The Magicians Guild

'The Magicians' Guild' is the first fantasy novel in the The Black Magician series by Trudi Canavan. Published in 2001 it was later fllowed by the The Novice(2002) and than later The High Lord(2003). The story follow the Sonea, a young "dwell" from the slums. Who accidentally dicovers she has magical potential, by hurling a stone through a magical barrier, accidentally injuring a magician behind it, Sonea finds herself on the run from the powerful Magicians' Guild. The magicians must find her before her uncontrolled and untrained powers kill her and destroy the city, as well as overcome Sonea's distrust and fear of the magicians and their Guild as they try to convince her to join their ranks.

Plot summary
Each winter in Imardin, the capital city of Kyralia, the streets are purged of the "dwells", the city's poor under-class, by magicians who drive away the inhabitants of the city's slums. Although young gang members gather to throw rocks at them, the magicians are protected by a magical shield—until Sonea, a young dwell, hurls a rock through their barrier and injures the magician Lord Fergun.

Fearing a rogue magician, the Guild begins searching for Sonea. Lords Dannyl and Lord Rothen lead the search into the slums, worried that Sonea's increasingly-uncontrolled magic will harm her and those around her. But Sonea both distrusts the Guild for their apparent lack of compassion for the poor dwells and fears their reprisal for her accidental injury of Lord Fergun. She flees with her friend Cery, eventually seeking the aid of the shady Thieves,Faren, who see the value of having their own magician and take her under their care. On a number of occasion Sonea escapes the Guild. With Cery, she sneaks into the Magician's Guild in an attempt to gain knowledge of how to control her magic, and observes a black-robed magician covered in blood performing a strange rite on a servant. However, her attempt is unsuccessful, and Sonea continues to lose control of her powers, setting fire to her surroundings repeatedly, Sonea is later drugged and takeing to a rouge Magician but states he can not help. But just before she loses control, Lord Rothen at last locates her.

In the comeing weeks Sonea learn to control her power and also to learn some magic from Lord Rothen. She is introduced to a few other Magicians. While Lord Rothen is out Sonea incounter Lord Fergun who wishes to claim her Guardianship. Lord Fergun attempts to sway Sonea to betray the Guild and thus "prove" that dwells are not fit to enter the Guild and goes so far as to kidnap and threaten Sonea's friend Cery, but Fergun's plans are discovered and he is subsequently banished from the Guild. In order to prove Fergun's guilt, Sonea submits to a mental examination, or 'truthreading' by Administrator Lorlen, who, finding the memory of the black-robed magician, reveal it to be Lord Akkarin, head of the guild, practising black magic - which is forbidden in Kyralia. Sonea decides then to join the Guild and train her magical potential.

Writing the book
On her webpage, Canavan describes that the main inspiration for the first chapter came from a watching a documentary of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona:

Awards and nominations

 * Aurealis Award Nomination: Shortlist for Best Fantasy Novel of 2002

Release details

 * 2004, UK, Orbit ISBN 1-84149-313-9, Pub date 5 February 2004, paperback (First edition)
 * 2005, UK, Orbit ISBN 1-904233-66-X, Pub date 1 September 2005, hardback

Sources, references, external links, quotations
http://www.trudicanavan.com/aboutbooks.php http://www.sennep.com/blackmagician/main.html

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