The High Lord

Title : The High Lord
Author : Trudi Canavan
Reading Dates : 13 June - 14 June 2010

The Black Magician Trilogy. The High Lord is the third book in Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician trilogy. The books in the trilogy include :

• The Magician's Guild
  
• The Novice
  
• The High Lord
  

Book Summary of The High Lord.

When Sonea resolves to learn more of High Lord Akkarin in order to gain information against him, she doesn't expect to learn some of the Magician Guild's lost past. The actions of one power-hunger man led to the Guild erasing and rewriting their own history. Still, the Guild intended for the knowledge to be kept as a secret weapon for times of grave danger. Unfortunately, the one entrusted with the secret was killed in a freak accident and thus all magicians have remained ignorant of this part of their history since. More, in learning of Akkarin's reasons for using Black Magic, Sonea realizes that Akkarin is possibly all that stands between the Allied Lands and their doom. 

Soon after Sonea decides to join Akkarin in his fight against the Sachakan magician's spies, the Guild discovers Akkarin's secret. Unwilling to believe him but not able to discount his story entirely, the Guild choose to exile Akkarin. Following Akkarin into the Sachakan wastelands, Sonea and him must now elude the enemies on their tail as well as attempt to find evidence of Akkarin's claims. And they must do this before the Ichani attack.

Sonea and Akkarin do eventually make their way back to the city of Imardin, but not before the Ichani launch their attack. Although only a handful of Ichani invade Kyralia, they are more than enough to defeat the few hundred Kyralian magicians and their allies. In the end, with more than half of the Guild dead, all hope lies with Akkarin and Sonea.

Book Review of The High Lord.

This last book in the trilogy is definitely my favourite. As the concluding chapter of the series, The High Lord gives us the answers we have been waiting for before jumping straight to the action. From the time that Sonea first fights beside Akkarin until the end, the tension never quites let up. Even having read the story before, I simply  did not want to stop.

But I do agree with the Thieves on one point. The Guild's magicians are fools. Although there was sufficient evidence to proof some of what Akkarin had said, they chose banishment instead of imprisonment until they could verify the truth. By doing so, they not only sent their strongest ally into the hands of his enemies but left Kyralia wide open for attack. And until the end, neither the Guild nor the Kyralian King seemed to learn from their mistakes. When Akkarin's words prove true after the Ichani attack, neither the King nor the Higher Magicians were willing to call him back. Instead they chose to sacrifice more of their magicians in a futile attempt at delaying the Sachakan magicians while attempting to learn Black Magic themselves.

More telling was how the Guild let their prejudice cloud their judgement. Sonea is living proof that magical talent is not the sole preserve of the nobility. Yet the Guild chose only to evacute the Houses to prevent those with latent magical ability being harvested of their power, not bothering to even warn the other citizens of the impending danger.

Ironically, it is the city's vagrants and criminals who choose to stay and fight. These second-class citizens of Imardin are the ones risking their lives to help in the fight. Even rescuing those who had ignored or ill-used them. I really love these kind of tales where normally ordinary people behave heroically. I only hope that what they did was appreciated. After being saved by those they seek to Purge, can the magicians and King go back to believing in their own superiority ? It will be interesting to see if and how Imardin has changed in the Traitor Spy trilogy.

The High Lord is a keeper. An enjoyable and exciting read.