The last of "The Black Magician" trilogy by Trudi Canavan goes out with a bang.
We pick up with Cery, a slum dweller who has risen to the rank of Thief among the Thieves - as opposed to just serving them before. He is hunting mysterious murderers in the city - their victims are found with only shallow cuts yet all energy has been drained from them.
Soon after we meet back up with Sonea, relieved by her defeat of Regin, her adversary for the past couple of years as a novice. She has found out a little more of her High Lord and Guardian's habits, but not enough to understand why he is using black magic. However, Akkarin eventually trusts her with his story and from then on she begins to gradually put more and more trust in him.
She learns that Akkarin has found out that the Ichani, outcasts of the Sachakans - a country with whom Kyralia was at war - are planning to invade Kyralia once they have found out the Guild's weaknesses. Though the Ichani are few they practice black magic and are immensely powerful as a result.
This book certainly seemed to be the most ambitious of the three - after all, "The Magician's Guild" and "The Novice", while leading up to "The High Lord" had slightly more insular plotlines, though they were still really good books. However, "The High Lord" had so many different threads and characters to follow it could easily have turned into a confusing mess. Thankfully, it wasn't, and I found my brain struggling to keep up with my eyes as I tried to read as fast as I could, eager to get to the end of the fast-paced battle and conclusion.
I was really saddened by the ending, not least because of (SPOILERS) the deaths of certain characters. The characters who died...their deaths make sense but when you have invested in them and their stories it's really hard to let them go.
Anyway, I highly recommend this whole series to any lovers of fantasy, and magic in particular.
Until next time!
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