The Magician's Apprentice

By: Trudi Canavan

Narrated by: Richard Aspel

In the remote village of Mandryn, Tessia serves as assistant to her father, the village Healer - much to the frustration of her mother, who would rather she found a husband. Despite knowing that women aren't readily accepted by the Guild of Healers, Tessia is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps. But her life is about to take a very unexpected turn. When treating a patient at the residence of the local magician, Lord Dakon, Tessia is forced to fight off the advances of a visiting Sachakan mage - and instinctively uses magic. She now finds herself facing an entirely different future as Lord Dakon's apprentice.

Although there are long hours of study and self-discipline, Tessia's new life also offers more opportunities than she had ever hoped for, and an exciting new world opens up to her. There are fine clothes and servants - and, she is delighted to learn - regular trips to the great city of Imardin. However, Tessia is about to discover that her magical gifts bring with them a great deal of responsibility. For a storm is approaching that threatens to tear her world apart.

©2009 Trudi Canavan. (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing

Critic reviews

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

"Canavan is a natural storyteller." ( Emerald City)

This one drew me in slowly

Having read the trilogy many years ago, I expected this one to be impossible to set aside. While initially disappointed due to the slow start, but it drew me in bit by bit. By the end, I didn't want it to finish.

Not a Lot of Magic, BUT A Lot of Pauses!

I was really disappointed with the performance on this one. While many audiobook performances tend to run sentences, thoughts, paragraphs, and such together, the length of pauses, in addition to the placement of the pauses actually made this a struggle to get through. RARELY do I struggle so much to get through a story that I am interested in.

The book itself has a decent story-line, however it seems like there's more healing than magic discovery in this one.

I'd recommend it to anyone that likes a quick fantasy read... IF you can handle the performance.

Unless...

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Reading was choppy, and storyline random as it jumped from character to character

Would you recommend The Magician's Apprentice to your friends? Why or why not?

no, storyline only loosely meshed, only real connection is that they share a common time line and "settings"

How did the narrator detract from the book?

choppy, sometimes had long pauses in reading some passages

Could you see The Magician's Apprentice being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

nope.

Any additional comments?

Found out during the reading that this may have been an attempt at giving historical background info/attempt to tie several of the authors other series together. As this was my first experience with this authors work I was disappointed and would be reluctant to check her other series.

True Trudi Canavan from start to finish!

I loved this book and one of my favorite parts of this book was when the wives headed out to create their own sanctuary.

One of My Favorites

I love this book and it's story so much. I've ready it over about 3 times with my physical copy and listened to it twice over now and I just can't get enough!! I feel like I learn a little more each time I'm listening and even though I know what's happening, I still feel the rush of emotions almost as strong as the characters do!