This final volume in the trilogy is a mixed bag. The surprise is the change in the character of Akkarin, who has been a complete horror especially in book 2 - forcibly reading the minds of his oldest friend Lorlen, and Rothen and Sonea, then threatening each with what will happen to the others if they tell anyone he uses black magic, that is, the draining of power from others. He also callously pushed Sonea into the path of 20 bullying novices by ejecting her from the secret tunnels she was using to escape victimisation. Yet early on in this book, he starts to take her into his confidence about the traumatic events which happened to him when he ventured into the neighbouring land of Sachaka, and was captured by one of the outcast magicians in its wasteland. This is the start of his transformation, not totally successfully, into a sympathetic character. And the alarm bells rang for me when Sonea overhears a couple of female fellow pupils discussing his potential as a love interest. At that point, I became convinced that Sonea was going to fall for him despite the way he has intimidated her and her friends, and her fear of him up to now.

Sure enough, Akkarin draws her in, and we discover he has a good reason for his actions - protecting the country, city and magicians from the threat from Sachaka, while keeping secret that he has to use a form of magic once commonly used but now banned under the most severe penalties and called black magic, following tragic events centuries ago. The Sachakan magicians are all users of such magic and each is far stronger than dozens of guild magicians due to their constant draining of energy from slaves with magical potential.

Sonea's involvement eventually leads her to petition Akkarin to let her learn it and join his fight, and she ends up killing one of the Sachakans who are coming to the city to try to kill Akkarin prior to invading. A surprise is that about halfway through the book, she and Akkarin are found out and banished to the homeland of the enemies. Their colleagues come across as pretty dumb - they don't believe they can execute Akkarin or keep him locked up for the time it would take to find out if his story is true. So, despite him and Sonea being the only ones who can defend everyone if they are telling the truth, they send them into the arms of the people who want to kill them for precisely that reason!.

I had problems with the book, hence only 3 stars. As I've said, I didn't find Sonea's drastic change of feelings convincing. Plus, her being barely 20 compared to Akkarin's being early 30s (younger than he came across as being in the first two books) and her having been afraid of him for about two years, convinced that he was evil, with his behaviour often confirming that, made it seem she had been brainwashed.

More minor issues included the introduction of a love interest character for Sonea's friend Cery (unlike volume 2, he has a big role in the book) from a rival faction of magicians in Sachaka, who does nothing apart from saving him at one point, as she is there just as an observer. From the reaction of one of the bad guys to her, it seems she is important - I'm guessing that she is the daughter of the Sachakan king, but we never learn anything more, her characterisation is minimal, and I found her scenes boring.

Similarly, Dannyl appears with his boyfriend, but does little in plot terms - he becomes involved in busting a secret ring of would-be magicians in the country where he is an ambassador, but that part of the plot doesn't come to anything. This is a shame because I found Dannyl an engaging character in the first two books, but he spends most of this one worrying that people will find out he is gay.
Rothen goes off to become a spy on the Sachakans, travelling with another new character, Raven, who gives him lessons in how to spy, but ends up recalled due to the main plotline, so that's another subplot that fizzles out. The villain from book 1 makes an underwhelming appearance, and Regin from book 2 a totally unbelievable repentance. Akkarin makes blood jems for himself and Sonea so they can stay in touch with each other, but never actually uses his. And the big climax where they confront the leader of the invaders is over in a few paragraphs. Plus, after the revelation that magic is stored in buildings and the Arena is an enormous power source to use against the invaders, why on earth don't they? It's as if they decided they didn't want to wreck the university. With that magic, of course, it's much more likely that both Akkarin and Sonea would have survived the battle. Canavan obviously wanted to kill Akkarin off, but it's not even as if Sonea is shown as devastated - there are a couple of mentions from Rothen about her being griefstricken, but in the epilogue, she seems pretty chipper as she faces up to motherhood in a conclusion that falls a bit flat.

The trademark annoying tendency in this trilogy for people to nod, chuckle etc is still present, even when a bloodbath has just occurred.

To conclude, after the much better volume 2, this one has dipped in quality because of the lack of conviction in the direction of Sonea's feelings and relationship with Akkarin and his with her, and the sheer number of subplots that don't deliver and even drag a bit.

( )

bullshit ending ( )

Recensione completa qui: http://thereadingpal.blogspot.it/2016/11/recensione-30-il-segreto-dei-maghi.html


Nell'antica tradizione poetica di Kyralia, la luna è conosciuta
come "l'Occhio". Quand'è spalancato, l'Occhio allontana il
male o induce alla pazzia chi commette cattive azioni sotto
il suo sguardo. Quand'è chiuso, e solo una falce bianca ne
indica la sonnacchiosa presenza, permette che le imprese
segrete compiute dal bene o dal male passino inosservate.



Allora... Vi giuro che se non lo avete letto non potete minimamente capire il mio assoluto amore per quest'ultimo libro della trilogia. Non. Potete.
Sonea è cresciuta, è cambiata da quando l'ho conosciuta la prima volta. Ormai è una donna, con delle responsabilità che lei non esita ad addossarsi, se sono necessarie a proteggere il suo paese e le persone che ama...
Come avevo presupposto, Akkarin non è ciò che sembra. Anzi, è tutto il contrario, e Sonea lo capirà, seppur con titubanza, e lo aiuterà nella sua missione segreta. Ciò porterà a conseguenze che la giovane non aveva neanche immaginato.
La Corporazione è in pericolo, i maghi di Kyralia sono troppo deboli per contrastare il nemico, e dovranno arrivare ad un compromesso sofferto ma necessario. Molti personaggi sono morti, e molti sono sopravvissuti, durante lo scontro che, proprio come ne L'apprendista del Mago deciderà le sorti dei maghi Kyraliani. Ho sofferto e gioito con loro.
La lettura non è stata del tutto piacevole perché, leggendo tanto, ormai tendo ad indovinare le cose che accadranno, e purtroppo ci prendo sempre. Odio questa cosa, ma non posso farci nulla. Ho dato comunque cinque stelle perché l'universo di Trudi Canavan, così come i suoi personaggi e il suo stile di scrittura, sono per me praticamente perfetti... E io non riesco a smettere di leggere e di volerne ancora e ancora!
Ho amato Akkarin e Sonea, come anche Dannyl e Tayend, in un modo in cui amo pochissime coppie nei libri che leggo, ed anche questo è un punto a favore della Canavan
So che c'è un'altra trilogia che penso segua il figlio di Sonea... e di qualcuno che non dico per non farvi spoiler, e io l'ho ordinata su Libraccio usata sperando che mi arrivi in buone condizioni.
( )

*spoilers* Cery returns to the scene. Regin bugs Sonea less and less, as she also learns and tries black magic (her decision) to protect Kyralia against Ichani, black magicians (outcasts) from Sachaka. Sonea learns about Akkarin's slave past. Both are exiled and punished, as the High Magicians think they killed Lord Josen (while it was an Ichani) and because they (magicians) found out about the black magic books. Akkarin's story about the Ichani trying to invade Kyralia only convinced the Guild once the Fort and the Guild are under direct attack. Sonea & Akkarin return to help save the city, though have to keep this a secret, else the enemy finds out. And so lots of battles break loose, the Thieves help hide S&A, even kill an Ichani.

Once the "war" is over, the Guild chooses a new High Lord (Balkan), Admin (Lord Osen, since Lorlen died on the battlefield), etc... Dannyl remains amabassador for Elyne and can thus remain with Tayend.

Sonea isn't really punished, but gets to do charity (healing) work, something she always wanted. But she's still not over Akkarin's death. However, she is pregnant from him, so...

All in all, a very fine ending of the trilogy. Lots of moments where you can feel sympathy for Sonea, for Akkarin, for Rothen, for Cery (who also has to break up with his Sachakan girlfriend, Savara). The ending may be a bit "simple" (easy to say once the book is read, of course), but Trudi could also have it end with S&A ruling together. And then what? Now, it's kind of logical: Sonea gets to do what she wanted (healing) and this also introduces a new era, a new beginning, now that Akkarin is no more and the Guild is to continue with new leaders and teachers.

It's a light read, somehow, and that's good. Book 1 may be slow and a bit hard to get through, but it's in 2 and 3 all the action is. It's also nice to read how Trudi repeats some things, little reminders of who's who, who did what when how why, ... ( )

There's a lot going on in the finale of this trilogy. If you've enjoyed the series so far, you'll want to know how everything wraps up. There's a lot of action and some feels too.

As usual, despite having read this series more than once, I forgot everything so I was so curious to find out how everything ended up. A satisfying end to a great series! ( )