AUTHORS:- Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

PUBLISHED:- 9 September 2014

PAPERBACK:- 320 Pages

 

SUMMARY:- 

All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. To succeed at the Iron Trial and be admitted into the vaunted Magisterium school would bring bad things. But he fails at failing. Only hard work, loyal friends, danger, and a puppy await.

 

MY THOUGHTS:-

NON-SPOILER:-

‘The Iron trial’ series written by co-authors Holly Black and Cassandra Claire really had me from the beginning, the prologue was exiting and the rest of the story may have been reminiscent of Harry Potter at times but has its own rhythm and uniqueness. Once the story got going I was on the edge of my seat, not literally because I read the whole book laid down but metaphorically, hell yeah.

There were so many secret and cryptic messages here and there that I was hooked in anticipation of the revelations, the pretty big plot twist at the end which made the whole story for me worth it, and I was like ’Woah’, I definitely did not see that one coming, and I really loved it. The burden and consequences of the revelations on Callum and eventually everyone else, had me so pumped that I picked up the second book right away.

There were some really fantastical elements in the story, this being a story about magic makes sense that there would be magical fantastical things in it but I mention it because it was all really beautifully executed. The characters were believable and relatable, the magical system was awesome and complex and may have been vague and unintelligible at times but that didn’t hinder the pace or the mood of the story even a little bit as I have had it happen to me reading a few fantasy books and I can go on about everything wrong about them for hours, But for this one I have nothing but praise.

SPOILER:-

So, this story is about 12 years old Callum Hunt and the Magisterium, a school of magic. Both of Callum’s parents attended the Magisterium, but his mother was a casualty of a horrific magical battle when he was just a baby. After that, his father swore off magic and hated the idea of Callum ever having anything to do with it too, so Callum grew up believing magic to be a diabolical thing, but during the mandatory trials to determine the children who may possess the potential for magic and magical learnings Callum gets chosen by master Rufus along with two other students Tamara and Aaron, even after he tries his best to fail the tests as per his father’s instructions and coaching Callum ends up at the Magisterium. This plot may sound a little familiar in the account of the authors of the book being well known Potterheads but believe me, the story quickly falls into a rhythm and flow that’s it's own.

The magisterium is an underground complex with a labyrinthine structure, easy to get lost for those who don’t know their way around, glowing stones and algae, monsters lurking in the deepest and the darkest corners of the caves, so basically, not a school you would want your own children attending.

So, Callum goes through the trials of learning magic, making friends, though reluctantly and faces the burden of life altering revelations about himself, which would eventually fall on Tamara and Aaron too, I suppose. You may find a lot of similarities between the magisterium and the harry potter series with the inclusion of the main character growing up hating magic, but if you can ignore some of those similar tropes you may find that this is actually a fun ride once you get into it.


CHARACTERS:-

1- TAMARA RAJAVI

MAITRETI RAMAKRISHNAN




2- CALLUM HUNT

ASA BUTTERFIELD