I read this book because Trudi was featured on one of the Sword and Laser’s video shows. She came across so well that I thought I’d like to read her work and so I did.
Sonea is a ‘dwell’ living in the slums of the city of Imardin. However one day, when the Magicians are assisting in their annual purge of the city she discovers she has a natural talent for magic. Of course Magicians don’t normally come from the slums, they come from the prosperous and higher class Houses. Those are the ones who have their children tested and sent to train at the Magicians’ Guild, not the dwells that everyone looks down on. Then there are those like the Thieves to whom a magic-user outside the control of the powerful Guild could be a useful thing. So from that small beginning Sonea finds herself at the centre of a search from those who are interested in her, or her latent powers. To complicate it all she witnesses something that may reveal a conspiracy going to the very top of Imardin society.
The first thing to say about The Magicians’ Guild is that it’s the first part of a trilogy. And as Canavan says in the S&L interview, it’s a trilogy that started out as a single book but grew too large. You can tell. It’s relatively slow-paced and things are just starting to get interesting when it finishes. Not that there isn’t stuff here that I enjoyed, definitely some characters I’d like to see more from, but I enjoyed it more in a way that made me want to read the next book.
7/10 – Part 1 of what looks like it’ll be a good story.