The Black Magician (novel series)

The Black Magician Trilogy
Author Trudi Canavan
Country Australia
Language English
Genre Fantasy, Young-adult fiction
Publisher Orbit Books
Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Preceded by The Magician's Apprentice (Prequel)
Followed by The Traitor Spy Trilogy

The Black Magician trilogy is a fantasy novel series by Australian author Trudi Canavan. The books follow a slum-dwelling girl named Sonea who, although born and raised in the slums of Imardin, discovers that she has natural magical abilities usually restricted to the upper classes. They describe her attempts to escape capture by the Magicians' Guild and gain control of her powers, her struggle to fit in and learn magic, and ultimately her attempts save Kyralia using the one type of magic forbidden from use. Although the series is composed of only three books, it is accompanied by a prequel entitled The Magician's Apprentice and a sequel series, called The Traitor Spy trilogy.

Plot overview

The Magicians' Guild

Main article: The Magicians' Guild

This novel is continuation of the 'The Magician's Apprentice' five centuries on. The Magician's Guild now consists of three department: healers, alchemists, and warriors. Sonea, a slum girl, discovers that she has magical ability during the city's annual Purge, in which slum-dwellers are forced out of the outer-circle of the city and back into the slums. With the help of her friend Cery she attempts to evade capture by the Magicians' Guild whom she believes wish to harm her. The Guild, however, must find her in order to teach her to control her powers, because if she is not taught this, she will eventually lose control completely, killing herself and destroying part of the city. Only a magician can teach her this. Finally, on the brink of losing control, she is found and captured by one of the Guild Magicians, a kind man named Rothen who wishes for her to join their ranks. Fergun, another Magician, is one of the many who believe that slum-dwellers, who have never before been allowed into the Guild, should not be Magicians. He captures Cery and tries to use him to blackmail Sonea into lying to the Guild in order to convince them to allow him to take guardianship of her. However, his plan is foiled when Cery is discovered by the High Lord of the Guild, Akkarin. When Fergun thus has lost his hold on Sonea, she comes clean about the blackmail, and Lord Lorlen, the Guild's Administrator, reads Sonea's mind to verify the truth and inadvertently discovers that she earlier had witnessed the Guild's leader, High Lord Akkarin, practicing forbidden black magic.

The Novice

Main article: The Novice

Sonea begins studies at the Guild University as a Novice but her charismatic and influential classmate, Regin, sways the opinion of the other first-year Novices, turning them against her. Through various means (stealing a classmate's pen and putting it in Sonea's private box, setting out rumours of her having killed someone, among other things) he attempts to convince everyone, including the teachers, that she is little more than a thief and far below them in status. Lorlen sends Dannyl, Rothen's former Novice, to Kyralia's neighbouring land Elyne as a second ambassador of Elyne, to follow the research Akkarin did as a young man, trying to discover where he learned black magic without letting Dannyl know what the research is for. High Lord Akkarin discovers that Lorlen knows of his secret (that Akkarin has used black magic), and by reading his mind finds that Sonea and Rothen also possess this knowledge. Akarrin claims guardianship over Sonea in order to keep their silence and she reluctantly moves into the High Lord's Residence. Regin's bullying intensifies until finally Sonea follows an idea given to her by Lord Dorrien, Rothen's son, and challenges Regin to a duel in the Arena and wins. Sonea later witnesses Akkarin kill a Sachakan man, and he explains that the man was a spy sent from Sachaka to kill him, although Sonea doesn't know whether or not to believe him.

The High Lord

Main article: The High Lord

A year after her duel with Regin, Sonea still struggles with being under Akkarin's guardianship. Akkarin gives her the journal of a famous Magician-architect who, in his writings, admits to using black magic. He also gave her a history book that had not had all references to black magic removed, which was illegal. Akkarin then takes her into the city and teaches her to read the mind of an unwilling Sachakan man from whom she discovers Sachakan Magicians use black magic regularly, not knowing that Kyralian Magicians do not. The Ichani Kariko sends slaves to Imardin, the capital of Kyralia, where Akkarin kills them before they discover the ban on black magic. Akkarin then explains to Sonea that while he was in Sachaka before becoming a High Lord, he was captured and enslaved by Dakova, an Ichani. Through reading Akkarin's mind, Dakova discovered that the guild does not use the "higher" magic (this is what black magic is called in Sachaka and was called in Kyralia long ago) any more. Another Sachakan magician, an enemy of Dakova taught him black magic and asked to kill Dakova. Akkarin killed Dakova and escaped to Guild and became the High Lord. Kariko, an Ichani, the brother of Dakova seeks revenge for his brother's death. Sonea, worried for Akkarin, convinces him to teach her black magic. Later, the Guild discovers their use of black magic and outcasts them to Sachaka. Kariko discovers this and invades Kyralia. Akkarin and Sonea sneak back into Kyralia and to Imardin where the Guild is attempting, and failing, to protect the city from the Sachakans. Enlisting the help of the Thieves and slum-dwellers, Akkarin and Sonea defeat the Ichani. In their final battle, however, Akkarin is fatally injured by Kariko and dies by giving all his power to Sonea,while fighting with the Ichani. Sonea is left alone bearing his child. Since Sonea is the only magician who has the knowledge of the black magic, she becomes the Black Magician of the Guild. She also sets up a hospice to help the people living in the slums.

Background

Canavan notes that inspiration for her writing comes from "books I've read (fiction and non-fiction), the news, TV, radio, films, music, people I talk to — be they friends or just some stranger I struck up a conversation with. There are stories everywhere." However, the inspiration for the first chapter of The Magicians' Guild came from the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. She saw a news report which explained that before the Olympics started, trucks drove around the city gathering homeless people and took them to other cities. Later that night she dreamt that she "was one among hundreds of people being driven out of a city... by magicians." The crowd threw stones at the Magicians, as the slum-dwellers do during the Purge in The Magicians' Guild. However, Canavan threw magic instead, inspiring Sonea's actions. The basis of the book, Magicians with latent magical abilities requiring "expert tuition", was an idea she had already stored away.[1]

Major characters

Other characters

Minor characters

References

  1. Canavan, Trudi. "About My Books". Retrieved 2010-07-05.
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