Trudi Canavan's new prequel to her Black Magician trilogy is a decent book that just moves along too slowly. It is a story about the origins of Higher Magic, how the wasteland between Schakan and Krylia was formed, the origins of the Magician Guild, and a female group of survivors of the horrible war between Sachakan and Krylia. Like many authors who write these semi historical purpose books -- that is my name for a novel that attempts to answer historical facts or show how events occurred in th...

Good Intro to Fantasy; but not Groundbreaking.I have not read any of Trudi Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy (THE MAGICIAN'S GUILD, THE NOVICE, and THE HIGH LORD), although I have thought about it for a while. It is obvious that this edition to the world introduced in the original trilogy was written after and I can only guess at what is to be the beginning of the trilogy.This is a wonderful book for people just getting into the fantasy genre. It has everything that is to be expected in a fantasy...

A very addictive read that I would willingly read again and again. A book I could not put down with lots of fantasy elements that I like. The only reason I didn't give this five stars is because of the constant switches between the impressive cast of characters, some of which were not as interesting as others. Personally I preferred Tessia and Jayan's story and would have liked to stick with them all the way through.

I lost interest about page 200. After the interesting beginning, the plot became one of those "frolicking around countryside, letting the suspense wane" types. I liked the character of Tessia - a pity that she didn't have much to do. Also, the interesting merging of the magic and medicine was hastly done. I would have loved to see it more developed. The relationships were nicely developed, but some of the character progression didn't make much sense (I'm tired of the "he's a paranoid schizophren...

The Magician's Apprentice is considered #0.5 in Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician Trilogy. It was written after, but serves as a set up for The Magicians' Guild, which I have not read. It mainly follows the story of Tessia, a young healer apprenticed to her father, who discovers her magical abilities when she deflects the advances of a Sachakan mage. She becomes apprenticed to Lord Dakon, joining his apprentice Jayan, who initially disdains the fact that a he must share his education with a wom...

This and my other reviews can be found at http://amethystbookwyrm.blogspot.co.uk/The Magician’s Apprentice is about Tessia, the local healer’s daughter, who unknowingly uses magic after fending of the advances of a visiting Sachakan mage, she becomes an apprentice to the magician Lord Dakon alongside fellow apprentice Jayan. However she would soon learn that with her magical gifts comes with responsibilities and not all is peaceful as it seems between Sachakan and Kyralia. This prequel, set a fe...

The Magicians Apprentice is 0.5 in the The Black Magician Trilogy. The first instalment in the trilogy was published in 2001 and this book was published in 2009. Perhaps I should have started the series in publishing order rather than story order, but I spent most of the novel questioning why this was actually a novel. I found it really hard to justify this 0.5 instalment needing to be 600 pages long, especially when it was published several years after the actual series. The novel uses split PO...

Im so disappointed. Oh why, dear Canavan, have you let me down. One day me and Emer discussed in A Book Nirvana group about how often books read at younger age are the ones that stick to all-time-favorites lists rather than new ones. And Trudi Canavans The Black Magicians trilogy was exactly that to me. An all time favorite read at a young age. I also loved the Traitor Spy Trilogy which followed that but this was sadly weak for me. Alltogether 702 pages. The first 300 flew by but the last 400......

In the remote village of Mandryn, in the realm of Kyralia, Tessia works as her father's assistant. Tessia dreams of proving herself enough to become a healer like her father but in this realm, woman cannot become healers. Then, just as the realm is about to be plunged into warfare with the neighbouring empire, Tessia proves herself to be a 'natural' she has magical potential and is taken into training by the lord of the village, himself a magician. Tessia finds her new life perplexing, magical t...

Definitely a worthy prequel to the Black Magician Trilogy. I enjoyed the story and the fact that it wasn't entirely predictable. I would definitely recommend it to any of Trudi Canavan's fans. The only thing I had an issue with was that the story jumped around between more characters than I thought necessary, making it a bit harder to relate to the main characters.

He liked the idea that if either of them ever fell from grace, the other might be there to offer supportFirst Sentence: There was no fast and painless way to perform an amputation, Tessia knew. O, what a journy.I remember reading The Magicians' Guild many, many years back - so many years in fact I can't remember who the main characters is. But I do remember I enjoyed it, and that I wanted to read the rest of the Black Magician trilogy. And this weekend that little reminder popped into my head

Although this didn't have the same magical introduction to a new world for me as The Magicians' Guild, I think someone starting with this book may get some of that same feeling, although the pace at which the larger universe is introduced lacks some of the details of the first book.However, the plot is essentially the story the first book should have had. The main character, Tessia, essentially has the same personality and motivations as Sonea of the original trilogy, and the same issues with fa...

Retardation galore! The prequel to Black Magician Trilogy is riddled with boring, tedious narrative, moralizing talk for primary school kids and tons of ridiculously funny gaffes that would make people on literary constructive crit boards roll with laughter. It doesn't explain anything about the magic from the trilogy. This book's setting doesn't even match the trilogy and some of the situations plainly contradict the rules laid out in the other books. Overall it looks like a rehashed draft or a...

Well written, solidly characterised, nicely constructed. But dull.Might be a good one for those who are new to Fantasy - a way in, as Brooks' Sword of Shannara , Eddings' Pawn of Prophecy or Ray Feist's Magician was for many. And for those who are fans of the Black Magician series, (of which this is a prequel), I can see this being a much desired book. But for me the plot was just way, way too obvious, the characters a little too cookie-cut. I lost interest very quickly.

Reading vlog: https://youtu.be/UVqyVmY3T1oBuddy read with Deborah from Hills of Books.This book instantly restored my earlier disappointment in the finale of the previous trilogy. Although a standalone prequel, it was a thick one and added so much context to the land of both Sachaka and the countryside of Imardin.It was cool to see earlier maps of the land as well as the start of concepts and issues that had been studied as history in the later books (specifically the start of the war and the id...

I've come across Trudi Canavan many times when looking for good fantasy reads, and I finally decided to give it a go. The first few pages of The Magician's Apprentice were quite exciting, I thought Tessia would be an interesting character. But further on I started to get doubts, the plot was a bit shallow and most of all, the characters were really flat. Having read awesome books like "A song of ice and fire" where there's plenty of characters and each of them has so much history and depth that

Actual Rating: 2.5 starsWell, I liked it, but I certainly didn't love it. The premise sounded very promising--I love fantasies about strong, young women discovering their magical powers and learning how to control them to fight against evil--and the writing was certainly quite acceptable. But, somehow, this one fell a little short for me. For one thing, the pacing for the most part was very plodding and slow and the plot was rather dull in places. There was a lot of talk about fighting, but not

SPOILER FREEThe Magician’s Apprentice is essentially an explanation for how the world came to be in The Black Magician trilogy. Trudi Canavan has created an epic fantasy world with a rich history and vibrant characters.The magic system might not be particularly complex, like something we might see from Brandon Sanderson, but there are costs and a method for wielding it.Tessia is one of my favourite main characters Canavan has createdShe begins life in a typical rural setting but is soon thrust i...

Well, once I read the other reviews and figured out this was a prequel to a trilogy, the bizarre pacing made more sense. The narrative switches between several characters, something that rarely works for me--I always end up liking one character more than another and I can never get into a groove one way or the other. The same was true here. I really liked Lord Dakon and Tessia but I could have done without the others, especially the character that popped in about halfway through the book. Sachka...

This book threads several stories together, and sadly some don’t work as well as others which just pulls them all down. The main story is great light-fantasy fiction involving kingdoms and wars and power struggles and romance. Magic is incorporated more as a simple type of medieval weapon than a complex fantasy element. This story features a coherent and well developed plot and a strong central female character who’s virtue and common sense has a good influence on those around her, and eventuall...