The Iron Trial (Magisterium, #1)

by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

[sa090]

I kind of picked this one based on the cover, something about it was insanely appealing and then I read the synopsis which made it seem like it won't be a complete waste of time. Long story short it wasn't, had it's up and downs for sure but overall I liked it.

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First things first, this is clearly inspired by Harry Potter and personally I don't consider inspirations from famous series or basically having the same formula to be an awful thing but having them does raise the bar a little too high (considering the series the Magisterium series is getting inspired by, that bar goes up even higher) which is surely going to be difficult to live up to or surpass which happened to this series. Comparing between the series is pointless so I tried my best when reading not to do so but with the similar things between them it was a little difficult to draw that line more often than not.

I like seeing a journey of getting better at anything and if it's fantasy or magic based then that's even better. So while the Elements and whatnot was a fairly simplistic magic system, I didn't hate it nor did I think it was boring. It was actually interesting to know about and I was definitely interested to see more examples of how it can be used since the uses didn't seem to be confined to the 5 basic elements in their world but like the Avatar elements, they spread and expanded into others. Adding the monsters, and how they became as such with the constant reminders of their dangers or the danger of joining them made me hope to see it happen at some point and since it's just the first book I wouldn't think I lost my chance just yet.

Now the school system was another interesting concept but it wasn't that well presented imo. I mean the exam or the selection more like didn't really need much and moved on smoothly for me but when we got to the school itself and they started talking about the different colours of the uniforms it sounded like the explanation of who is a first year, second year or whatever year came from Callum himself when in reality he shouldn't know anything about that. I know that the authors most likely didn't intend for it to sound as such but that's what I got when reading it, having him ask and then be answered about them would've been a much better move imo because 1) it'll be more believable and 2) it'll actually stick better, since I still have no idea what uniform colours other than gray is supposed to be signify when it's just mentioned in passing.

One of my favourite parts of the book was Callum's "condition", it's spoiler territory there but in passing I really liked to see the impact on his life from it, not because I enjoy it when people suffer but I think that the end of his journey will feel more satisfying with it there. Speaking of him and going to the characters in the book, I don't have a favourite character at all which is pretty weird considering their abundance here but since they're not boring to read about I don't really care tbh. There were instances where I thought they were really really childish, especially Callum and Jasper but by the end there is a definite change.

Oh yeah one more thing, considering it's written by two authors I tip my hat to both for managing to write it together so smoothly and without making it feel disjointed. As a way to wrap this up, what do I hope to see more of? A little more world building, more lectures, more magic used in battles, maybe an adventure and I'm interested in seeing Aaron's journey as well so hopefully it won't disappoint.

Final rating: 3/5