Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • 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 (1,032 ratings)

$0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
The Magician's Guild cover art

The Magician's Guild

By: Trudi Canavan
Narrated by: Richard Aspel
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Ambassador's Mission cover art
The Magician's Apprentice cover art
Thief's Magic cover art
A Curse So Dark and Lonely cover art
The Ninth Rain cover art
Shadow Magic cover art
The Shadow of What Was Lost cover art
The Malevolent Seven cover art
At the Sign of the Crow and Moon cover art
The Five Trials cover art
The Will of the Many cover art
Time's Children cover art
The Tower and the Fox cover art
The LonTobyn Chronicle, Books 1-3 cover art
Elantris (2 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation] cover art
Spellmonger cover art

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
  • 5 Stars
    567
  • 4 Stars
    272
  • 3 Stars
    122
  • 2 Stars
    45
  • 1 Stars
    26
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    379
  • 4 Stars
    200
  • 3 Stars
    132
  • 2 Stars
    39
  • 1 Stars
    36
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    468
  • 4 Stars
    191
  • 3 Stars
    87
  • 2 Stars
    27
  • 1 Stars
    15

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

More suitable for children?

I found the narrator’s voice irritating, slow and ill-timed with his emphases. I nearly returned, but read other reviews and tried to listen with the view that it is written for children. It felt slow and repetitive and I kept switching off. I think I am not the right audience for it - and it couldn’t compare with the book I listened to before it in terms of depth of characters (the pariah by Anthony Ryan).

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Is this for children?

It doesn't say so but this is possibly a children's book.
The narration even on 3X on my iPhone is slow.
I'm trying to finish it as it's not a bad story but I'm not sure I'll manage as still 3 hours to go at 3X another hour. If you like children's stories or just stories where even the baddies are nice then you might like this but you'll probably need to speed it up a bit.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

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

Good book narrator a bit slow

large gaps between sentences and slow reading was frustrating during the tense parts. good story though

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Needs a better narrator

This is the first time that I've enjoyed a book less when it was read aloud. The narration is really poor and robotic. I don't think I'll get the other 2 books now as it's quite off putting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • 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 :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A book suitable for adults and children

This is a great fantasy/sc fi book, which is suitable for all ages. The narrator was brilliant....he helped me to visualize the individual characters. The story is about Sonea who has magic but doesn't realise it. When she accidently uses it, the Magicians Guild start to look for her, and suddenly she becomes the most wanted person in town. I highly recommend this especially to younger readers...it is a great start into this genre.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

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

So long....

I think this story is really way to long !! Such long chapters where nothing has happened except that she is hiding from the magicians......that makes the story very boring.............

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Great! now on to the other ones

Read the books, and loved the audio. i can highly recommend this and the following books

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

Good story

I do agree with so many of the other reviewers, the story was good and kept my interest, but the narration was odd to say the least.

I liked the characters - even though I did get a bit confused sometimes because of the unusual names, and the story unfolded well. However, the narrator had strange phrasing, his voices were odd, and I found myself dwelling on this rather than the story. I may buy the kindle editions of the next in the series as it did peak my interest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

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

A decent read

I like the idea and the story is fairly good. The idea of how society would be different if magic existed, looking at power structures, class and prejudice is great. Honestly if the story, dialog and characters were just a little stronger it could be great.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!