The Magician's Guild cover art

The Magician's Guild

The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 1

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The Magician's Guild

By: Trudi Canavan
Narrated by: Richard Aspel
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About this listen

Sonea is caught up in a confrontation between the hated Guild magicians and the angry youth of the slums. To her dismay, she discovers that she possesses the same powers as the reviled magicians. To avoid capture, she must seek protection from the city's feared underworld, The Thieves. In return, she must use her powers for them, but her magic never seems to do quite what she intends it to.©2004 Trudi Canavan (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd. Fantasy Fiction Magic Users
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Critic reviews

"The first part of the Black Magician Trilogy, this captivating tale has already been hailed by critics as a 'must for lovers of good fantasy'." ( Marie Claire)

What listeners say about The Magician's Guild

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

More suitable for children?

I found the narrator’s voice irritating, slow and ill-timed with his emphases. I nearly returned, but read other reviews and tried to listen with the view that it is written for children. It felt slow and repetitive and I kept switching off. I think I am not the right audience for it - and it couldn’t compare with the book I listened to before it in terms of depth of characters (the pariah by Anthony Ryan).

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Is this for children?

It doesn't say so but this is possibly a children's book.
The narration even on 3X on my iPhone is slow.
I'm trying to finish it as it's not a bad story but I'm not sure I'll manage as still 3 hours to go at 3X another hour. If you like children's stories or just stories where even the baddies are nice then you might like this but you'll probably need to speed it up a bit.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good book narrator a bit slow

large gaps between sentences and slow reading was frustrating during the tense parts. good story though

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Needs a better narrator

This is the first time that I've enjoyed a book less when it was read aloud. The narration is really poor and robotic. I don't think I'll get the other 2 books now as it's quite off putting.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good book - shame about the narrator

I believe this audiobook is let down by the narrator, Richard Aspel. His timing is poor, he uses inappropriate emphasis on sentences and his odd accents distract from the story rather than adding to it.

The book itself is fun and interesting. Some points were repeated too often and I found myself thinking: "yes, I realised that was important the first 5 times it was mentioned". However, the pace of the book picks up in the final third and I am very interested to find out how the lead character, Sonea, develops in the next book.

Thank you Trudi :)

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51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A book suitable for adults and children

This is a great fantasy/sc fi book, which is suitable for all ages. The narrator was brilliant....he helped me to visualize the individual characters. The story is about Sonea who has magic but doesn't realise it. When she accidently uses it, the Magicians Guild start to look for her, and suddenly she becomes the most wanted person in town. I highly recommend this especially to younger readers...it is a great start into this genre.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

So long....

I think this story is really way to long !! Such long chapters where nothing has happened except that she is hiding from the magicians......that makes the story very boring.............

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great! now on to the other ones

Read the books, and loved the audio. i can highly recommend this and the following books

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story

I do agree with so many of the other reviewers, the story was good and kept my interest, but the narration was odd to say the least.

I liked the characters - even though I did get a bit confused sometimes because of the unusual names, and the story unfolded well. However, the narrator had strange phrasing, his voices were odd, and I found myself dwelling on this rather than the story. I may buy the kindle editions of the next in the series as it did peak my interest.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A decent read

I like the idea and the story is fairly good. The idea of how society would be different if magic existed, looking at power structures, class and prejudice is great. Honestly if the story, dialog and characters were just a little stronger it could be great.

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