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  • The Novice

  • The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 2
  • By: Trudi Canavan
  • Narrated by: Richard Aspel
  • Length: 18 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (730 ratings)
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The Novice cover art

The Novice

By: Trudi Canavan
Narrated by: Richard Aspel
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Summary

The sequel to The Magicians' Guild, one of Bolinda's top-selling audio books. The High Lord, Book 3 in the trilogy, is scheduled for publication in audio late 2008.

Sonea knows the other novices in the Magicians' Guild all come from powerful families, but she also knows she can turn to Rothen and Dannyl for help when she needs it. That is, until somone starts spreading malicious rumors about her - and Akkarin, The High Lord, steps in.

Promoted to Guild Ambassador, Lord Dannyl leaves for the Elyne court. His first order from Administrator Lorlen is to resume, in secret, High Lord Akkarin's long-abandoned research into ancient magical knowledge. Not knowing the true reason for his journey, Dannyl is soon facing unexpected dangers.

Meanwhile, Sonea has almost forgotten the High Lord's dark secret, but keeping the truth hidden may be a grave mistake.

©2004 Trudi Canavan (P)2008 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"...a wonderfully and meticulously detailed world, and an edge-of-the-seat splot, this book is a must for lovers of good fantasy." - Jennifer Fallon

What listeners say about The Novice

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable reading

Narrative: Brilliant series, I loved reading the novels the first time round and the audio versions have not diminished my love for these books. Faster pace than The Magician's Guild makes this story far harder to stop listening/reading.

Narrator: Easier to tell between point of view transitions, it has slightly improved since The Magician's Guild. The sample gives an accurate idea of what the narrator will sound like throughout the reading. As long as you do that and find you don't mind his voice, then you should be ok.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic sequel

This book takes up where The Magician's Guild left off. Sonea begins her training at the univercity under the kindly guardianship of her mentor, Rothen. She must deal with contempt and hostility from both her teachers and her classmates, and all the while, the shadow of High Lord Akkarin and his terrible secret looms over her. This book is somewhat darker than the previous story, but the author's excellent characterisation and engaging style are just as evident. A must-listen if you liked the first book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing

I have read this book and also got it from audible, it is brilliant if a little hard to get in to. But worth the effort. Cant wait for all her other books to become unabridged on audible.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Very up and down.

Sadly the downs of this book put me off it quite a lot. The first half was shatter shot swapping from character to character to quickly, sometimes within 5-10 minutes. Second issue was the 2nd tier character from book one being having a bigger role in this one. He was dull in first book, and no better in this one. The whole lad/gay subplot felt forced and more like an author ramming identity politics at the reader. The characters are often showed to be unbelievably dumb, as if the reader can see through the plot while characters with the same information are acting like they see nothing it gets annoying.. I found this really highlighted by the main characters response in the epilogue to the events there. The book has it's good points and why I've given it an average rating. |However, for me it is more a young adults book. Older readers may find the plot holes too obvious, and find the main character is quite a bit of a Mary Sue (google it) type character. I really wanted to love the magic in the book, but frankly in a book about it she does make it quite dull at times. Small tastes are shown, but I'd like to have seen more.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I love the story….. however….

I have read all the books in the Black Magician Trilogy so was very excited to see them on audible. The first book was good and I could completely understand what the other reviews say about the narrator.

Although I’ve read this book actually listening to all that Sonea goes through in the guild I found quite upsetting and at times I wanted to stop listening. Although I know it’s a part of the story I just felt there were one too many times that she was cornered!!

I am not sure whether I’ll listen to book 3 sorry.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant story

Fantastic story from a brilliant author. This has been sadly let down by the awful narrator. His accent and pronunciations are quite dismal, I persevered with the book due to the story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Cliche in its entirety

Stil easily predictable and naive in the story line.

As the first with no twists or turns that is not predicted almost before they have been introduced.

A shame really, as there is basis for a good story. But in all to cliche throughout/(

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Long-Winded Filler


Story – 3/5

Truth be told, I found that this book went on for quite a while with not a lot actually happening. It was entertaining enough, which is why I give it a 3/5 for story, but I do think a young adult would enjoy this more than I did. I was waiting for something big to happen at the end, but I was left very under whelmed. There was very little action in it, and centred a little too much on the bullying aspect at the guild between novices rather than moving the over-arching story along.

Trudi Canavan’s strongest point is making very likeable characters. They can be a bit one-dimensional at times but this could be down to the target audience. The world she has created is also quite good, with the magic system, social classes, and politics being detailed enough to make the reader want to learn more.

I have heard that the 3rd book in the trilogy is the best of the 3, and redeems the other 2 books, so I will definitely persevere (plus I bought all 3 together in the sale).


Performance – 3/5

Richard Aspel’s reading is consistent with the first book in the novel. If you didn’t like that, you won’t like this. I don’t think he is quite as bad as other people are making out though, and if you are laid-back about this sort of thing like me, you will no doubt be fine with him. If you are still unsure, you can always return the book and get another

He tends to read the novel like it is only children that will be listening, which is wrong to do. He over emphasises the thoughts and speech of the characters, making the younger people sound very whiney. His voice acting gives each character a distinctly recognisable voice though, and he does well to set the atmosphere of the scenes.


Overall – 3/5

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1 person found this helpful

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

Better than the first book!

What made the experience of listening to The Novice the most enjoyable?

This is the second book of the Magician's Guild series. I found it much faster to get into than the first and the storyline was much better. This book has got me wanting to download all of them in the series! The only fault I would say is about the narrator. He tends to leave big gaps between sentences and it sometimes seems like the book has stopped, the a few seconds later he'll start again. Not a major issue, just a bit annoying!

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The only fault I would say is about the narrator. He tends to leave big gaps between sentences and it sometimes seems like the book has stopped, the a few seconds later he'll start again. Not a major issue, just a bit annoying!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Speed up.

I know some people find the guy reading them annoying, and what I’ve found helps when that happens, is to turn up the speed a little.
Not to Alvin and the chipmunks level (unless that’s what you’re into) but up to maybe 1.1x, or 1.2x. It really can make the difference between ok and unlistenable (which is annoying if you’ve already bought the book)
I hope this can help someone, if you’ve read this whole review, lol.

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