The High Lord - by Trudi Canavan

The High Lord is the final volume in The Black Magician trilogy, which also contains The Magician's Guild and The Novice. Here's a short taster of the story without giving too much away…

Sonea has learned much at the Magician's Guild in Imardin and the other novices now treat her with a grudging respect. Apprenticed now to High Lord Akkarin himself, she cannot forget what happened in his underground chamber or his warning that the Sachakans, their realm's ancient enemy, are growing in power once more and are getting ready to attack.

However, can she trust him, knowing what she does about him? Is Akkarin trying to trick her into assisting him in some dark and evil scheme or is he telling the truth and they really are in enormous danger from the Sachakans.

Having been somewhat dissatisfied with the forerunners to this book, the story takes a darker turn here and really starts to hot up a bit. It's obvious that the thread around Akkarin and black magic that started back in the first book has finally solidified into a tangible story here.

The dialogue is still somewhat stilted and the plot a bit predictable but it's a great improvement on the first book and obviously Ms. Canavan's writing skills have developed a great deal since beginning this tale.

Now that we've finally got going with what was the main plot of the series, it runs along at a decent pace with plenty of action, magic and even a bit of romance. The High Lord brings the trilogy to a fairly satisfying conclusion and, on the whole, the The Black Magician is reasonably entertaining and worth reading is you like fantasy tales.

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
ISBN: 1-84149-315-5
My Rating: 7/10