The Magician's Guild cover art

The Magician's Guild

The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 1

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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

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)
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Would you consider the audio edition of The Magician's Guild to be better than the print version?

I would definitely not, the books are very well written, and whilst some people think that the beginning of this first book is slow, I don't think that it is so slow that it puts anyone off. It sets the scene and has some very good character development. I have the paper version of these books, and downloaded the audio as I have started listening to stories to send me to sleep... though it is almost hard to sleep listening to these as the stories are sooo good!! Personally, I prefer reading as I can then give the characters my own voices and personality parts, I was not a fan of how they were portrayed in this audio book.

What did you like best about this story?

In the written version, Sonea. In the narrated by Richard Aspel version - I will say the whole story, despite how much i disliked the narrator. I found it very difficult to appreciate the weird voices that Richard put on, especially his version of Sonea which I found very annoying. She is supposed to be a proud, brave young girl and Richard voiced her as a pathetic weakling which i found awful!

Any additional comments?

As annoying as I found Richard Aspel, I have downloaded the second book in the series 'The Novice' and will also get the third. This series is one of my favourite sets of books and I refuse to let the narrator put me off! I hope there is a different narrator for the 'Age of The Five' books as by then it may have become too much, and I don't want to risk Richard Aspel ruining Auraya for me too!

Awesome story - bad narrating

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Magician's Guild to be better than the print version?

No, print books are always best but audio is good for while doing other stuff.

What three words best describe Richard Aspel’s performance?

Takes some getting used to

Any additional comments?

Narrators voice is annoying , he uses corny accents for the characters and the accents he uses are inconsistent (particularly between books in the trilogy) meaning he takes a while to get used to.

Book itself is excellent.

Great story, narrator takes some getting used to

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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.

Is this for children?

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Magician's Guild to be better than the print version?

I enjoy both audio and written versions

What other book might you compare The Magician's Guild to, and why?

It's a darker, grown up Harry Potter

Any additional comments?

I read this book some years ago and enjoyed it so much I brought it to listen to again

A grown up Harry Pottter

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a couple of things pronounced a bit oddly or inconsistently. but otherwise well read, and the story is captivating.

fantastic book

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