Trudi Canavan, The Black Magician Trilogy

I started reading The Magician's Guild over a year ago, and I came back to it whenever I was bored. I borrowed the books from my uncle because they looked interesting. However, I found it very heard to get through the first book because they stretched out the chase of Sonea for such a long time.I was very relieved to get to part two, but found it to be almost as boring. There were some major surprises in the second book and the 1st part of the third book that made the trilogy take a major turn for the better. However, in my opinion, the second part of the third book made the entire series worth reading. Akkarin and Sonea's relationship and the relationship of Dannyl and Tayend sent me into fits of giggling and made me smile. The action was wonderful, and I wished the rest of series had been the same. I was deeply saddened by the death of Akkarin, and I did think it was a bit unnecessary. The ending of the book came too soon in my opinion, and there are still a lot of questions I want answered. I wish there was more, and I was very sad when I finished.

I give the series 4 stars because I still am thinking about the characters and wanting to know more, and if the ends had been tied up a little more neatly I would gladly have given it the full 5 stars.

The Black Magician Trilogy is definitely worth reading. Parts of the book were predictable, but she managed to surprise me a few times. Some of her creativity (the renaming of animals) seemed unnecessary, but interesting all the same. It is the best fantasy trilogy I have read in a long time both in terms of the plot and the characters. She does a brilliant job of connecting the reader to the characters' emotions. The ending was terrible, but in a fantastic way. And by the way, if you are going to read these books, please avoid some of these reviews- they spoil the ending.

I just want to say the books were amazing and that I loved them, but after I Finnish The High Lord I felt that the series shouldn't be over. It left me with questions at the end that I felt were big facts/parts in the book. Sometimes I with Trudi would read the comment and write a 4th book to answer the question and just to expand the series. I read the ranger's apprentice series and I think trudi should do something like that but keep the same as her other book but be like the ranger apprentice series by going all over her fictional world but not to far weird it would get boring.post a comment if you get what I'm saying and if you felt the same way

Run of the mill fantasy world with some nice touches (sea leeches, haha!)

Rather average prose; its more of a young adult style of book than an adult fantasy novel.

One thing that kept on bugging me was her overuse of stock phrases. Angry/upset characters always "narrow their eyes". Have you ever seen someone do that in real life? Its not menacing- it makes a person look like they're having trouble focusing your vision. And it is not subtle.

Back to the book, it also has the disadvantage of giving every character the same (unsubtle) way of expressing their displeasure every time, seriously breaking immersion and individuality. So after a while you're stuck with an image of a guild of scheming magi, all squinting at each other like their staring into the sun... or possibly having a rat-face impression contest.

I have several problems with the Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan.

In its favour though I will say that I read it through to the end, despite getting bogged down by things from the start, so despite the overall feeling of mediocrity it has merit as a story and can certainly engross a person.

The issues:

This is generally shelved alongside adult fantasy, but overall I felt that this fell into that class of fantasy for young people.

Canavan's writing frequently reminds you that you're reading a book through overuse of action and dialogue tags. I think I counted 'He nodded' used for a character over ten times in a single scene.

Her approach to magic isn't very original, and feels like something out of a cheesy video game. e.g. ' Stun Strike, Fire Strike, Shield etc etc'

She seems to think that by giving made up foreign names to things like coffe or rats she's weaving a heritage-rich, parallel world, but then she totally neglects to give any original and thought-out names to any of the locations or factions within the story. What city would refer to its slums as literally, 'The Slums?' What gang of criminals would call themselves 'The Thieves,' and then call their main mode of travel 'The Thieves' Road?'

In short I would recommend this to the teenage fantasy reader who's looking for a 'Magic School' - type story that's not as whimsical as Harry Potter and a little bit more epic in scope.

for all those who think it needed more detail im sorry but my partener said the same thing and it just annoys me lol just use your bloody imagination as far as i was concerned there was plenty! its how she writes, deal with it! your just too picky :P

The Black Magician Trilogy is an amazing trilogy! Even though Akkarin dying was upsetting it shows the talant of Trudi that she can make someone feel that emotion!! I think the relationship between Tayend and Dannyl is ingenious and the books kept me gripped throughout. They deserve more publicity! But then that would mean the world i find myself in whilst reading the books would be opened up to everyone and they may just lose the magic the stories have x

I read the Age of the Five series first, and highly recommend them to anyone thinking about this series aswell. The Black Magician trilogy is a fantastic introduction to an excellent writer, and also to the unique style of her 'multi-perspective' novels. Based around an exceptionally detailed world full of romance, politics, action, danger and every other genre you could imagine.. this series along with the prequal and all of Canavan's work, is very much worth the read for anybody with even a slight interest in fantasy. The worlds she created in her novels are truly inescapable. Most people say they couldn't put some books down... but in all truth, I stayed up for 72 hours straight so that i could get through them. The half dreamworld I found myself in when I got drowsy, only added to the reality that my imagination created as the words floated off the pages and into my mind.

A truly astounding read, which I recommend to everybody.

I loved the way the storyline unfolds, and how Trudi Canavan embodies the true emotions of each person, allowing you to truly become close to the charaters and the story, so that you feel pain when they do and feel happy when they do. Amazing storyline and amazing ending although i would have prefered it if Akkarin didnt die. At some points through the triliogy i thought it lacked some detail but wasnt enough to stop me loving the book. Overall i would say that it was a simply amazing book, all my compliments to Trudi for writting this, and i can't wait for the traitor spy triliogy, I hope she continues to write amazing books, i would have loved for akkarin to have survived, i think it would have led for a better follow up for the next triliogy but still, great set.

It kept me really interested. I couldn't put the book down until i finished it. I got the books out so many times from the library, my sister finally decided to buy me the whole trilogy.