The Magicians’ Guild; The Novice
Trudi Canavan

Not totally sure what I think about these yet… they’re the first two of The Black Magician Trilogy, and the last book isn’t at the library here, so I’m going to have to wait till I’m back in St. Paul. They don’t have any grand, sweeping ideas or revolutionary concepts, so it would be easy to dismiss them, but this one character, the character of Akkarin, stops me.

Basic plot — Sonea, a street girl, is taken into the elusive Magicians’ Guild when they discover her magic is powerful enough to manifest on its own. However, since everyone else in the Guild is of noble birth, she goes through the customary trials… Akkarin is the High Lord of the guild, and almost as an afterthought at the end of the first book, Sonea discovers he’s using black magic, which is banned from the Guild. (One is not told the details of black magic, however… the reason being that apparently even the magicians who banned it don’t know what it is…)

Both books are really just a set-up for Akkarin. He’s a true enigma, the black magician of the trilogy title, although even through the end of the second book, we are told very little about him. He’s keeping the other characters quiet about his black magic, and they moan and groan frequently about their plight and how he’ll kill or do other Horrible Things to keep his secret… but he’s so matter-of-fact and unapologetic about the whole thing that it’s hard to take them seriously. It’s pretty obvious to the reader that he’s not really an evil presence, so the agonizing of the other characters gets tiresome.

Just to follow Akkarin, though, I think I’m going to try to find the third book.