The Novice
First UK edition cover
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| Author | Trudi Canavan |
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| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Black Magician series |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Orbit Books |
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Publication date
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2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 581 pp (UK edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 62110903 |
| Preceded by | The Magicians' Guild |
| Followed by | The High Lord |
The Novice is the second book in The Black Magician series by Trudi Canavan. It was published in 2002 and is the sequel to The Magicians' Guild (2001) and is followed by The High Lord (2003). The book continues the story of a young girl named Sonea as she discovers and learns to control her magical powers; in The Novice, she has agreed to study at the Magicians' Guild under the protection of her new guardian Lord Rothen, and swears to Lord Rothen and another magician, Administrator Lorlen, to keep secret that the High Lord, Akkarin, is using forbidden black magic.
Sonea, formerly a slum girl—or "dwell"—begins her studies as a novice at the Magicians' Guild as part of the summer intake. Sonea does not have life easy, particularly with her rival and fellow pupil, Regin, who does his best to make Sonea's life at the Guild a living hell.
She tries to ignore him at first but it only gets worse as Regin begins to circulate rumours about Rothen (her mentor) and her having a relationship. Though they truthfully deny this, Lorlen is forced to move Sonea to the Novice's Quarters to quell the rumours. Sonea, unable to take the bullying, studies hard and is promoted to the winter intake. The studies are harder and the students more mature, so the bullying does not continue in her new class. However, nor do the children befriend her, except for a slow-learner named Porril. Later, Regin is also promoted to Sonea's class, and with his old classmates from the summer intake continues to bully her. He frames her by putting one of her classmate's gold pens in her box, and she is accused of stealing. However, she can not prove her innocence since if she were 'truth-read' (her mind read by another magician), then the truth would come out about Akkarin's (the High Lord's)use of black magic, putting herself and those she cares about in danger.
Meanwhile, Administrator Lorlen hopes to discover some way to counter Akkarin's powers in black magic (considered evil and forbidden in the guild), by studying the High Lord's past travels across the Allied Lands. Lorlen sends Lord Dannyl (now Second Ambassador to Elyne) to seek out information about the ancient magic which he may have studied. Dannyl is assisted by Tayend, a librarian from Elyne, who was also Akkarin's past helper. Tayend at first is terrified of magic, but it later turns out this is because he is afraid his homosexuality will be revealed. This is frowned upon in Elyne. Dannyl finds out Tayend's secret late in the story when healing him, and though surprised at first, eventually admits he too is homosexual, and the two begin a relationship.
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