The Black Magician Trilogy
Jul. 22nd, 2006 06:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylAfter eventually saturating my appetite for Gothickiana, I decide to move on to something else. Casting around, I decided to go for fantasy and being determined not to do things by halves, I seized on Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician trilogy.
The Magician's Guild opens with the Purge, the annual ejection of slum dwellers from the city carried out by the Guild on the orders of the King. After getting caught up in the near riot of the Purge, our slum dwelling heroine Sonea accidentally discovers a hidden talent for magic when she almost brains one of the magicians. Convinced by her larcenous friend Cery to flee, Sonea takes refuge in the tunnels under the city, where the society of thieves, of whom Cery is a loosely connected member, agree to shelter her in turn for her promise to allow them to use her powers. Meanwhile the Guild, lead by the magicians Rothan and Dannyl, try to find her before her unchecked abilities destroy her, while another magician with rather less virtuous intent tries to find her in order to claim her as a prize. In the process of her flight Sonea learns about more about the world, discovers that not all magicians quite as bad as she first thought, and uncovers a deep dark secret at the heart of the Guild, one that has terrible implications for the few magicians she has finally learnt to trust.
The Novice finds Sonea, now the ward of Rothan, starting life at the Guild University. The only non-aristocrat at the school, she feels her status as an outsider and is savagely bullied for it. Dannyl, having been sent as a junior ambassador to a neighbouring country, is asked by Administrator Lorlen to investigate a journey undertaken by the magician Akkarin prior to ascension to the post of High Lord of the Guild. In retracing the journey, Dannyl learns just as much about himself as he does about the High Lord. Meanwhile, things are not going well for Sonea, after Rothan is compelled to surrender her guardianship to Akkarin — a man who seems to be indifferent to her emotional suffering, who does nothing about her physical mistreatment by the bullies and whose sympathies appear to lie with the tormentors. After taking advice from Rothen's son Dorrien, back on a rare visit to see his father, Sonea forms a risky plan to deal with her primary persecutor once and for all.
The High Lord finds a newly Sonea finally starting to enjoy her life at the Guild and finally reconciling herself to her guardian. Ambassador Dannyl too, is newly confident: his studies of ancient magic have been endorsed by the High Lord and the worst of his emotional problems seem to have been resolved. Unfortunately, nothing is quite as rosy as it seems: Akkarin asks Dannyl to pursue a group of renegade magicians by leaking compromising information to them, while at the same time, he reveals the details of his past to Sonea and in the process shatters many of her illusions. Just as she discovers the nature of the devastating threat to the kingdom, Sonea's world collapses and she is forced into exile while the Guild bicker and argue over the truth of the menace.
While I'd be the first to admit that The Black Magician trilogy isn't exactly the heaviest of literary works — I breezed through the novels at the rate of one a day — that doesn't mean they're not worth reading. Trudi Canavan's style is elegant, lucid and easy to read. She easily dodges the tendency of most fantasy novelists to digress into a complicated explanation of how their world works, how magic interacts with science, how the nuts and bolts of society works, that sort of thing. Instead, she just lets things flow along and unfold in their own way, as they become relevant ot the plot.
The characters are interesting and develop in a convincing way. Sonea, on various occasions, has moral doubts when the values of her underclass upbringing where survival is paramount clash with the aristocratic values of her new life in the Guild. Rothan goes through a period of depression after being deprived of Sonea's guardianship, while the matter of Dannyl's sexuality is skillfully and sensitively handled.
So, in conclusion, a fun, lucid, well paced set of novels with interesting characters set in a convincing fantasy world. Maybe it's not the most intellectually demanding fare, but it's perfect for a scorching week in high summer.
The Magician's Guild opens with the Purge, the annual ejection of slum dwellers from the city carried out by the Guild on the orders of the King. After getting caught up in the near riot of the Purge, our slum dwelling heroine Sonea accidentally discovers a hidden talent for magic when she almost brains one of the magicians. Convinced by her larcenous friend Cery to flee, Sonea takes refuge in the tunnels under the city, where the society of thieves, of whom Cery is a loosely connected member, agree to shelter her in turn for her promise to allow them to use her powers. Meanwhile the Guild, lead by the magicians Rothan and Dannyl, try to find her before her unchecked abilities destroy her, while another magician with rather less virtuous intent tries to find her in order to claim her as a prize. In the process of her flight Sonea learns about more about the world, discovers that not all magicians quite as bad as she first thought, and uncovers a deep dark secret at the heart of the Guild, one that has terrible implications for the few magicians she has finally learnt to trust.The Novice finds Sonea, now the ward of Rothan, starting life at the Guild University. The only non-aristocrat at the school, she feels her status as an outsider and is savagely bullied for it. Dannyl, having been sent as a junior ambassador to a neighbouring country, is asked by Administrator Lorlen to investigate a journey undertaken by the magician Akkarin prior to ascension to the post of High Lord of the Guild. In retracing the journey, Dannyl learns just as much about himself as he does about the High Lord. Meanwhile, things are not going well for Sonea, after Rothan is compelled to surrender her guardianship to Akkarin — a man who seems to be indifferent to her emotional suffering, who does nothing about her physical mistreatment by the bullies and whose sympathies appear to lie with the tormentors. After taking advice from Rothen's son Dorrien, back on a rare visit to see his father, Sonea forms a risky plan to deal with her primary persecutor once and for all.The High Lord finds a newly Sonea finally starting to enjoy her life at the Guild and finally reconciling herself to her guardian. Ambassador Dannyl too, is newly confident: his studies of ancient magic have been endorsed by the High Lord and the worst of his emotional problems seem to have been resolved. Unfortunately, nothing is quite as rosy as it seems: Akkarin asks Dannyl to pursue a group of renegade magicians by leaking compromising information to them, while at the same time, he reveals the details of his past to Sonea and in the process shatters many of her illusions. Just as she discovers the nature of the devastating threat to the kingdom, Sonea's world collapses and she is forced into exile while the Guild bicker and argue over the truth of the menace.While I'd be the first to admit that The Black Magician trilogy isn't exactly the heaviest of literary works — I breezed through the novels at the rate of one a day — that doesn't mean they're not worth reading. Trudi Canavan's style is elegant, lucid and easy to read. She easily dodges the tendency of most fantasy novelists to digress into a complicated explanation of how their world works, how magic interacts with science, how the nuts and bolts of society works, that sort of thing. Instead, she just lets things flow along and unfold in their own way, as they become relevant ot the plot.
The characters are interesting and develop in a convincing way. Sonea, on various occasions, has moral doubts when the values of her underclass upbringing where survival is paramount clash with the aristocratic values of her new life in the Guild. Rothan goes through a period of depression after being deprived of Sonea's guardianship, while the matter of Dannyl's sexuality is skillfully and sensitively handled.
So, in conclusion, a fun, lucid, well paced set of novels with interesting characters set in a convincing fantasy world. Maybe it's not the most intellectually demanding fare, but it's perfect for a scorching week in high summer.
