Name: The Magician's Apprentice
ISBN: 9780316037884

Trudi Canavan

A prequel to the Black Magician trilogy is set six hundred years earlier in a harsh world prior to the advent of magical healing and the existence of the guild, in a tale that describes how a rivalry between black magicians leads to international warfare and a brutal act of sorcery.

The Magician's Apprentice

Ofelia

Carino, ma mi aspettavo di meglio. 
L'ho iniziato a leggere perchè sto leggendo ora la trilogia della Canavan e mi sta piacendo molto, questo libro secondo me non è all'altezza degli altri. La protagonista è un pò un peso morto per tutta la storia, sa curare e va bene ma non combatte mai attivamente e la sua unica dote sembra quella di essere l'unica donna in un gruppo di soli uomini. La trama va molto a rilento, tanto che per le prime 300 pagine ci si chiede com'è che non si è ancora vista una battaglia degna di questo nome. E la storia di Stara può anche essere toccante e interessante sotto certi punti di vista ma secondo me era evitabile, serve solo a rendere il libro incredibilmente lungo ma non lo rende poi molto più interessante (per quel che mi riguarda ogni volta che arrivava il suo punto di vista speravo finisse presto per tornare da Tessia e compagnia bella). 
Il finale è la parte che mi ha convinto forse meno, con quelle morti che non avevano un gran senso piazzate così nell'epilogo. A me è sembrato che per buona parte il ritmo del libro andasse veramente a rilento, ed allora se proprio quei personaggi li voleva uccidere (ammetto che avrei preferito non vedere morire Lord Dakon) poteva almeno dargli uno spazio nella storia invece che degnarli di un paio di righe nell'Epilogo. 
Neanche la storia di Tessia e Jayan mi ha preso particolarmente, era fin troppo ovvio che sarebbero finiti assieme e non hanno mai avuto un vero ostacolo che facesse pensare il contrario. 
Comunque è scritto bene e si legge bene, soprattutto chi ha apprezzato gli altri libri della Canavan farebbe bene a leggerlo.

Tom Turner

** spoiler alert **
           I would like to say I loved this book, but there is part of me resisting that solely because I didn't feel satisfied by its ending. It felt to me that it wasn't tied up properly. It kind of felt there should have been a couple more pages. I also thought that seeing as Tessia is the title and main character of the book that it was a shame the final scene (though mentioning her) doesn't feature her.

I have picked up copies of Trudi Canavan's books in shops a number of times over the years, but I never bought one because I didn't want to invest in a trilogy if I wasn't completely "with it". So when I realised that this book was a stand-alone novel, but was set in the world (albeit a few hundred years before!) some of her other books I jumped at the chance of reading it.

From my first paragraph you'll probably think I ended up disappointed, but you'd be wrong. Until the very end I really really enjoyed this. The characters were well formed and it was lovely to have a story of war where you see both sides of said war, and the juxtaposition of Stara and Tessia's stories was intriguing but perhaps not played to its full potential. The two different cultures were very well constructed, and by having the Stara strand meant you never fully demonised the Sachakans, making them a more fully constructed culture - one that is eerily familiar.

My mind keeps wondering while I felt disappointed, and I guess I felt I needed more, and maybe this is because Canavan is more used to writing trilogies, maybe this is what is needed, I'd love to read a story of Tessia and Jayan as they built the Guild with the others. I feel there could be a whole book in that alone. It would have been nice to have at least got a glimpse of it. Given that it is a central part of the Black Magician trilogy I feel that could have been nice. Maybe all these niggles I'm feeling will be sorted when I read said trilogy, and I certainly will do, and maybe I'd have felt more satisfied if I'd read this in publication order. Who knows I may come back one day and re- review this book after re-reading it following reading the other six book set in this world. 

I'm glad to have read this book, and I am excited to read more Trudi Canavan. I guess me saying that when I don't have the butterflies in the stomach I get at the end of reading a book is something in itself.

Barbara

Andy

In the remote village of Mandryn, Tessia serves as assistant to her father, the village Healer. Her mother would rather she found a husband. But her life is about to take a very unexpected turn when a visiting Sachakan mage gets violent and Lord Dakon, the local magician, takes Tessia under his wing as an apprentice in preparation for defending her world.