Black Magician Trilogy: The Magicians' Guild - Trudi Canavan

I know I devour books at a rate of knots personally but it is fairly rare that I find a book that I read once, am utterly spellbound, and then want to read again and again...as well as immediately going out to buy the rest of the series...and this was one of them. I started reading it and I just couldn't put it down. I'd never heard of Trudi Canavan before to be honest...but now if I see one of her books I'd buy it immediately. I was shocked to find that it's been in print for a good 2 years as I'd never heard of it before, it was flukey luck that I saw it on Waterstone's bookshelves...there appears to have been little or no advertising and very few people know of ...  Read the complete review

I picked this up off my to~be~read pile recently because I had heard good things about the series and this author in general. Unfortunately, I was less than impressed and only managed to find the first few pages in any way engaging. Sonea and her aunt and uncle have just been made homeless and have been cast out on the street. Which is paticulary bad timing because in the city of Imardin it is that time of year again when The Magician's Guild begin their purge through the streets; forcing the beggars, ne'er~do~wells and homeless out of the c ity and into the slums in an attempt to cleanse the streets of filth. Hanging out with some of her young friends who ...  Read the complete review

Sonea is a slum girl, nothing special! She lives and works for her aunt and uncle and they are lucky enough to live in the North Quarter of the slums in a stayhouse. However, no longer are they lucky, the King has ordered the packed stay houses to be emptied as they are 'unsafe'! Now Sonea and her Aunt and Uncle have to find somewhere else to live! After being sent by her aunt to find a place sonea overhears a plan to trap a gang, the gang she used to belong to, the gang who try to move against the purge! The purge happens once a year when all so called thiefs get forced out of the city by the magicians. However ...  Read the complete review

Every year a purge takes place to filter out all of the thieves and murderers in the town of Imardin, by the Magicians Guild. An impenetrable shield is in place to rid the miscreants -or so they think-. A young girl captures her rage and hate towards the Magicians, for throwing her from her home and forcing her to live back in the slums, and hurls a stone at them, with a surprise to find that it flies straight through the invisible shield and knocks a magician unconscious. The Magicians hold a meet, and feel their worst fear is true. There is a natural amongst the Slum Dwellers. Someone who has unleashed their magical powers without help, which could be ...  Read the complete review