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  • The Magician's Guild

  • The Black Magician Trilogy, Book 1
  • By: Trudi Canavan
  • Narrated by: Richard Aspel
  • Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,014 ratings)
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The Magician's Guild cover art

The Magician's Guild

By: Trudi Canavan
Narrated by: Richard Aspel
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Summary

Sonea is caught up in a confrontation between the hated Guild magicians and the angry youth of the slums. To her dismay, she discovers that she possesses the same powers as the reviled magicians. To avoid capture, she must seek protection from the city's feared underworld, The Thieves. In return, she must use her powers for them, but her magic never seems to do quite what she intends it to.
©2004 Trudi Canavan (P)2004 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Critic reviews

"The first part of the Black Magician Trilogy, this captivating tale has already been hailed by critics as a 'must for lovers of good fantasy'." ( Marie Claire)

What listeners say about The Magician's Guild

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Good book - shame about the narrator

I believe this audiobook is let down by the narrator, Richard Aspel. His timing is poor, he uses inappropriate emphasis on sentences and his odd accents distract from the story rather than adding to it.

The book itself is fun and interesting. Some points were repeated too often and I found myself thinking: "yes, I realised that was important the first 5 times it was mentioned". However, the pace of the book picks up in the final third and I am very interested to find out how the lead character, Sonea, develops in the next book.

Thank you Trudi :)

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50 people found this helpful

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

Fantastic book - terrible narrator

What did you like best about this story?

Fantastic story - all of the books by trudi canavan have captivated and held my attention through reading and re-reading!

What didn’t you like about Richard Aspel’s performance?

If you don't mind heavy breathing and continuous gulping you will like this audio book - when listening I find the heaving breathing and the additional mouth noises incredible irritating to a fantastic story

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

For the story yes but with a different narrator

Any additional comments?

With a female lead character a female narrator would be better and one who was not so annoying in the recording - a male narrator like Stephen fry would not produce so many irritating additional noises in the recording - I wish the audio book was one I could enjoy as many times as harry potter - the story should allow all the books to be - but the choice of narrator is very poor

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Awful narrator

This is the first audio book that I have had to stop listening to because the narrator aggravated me so much,
I will buy the books and read them instead

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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Brilliant Story....

however the guy reading it pauses for around 4 seconds at the end of every sentence it makes it so hard to listen too! I've been making my way through the Terry Goodkind books and so far they have been brilliant and I fancied something new. Ive read the book and loved it, but this is unlistenable

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31 people found this helpful

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

Worst Narrator Ever

I love the Black Magician's Trilogy. I've read it (and all other Trudi Canavan books) countless times. So when I had a lot of walking-to-work coming up I thought that rather than read the series again, I'd listen to it, and so downloaded The Magician's Guild.

What a mistake. Don't bother with this.

The narrator has a voice like a petulant, spoilt brat and I couldn't stand her whining.

That I even "listened" to a whole hour of this boils down to the fact that I left the room and watched the news to escape the awful sound.

This was my first Audible purchase and it put me off so much that I deactivated my account as soon as I could get back online. I've only just come back now after a friend convinced me that not all books were so terrible as this one.

But this audio book was a waste of time and money for me.

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30 people found this helpful

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

Awesome story - bad narrating

Would you consider the audio edition of The Magician's Guild to be better than the print version?

I would definitely not, the books are very well written, and whilst some people think that the beginning of this first book is slow, I don't think that it is so slow that it puts anyone off. It sets the scene and has some very good character development. I have the paper version of these books, and downloaded the audio as I have started listening to stories to send me to sleep... though it is almost hard to sleep listening to these as the stories are sooo good!! Personally, I prefer reading as I can then give the characters my own voices and personality parts, I was not a fan of how they were portrayed in this audio book.

What did you like best about this story?

In the written version, Sonea. In the narrated by Richard Aspel version - I will say the whole story, despite how much i disliked the narrator. I found it very difficult to appreciate the weird voices that Richard put on, especially his version of Sonea which I found very annoying. She is supposed to be a proud, brave young girl and Richard voiced her as a pathetic weakling which i found awful!

Any additional comments?

As annoying as I found Richard Aspel, I have downloaded the second book in the series 'The Novice' and will also get the third. This series is one of my favourite sets of books and I refuse to let the narrator put me off! I hope there is a different narrator for the 'Age of The Five' books as by then it may have become too much, and I don't want to risk Richard Aspel ruining Auraya for me too!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Fantasy

I love fantasy, and the level of detail Canavan puts into Sonea's world is brilliant.

It is beautifully written, and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it after having read it back at the start of high school!

Anyone who likes Rowling, Tolkien, C.S. Lewis' Narnia and Gaiman will appreciate this series!

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14 people found this helpful

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

Great story, narrator takes some getting used to

Would you consider the audio edition of The Magician's Guild to be better than the print version?

No, print books are always best but audio is good for while doing other stuff.

What three words best describe Richard Aspel’s performance?

Takes some getting used to

Any additional comments?

Narrators voice is annoying , he uses corny accents for the characters and the accents he uses are inconsistent (particularly between books in the trilogy) meaning he takes a while to get used to.

Book itself is excellent.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Mr
  • 26-02-09

Great Audio Book

I really enjoyed this audio book and I'm not really a fan of the Genre. It takes a little while to warm to the story but stick at it as very soon you'll be enthralled. The second book is possibly even better, and I?m really looking forward to when audible to have the 3rd unabridged book in the trilogy.

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8 people found this helpful

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

The narrator is fine.

The narrator of an audio book can have a huge impact on how much I like the production. This is one of my favourite books, so when I saw a lot of negative comments about the narrator it nearly put me off buying it. I took the plunge anyway and I'm pleased I did, I genuinely don't see (hear?) a problem with the narrator although I would have preferred a female narrator given that the protagonist is female.

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5 people found this helpful