Canavan, Trudi

About the Author:

A freelance illustrator and designer, Trudi Canavan also works as the Art Director for Australian F&SF magazine 'Aurealis'.  She lives in Ferntree Gully, Melbourne, Australia.

AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:

4 out of 5

(1 book)

The Magicians' Guild

The first book of the Black Magician trilogy.  This story focuses on Sonea, a poor girl who finds herself on the run from the Magicians' Guild when she inadvertantly uses magic whilst protesting the annual Purges which force the poor from the city of Imardin.  She struggles to control her growing power as the Thieves attempt to hide her from the all-powerful Guild. 

This book is very well written and enjoyable to read.  However, the stories of the thieves and their tunnels beneath the city, not to mention the class-dominated magicians themselves, aren't really anything that new to the genre.  Also, Canavan takes unnecessary steps to try to get us to accept that the world of the story is a fantasy world, such as calling spiders 'faren' or calling rats 'ravi'.  I'd understand it if these were fantasy creatures, but they seem to be just the same as their real world analogues, so there's no need for the weird names. 

Sonea is a very likeable character, as are Rothen and Dannyl, and the malicious intrigues of Lord Fergun add a nice bit of tension to the latter half of the book.  Overall, this is a good start to the trilogy, but not an exceptional one.

Followed by 'The Novice'.

4 out of 5

Read more

Fantasy (here)