The Magician's Guild

Title : The Magician's Guild
Author : Trudi Canavan
Reading Dates : 7 June - 10 June 2010

The Black Magician Trilogy. The Magician's Guild is the first 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 Magician's Guild.

The Magician's Guild starts with Sonea, one of the poor being evicted from the city of Imardin as part of their King's yearly purge, unexpectedly discovering her own magical potential while demonstrating her dissatisfaction with the magicians. Immediately Sonea finds herself on the run as the magicians mobilize their guild as well as the City guards to find and capture her.

Soon, Sonea and her few friends realize that with the magicians offering a reward for her capture, she has no choice but to seek asylum with the Thiefs. The only catch being this puts her in their debt and that's not a good place to be.

What Sonea and the Thiefs do not realize is that the magicians do not mean her harm; nor do they believe any messages to the contrary. The magicians know that if they do not find Sonea before she loses Control of her magic then Sonea will take a great part of the City and its residents with her.


Book Review of The Magician's Guild.

The Magician's Guild takes place several centuries after the events in The Magician's Apprentice. Having read both, it is interesting to note the differences that have evolved after the formation of the guild. What history records and what actually happened are sometimes different things. Certain titles remain, but their meaning has changed. Knowledge which was sorely lacking in the past has now evolved beyond what was dreamed of then. What was revered is now taboo. And most interesting of all is the impact of the formation of the guild on their society. Whilst it may have proofed a boon to the magicians, the divide between the have and have-nots seems to have increased due to certain old practices like recruiting magicians from the rich turning into a kind of prerogative.

Aside from this while Sonea is no wilting heroine, there is not much else to recommend her. At least, not  in this book She is the product of her upbringing and soon realizes that prejudice works both ways. It takes her the entire book before she realizes this. This is a plus on Sonea's side. However, I disliked that Sonea did not put up more of an argument when Rothen explains that the reason the magicians do not help the slum dwellers is because the slum dwellers themselves would not accept it. Trust is earned. If they were willing to try with Sonea, why give up so easily on those who so obviously needs assistance. In fact, the magicians didn't even bother to make the attempt.

The only reason to read on at this point is the mystery surrounding the High Lord. Is he truly the villain he appears or will there be more to the story ?

For fans of Trudi Canavan only.