogy. I got into it more than I thought I would. The author definitely allows you to build an emotional connection to the characters. It was a decent performance by the narrator. Not the best I've heard, but solid enough to not detract in any way from the story.

First part is slow and repetitive but gets better.

This is the first book in the Black Magician series. I have had this book on my shelf to read for quite awhile. It was a decent fantasy book, but the pacing is a bit slow and the plot is repetitive.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. The narrator is pleasant to listen to and does character voices well. I would definitely recommend listening to this on audiobook.

The magician’s of Imardin have gathered to do their yearly purge of undesirables from the Inner City. One of these “undesirables” is Sonea, she is a young woman whose aunt and uncle were actually making an honest, if meager, living when they were driven out of their house as part of the Purge. Sonea, in an unusual fit of anger, joins the other slum kids in throwing rocks at the Magicians’ impenetrable shield….only Sonea’s rock doesn’t stop at the shield...it goes through it.

Sonea is terrified that the Magicians will kill her her for what she’s done, common folk just don’t have magic. So Sonea begs her thief friends to hide her from the Magicians as long as possible. Unfortunately Sonea needs to be taught how to control her magic before it spirals out of control and kills everyone.

There are a lot of good aspects to this story. I really and truly enjoyed all the characters (well not the evil ones, but all the good ones). They are well done and have a lot of depth to them. In general the characters are kinder to each other than I would expect characters eking out a living in the slum to be. I also really liked Sonea; she is smart and resourceful...if a bit too dependent on others sometimes. Additionally I enjoyed the magic and the idea of the Magician’s Guild and their different schools of magic.

However there was a lot I didn’t like as well. Sonea spends the first two-third’s or more of this book running from place to place hiding from the magicians. It gets very repetitive and boring. She doesn’t actually get involved with the Guild until very late in the story. I also wished we had saw more of the world outside of Imardin; we really don’t and it makes the world-building seem stunted.

What kept me engaged in the story was the whole idea of Sonea’s magic destroying her; you are constantly wondering what choices she will make and how they will all play out. The story is very nicely tied up with another storyline started right at the end to keep the reader enticed...it’s not a cliffhanger but more of a presentation of yet another mystery.

Overall this was a decent fantasy that suffered from some repetitiveness and slow pacing in the beginning. I did however really enjoy the characters and magic throughout and would love to learn more about them both. I am unsure whether or not I will continue with this series. I have heard that the latter two books of the series are much better, so since I already have the books I may go ahead and read them.