I loved this book - it lays so much of the background to the Magicians Guild books. If you haven't read the Magician's Guild trilogy - start here and catch the bug. If you have, some of the characters may be similar to those in later (earlier!) books, but this is a great plot thread linking histories, rather than copying them, and plays well with one of the central themes of the book: History repeats itself. Mistakes the Sachacans made centuries before this story, are repeated by the Kyralians at the end of the story . . . and we know from the Magicians Guild how costly that mistake is. To forget history is to repeat it. My only issues with the book were that the end was a bit hasty, and probably could have been split into another book - set in Sachaca, and including the founding of the Guild. The long wait for the Ambassador's Mission in paperback begins - but can we wait???! (don't think so!)

I loved this book, as I really loved Truid Canavans original trilogy The Black Magician. I wasn't to keen on her Age of Five Triolgy as I felt it was very predictable and I felt as though she had lost her own magic in her writing. With this book however I feel that she has her magic back as this book kept me wanting more, I just couldn't put the book down. If you have read the original Black Magician Trilogy I'm sure that you will enjoy this book as it goes right to the very beginning of how the Magicians Guild came about, and about the conflict & alliances of other countries. I do feel that you need to read the original Black Magician's trilogy before you read this book as I think it would be hard to follow what is going on and how things work. Lastly I would like to see another book following this as this book tells you how things came about, but not in the struggles of setting Guild up and bringing the healers around to use of magic along with their potions and cures.

Having read the first of the Black Magician trilogy, The Magicians Guild, I had lined up the rest of the trilogy to enjoy. Then I discovered this title, the prequel to the series. I browsed the first couple of pages and was hooked. I found it impossible to put down and completed it in a week. Trudi Canavan is a brilliant storyteller.

I absolutely loved this book and found it to be the perfect start to the Magician's Guild trilogy. I can't wait to find out what happened in the sequel to the trilogy. A must read for all fantasy lovers.

The book was really good and explained the hidden plot from which the black magician trilogy mention but dont talk about , my only concern is that some of the charcaters were kind of simlar to the black magicain trilogy for example sonea is very similar to Tessia and lord Dakon to Lord rothen