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Magisterium: The Iron Trial - Fantasy Adventure Book for Teens & Young Adults | Perfect for Gift Giving & Reading Clubs
Magisterium: The Iron Trial - Fantasy Adventure Book for Teens & Young Adults | Perfect for Gift Giving & Reading Clubs

Magisterium: The Iron Trial - Fantasy Adventure Book for Teens & Young Adults | Perfect for Gift Giving & Reading Clubs

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Reviews

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I recently said that I felt The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black is a poor man’s Harry Potter. I stand by that opinion. It is almost impossible to read The Iron Trial without comparing it to Rowling’s masterpiece.Let us review; a young infant born towards the end of a magical war is the sole survivor of a massacre which leaves him motherless and with a physical mark of the attack. There may or may not be some shenanigans involving souls. This massacre is the prelude to a decade of truce. Eleven or twelve years later, the young boy starts to attend magic school where he becomes best friends with a boy and girl, and makes an enemy of another rich and arrogant student. He is taught by a kindly if eccentric Master and they have lots of adventures. The one with the power to defeat the enemy has been revealed to the wizarding world. There is a confrontation at the end, and it seems the enemy may not be as dormant as he seemed. Heck, the story even closes with the protagonist in the infirmary having a heart to heart with said eccentric professor and being showered with goodies by his grateful classmates.Does that sound familiar? It could apply to both Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and The Iron Trial. The parallels are too obvious not be deliberate. What is interesting though are the differences. First of all, the protagonist in the Iron Trial, Callum Hunt, is aware of magic before his entry into the school and, unlike Harry, has to be dragged there kicking and screaming. This means that we lose the sense of wonder and excitement that Harry feels on his discovery of the wizarding world which is a significant part of the charm of Philosopher’s Stone.Secondly, the two protagonists are very, very different. Harry Potter is decency and courage personified (a true Gryffindor). One of his first acts on entering school is to defend a fellow student from bullying. He is direct and open hearted. He typifies the theme of the series which is about doing what is right as opposed to doing what is easy. Callum, on the other hand, is a little more complex. He is less open and trusting and far less inclined to act. He seems to consider the consequences before acting and frequently has to be prodded into doing so. On the other hand, he is less impetuous than Harry and is more likely to look at the bigger picture. He is also much more capable of focusing on the task at hand without being distracted.These changes obviously impact on the way the protagonists relate to their friends and mentors. Callum is less of a leader in his trio than Harry is in his. There is a significant power shift in his relationship with Master Rufus compared to Harry’s with Dumbledore. Dumbledore is the archetype of the wise old mentor and Harry is often left frustrated that he has not been given the answers he was seeking. In comparison, Callum is the one in possession of information which he must choose to share with his mentor, or not as the case may be.What I likedComplex protagonist. I found Callum as a protagonist interesting. I appreciated that, unlike Harry, he doesn’t just see things as black or white, there are shades of grey involved. The same is true of other characters, too. I enjoyed the way this impacted their relationships. It was interesting to see what Ron Weasley might have become in different circumstances though the Aaron character.Pacing. I thought Clare and Black kept the story moving along briskly and kept me reading.Chapter art. Each chapter is headed by an image encapsulating what is going on in the chapter. These were gorgeous.What I didn’t likeHarry Potter comparison. This book is no Harry Potter. It’s missing Rowling’s warmth, humour and imagination.Despite suffering in comparison to Harry Potter, I did actually enjoy this book. I was interested in Callum’s story and will probably continue to follow it in future books.I gave The Iron Trial four stars out of five.This was one of my favorite books this year. Yes, it has parallels to the Harry Potter series, but calling it a "poor man's Harry Potter" is nonsense. I mean really, that phrase doesn't even describe or explain anything. Nonsense, I say. This book, the characters, and the plot stand on their own. Besides, Rowling isn't writing any more Harry Potter right now, so why shouldn't there be something else to fill the void? Really, if Avatar: The Last Airbender and Harry Potter had a kid together, this is what that book would look like.As a plot summary: A father searches for his infant son and wife and discovers them in a cave, his wife dead. The infant lives, but the mother's final words were to "kill the child." Fast forward, the boy, Callum, is picked on all through school and suffers a physical disability. His father, a great mage, refuses to allow him to know the magical world until the Iron Trials, where every potential young mage must go through testing to determine if they should be allowed to learn at the Magistarium. Call is picked against all odds, and we then watch as he is taken underground to the school, eats lichen and moss that changes taste, makes two new best friends, adopts a forbidden wolf pup, learns to manipulate the basic elements, and eventually learns something incredibly startling about himself that could change the course of history. It's a story of bravery, friendship, and the balance of one's inner self.I got this book from Amazon and from the minute I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. I even read through a night class I had. I actually couldn't find it in my local library system, and finally just broke down and bought it, and I was not disappointed. The way the book starts is compelling and pulls you right in, and there are plots and twists and turns the entire way. The ending was unexpected and brilliant, and this book is full of humor that I think the HP stories lacked.I really enjoyed this book. I also really hope the authors don't go from an excellent, funny, engaging fantasy that is age appropriate to something adult, dark, and terrifying which is exactly how the HP stories progressed. Not to say the Magisterium books are childish- they aren't- but right now they're something I would let my 11 year old niece read, and I still won't give her the last two HP books. I think there is a lot of potential in the remaining four books, and I'm really excited to have found this series. I highly recommend it to any middle or high school fantasy readers.I don't know these two authors by name, but I have heard of The Spiderwick Chronicles (Holly Black) and The Mortal Instruments (Cassandara Clare), which, I believe are the series for which they are best known. I've never read a book in either series, but I bring them up because they are well-known series and I think it is interesting that two successful authors in the YA sci-fi fantasy space teamed up for a new project called Magisterium. The Iron Trial is book 1.In this world many people are able to use magic. Many families have a legacy in it and the children train hard to prove that they will have the ability. Callum Hunt has been raised to think that magic, and those who use it, are a danger to society. His dad tells him that the school where magically-able kids go to study, the Magisterium, is actually a place where kids go to be brainwashed and probably killed. While every other kid who tests for admission to the Magisterium hopes to get in, Call hopes not to, though he is selected anyway. And while he is there, he will need to decide for himself if the Magisterium is a good place or bad and if his dad lied about this, what else may he have lied about?This book is pretty short (just about 300 pages) and I would have liked more detail. I don't want page count for page count's sake, but when we can only expect one book per year, I hope to get something that will tide me over. So that is my only complaint. Otherwise, I completely love how the plot twisted in this first book. I like the character dynamics and the world Black and Clare have given us. There are many seeds planted here and I look forward to seeing how they grow in the rest of the series. I think that this is a good read for anyone who likes Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series.The story follows Callum Hunt who comes from a magical background i.e. his Father and Mother were both Mages but after the death of his Mother when Callum was a baby his Father has brought him up to believe that magic and in particular The Magisterium were to blame for her death. Call has been instructed by his father that no matter what he does he needs to fail the magic test and not be accepted in The Magisterium as the Mages are all basically evil and awful things go on in there such as experiments on the students and being left to become lost in the endless underground tunnels. So when Call goes for the test he tries his utmost to fail except things don't work out to plan and inevitably Call is accepted into The Magisterium. Now have I lost you yet? Are your eyes glazing over or rolling thinking "not another magic school story?"! Well yes it is another magic school story but with a twist and the twist does happen and is a good one and one that you possibly won't think of and so it is actually worth reading on as there is so much more to cover such as Chaos-ridden, The Enemy, Elementals, Floating Boat and talking lizards called Warren..........I struggled if I am being honest with the first third of this book as I just couldn't get into it and I think this was because of the obvious comparisons I was making between this magic school and the very famous Hogwarts. At first it felt like just a re-hash of Harry Potter with three friends (two boys and a girl does that sound familiar?) except in a magic school underground but after the first third of the book this book came into it's own with a brilliant twist which I won't reveal as it will ruin the story for a potential reader. I had thought a twist was coming but that it was slightly different and from a relative angle as opposed to what it ends up being. Anyway a really good start to what looks like a promising new series by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black and I shall be signing up to pre-order book two whenever it is announced. I would say if you buy this book and find yourself struggling with it to start then keep at it as it does get better very fast after the first thirdish of the book and is definitely worth a read.As a fan of some of Clare's earlier work, when I saw this new on the shelves I had to give it a go. I was a little worried at first because despite having a massive love for YA, I did notice that this book was aimed at a much younger YA audience. Let me just start by saying that this in no way lessened my enjoyment of it - I've been known to curl up with a good Roald Dahl book so it was definitely worth a shot.The Magisterium looks to be a new trilogy set within a fantastical world full of magic; many readers are comparing it to Harry Potter. But I have to tell you, that's where the similiarities stop and I wish people wouldn't compare the two because if you go into this book thinking you're going to fall in love with it like you did Potter, you will be disappointed. Not because it's rubbish! But because it's just a massively unfair comparison to make.Within this new world, we meet a different kind of main hero, in that he isn't your typical hero at all. This was actually so refreshing - to finally read a YA book where the main character isn't always this beautiful male God! This guy is actually a bit of a clutz, but I loved it for that. I think it's a really good precedent to start setting for YA fiction. Callum, our guy in question, is heading to Wizard school, or at least he's heading there to try and fail the entrance tests. You see, Callum, again unlike most main characters in this scenario, wants to be here about as much as a gherkin should be in a hamburger (yuck). So Callum sets out to fail his tests all the other kids are trying their hardest to get through, and he does fail. Spectacularly. So much so they examiners are impressed by his explosive results. From this point we enter the weird and wonderful world of the Magisterium.I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the plots along the way. The reason for this is not solely because I'm a considerate human being and hate when people ruin books. The reason is that this book is largely predictable. Now I know, I know, I should have expected this - it's a younger YA, but I just feel like Cassandra Clare and her fellow writer Holly Black, teaming up to write this, hugely underestimated their audience. The plot was so simple and kids were literally being handed clues like they were going out of fashion tomorrow. I felt a bit disappointed by this.Otherwise, the story was okay, if a little unimaginative, but I just expected a little bit more from authors I've seen do a lot better. Overall, a really good read for fans of fantastical YA but don't get your hopes up for a suspenseful, rip-roarer of a ride.Okaaaay …I was not expecting that. Like, at all.I was expecting it to be mindblowing, as Cassie's work always turns out to be (I haven't read anything by Holly Black thus far). I am a massive fan of The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments, and since reading them I have vowed to read anything relating to Cassandra Clare.Like it stated in the Acknowledgements: they wanted to create a character, Call, who readers thought was the center of the story, and then they surprised us by practically backpeddling and working things differently. It just goes to show how unique writers they are.I was thoroughly astounded by that unexpected twist. Wow.I applaud Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, and I will definitely be following the rest of the story.The tropes are very similar to Harry Potter, honestly. Black-haired protagonist with at least one dead parent goes to magic school, and befriends a nice guy and a smart girl to become a trio. There's his stuck-up rival, the perky confident girl who has an interest in him, the sort of ditzy boy and the wise mentor. That's just a few without going into massive spoiler territory. When you strip this book down, it really does have similarities that are unmistakably like Potter.Despite this, it's written well enough that I still found it an enjoyable read. As a whole the book is good, just slightly unoriginal. Look forward to the next one!Sorely disappointed in this book. It's a poor man's Harry Potter with two dimensional uninteresting characters and an unoriginal and obvious storyline. Holly Black delivered dynamite in her own trilogy, which led me here when I finished it but I wish I hadn't wasted my money.