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The Magician’s Guild (The Black Magician
Trilogy book 1) by Trudi Canavan. check out website: www.OrbitBooks.co.uk and www.TimeWarnerBooks.co.uk
Usually, I'm not a great subscriber to the adage 'don't judge a book by its cover.' You can tell a hell of a lot about a book by the publisher and choice of cover art, especially who exactly it's being marketed at. Important? Um, yes, it is to me when I'm in a bookshop. Take this book, for example. I know what I like and I'm fairly sure I know what to expect from Orbit when they publish new fantasy, especially with the nicely classy cover art on this one. So I'm a little surprised to have to admit that the good signs didn't quite pan out this time. There's nothing inherently wrong with 'The Magician's Guild' on the surface. It's slickly written, nicely paced and a pleasant enough way to while away a couple of hours that does exactly what the title suggests. It just wasn't exactly what I thought I was being sold. So, every year, the powerful magician's guild clears out the slums in the city. Former slum-dweller Sonea runs into her old gang on their way to throw stones at the magicians during the clearance. Of course, all the stones bounce harmlessly off the magicians’ shields - until Sonea has a go. Cue concussed magicians and Sonea coming to the only possibly conclusion: that a member of the lower classes could possess magic, too...
Most of the rest of the book then is an extended chase while the magicians track Sonea down and she does her best to avoid them with the help of the equally powerful Thieves Guild. As her powers grow, so does her inability to control them and the danger to herself and anyone sheltering her. The tension driving the plot is ratcheted up from this premise. The race against time on the side of the upper-class magicians to find their latest recruit before she blows herself - and half the city - up in the process. As Sonea tries to trade her powers with the menacing Thieves Guild for protection, the stakes do get raised. But eventually the pursuit just goes on too long and the surrounding events at the Guild and within the slums just aren't up to keeping the interest while Sonea evades yet another hunt. After all, there's no real doubt that they will catch her eventually, this being the first book in a trilogy. Hell, the names of the next two books practically yell, ‘Spoiler!’, if you're so inclined to look inside the front cover. What we're left with is a surprisingly unsophisticated rant on class issues from both sides: nice magicians want to take Sonea away from her slums, bad magicians don't want nasty commoners joining their ranks. Much misunderstanding is had by all. There's no more depth to it and doesn't come close to even Harry Potter for moral ambiguity or any sense of real threat. The minuscule black magic sub-plot is almost glossed over, losing most of its menace in the process. All in all, it reads more like a young adult novel than something on Orbit's usual list. Fine, if you're not after anything too challenging, but the 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' retelling really doesn't offer anything new. The clumsy browbeating on class warfare takes up far too much space that could be better utilised by more subtle world-building: the 'Lord Dannyl's Guide To Slum Slang' appendix is cute. The glossary following it is highly unnecessary. Oh well. Everyone is fairly likeable. Sonea in your standard, feisty fantasy heroine way. Assorted harmless roguish sidekicks are thrown in for good measure and some various instantly forgettable magicians. The main magician characters, Rothen and Dannyl, are well-sketched, but we never really get deep enough to know them sufficiently in the end. Being the first of a trilogy, most of these are things that can be fixed in time. It's a nice enough lightweight read and I'm involved enough to pick up book two - but distinctly needing something to up the stakes at this point. Something darker, more grown-up is in order. These things are all well and good when you're younger, but next time Trudi Canavan really needs to start living up to her cover art. Jennifer Howell
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OTHER REVIEWS - May 2004
Non Fiction Mythology: The DC Comics Art Of Alex Ross Futures: 50 Years In Space The Challenge Of The Stars by David A. Hardy and Patrick Moore Lyra’s Oxford by Philip Pullman Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon: Second Edition by Brian Roseberry DVDs Babylon 5: The Complete First Season: Signs and Portents Fantasy Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson The Siege Of Mithila by Ashok K. Banker Broken Crescent by S. Andrew Swann The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick The Weavers Of Saramyr by Chris Wooding The Iron Grail by Robert Holdstock Faerie Tales edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Russell Davies Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Slipstream Changing Of Faces by Tim Lebbon Karloff’s Circus by Steve Aylett The Well Of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde Science Fiction The Golden Globe by John Varley Market Forces by Richard Morgan It Came From Outer Space screenplay by Ray Bradbury A Gift Of Dragons by Anne McCaffrey Different Kinds Of Darkness by David Langford Felaheen The Third Arabesk by Jon Courtenay Grimwood Absolution Gap by Adrian Reynolds The Line Of Polity by Neal Asher The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley Natural History by Justina Robson Horror Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris Magazines
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Or 'Desperately Seeking Sonea'.
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