The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black Book Review

 The Iron Trial 

(The Magisterium #1)

By Cassandra Clare, Holly Black 

Published Year: 2014 

Page Count: 276 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle Scribe 

Genre : Fantasy, Magic, Sorcery, Dark Fantasy, High Fantasy, 2026-read. 

Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀

At the beginning, the plot felt a lot like reading from the Harry Potter series. I would definitely say that the authors have taken inspiration from it. But only just an inspiration. A basic outline. The rest is their own brain material. The main character cast consists of two boys and a girl. They are in their first year of training at a school for magical kids. There is a dark lord called the Enemy of Death who happens to be an ex-student of the school. But that's where the similarities end. There are wild creatures that are ingested with chaos - the Enemy of death has put chaos into their souls and made them his spies. There are creatures which have given up their souls to the elements of nature like Earth, Fire, Water, Air and Chaos. These are called elementals. The main role among the three students is Callum Hunt whose actual identity shocked me greatly. It showed me how the authors intend to play with good and evil, perhaps even make the main character evil instead of good. The others are Aaron and Tamara. They have their significant roles but neither one knows the true nature of Callum. 

Digging into the story a bit, Callum's father doesn't want him to become a student at the Magisterium. He and his wife went there as students. And he lost her to the Cold Massacre where the Enemy of Death killed her along with many others. Call has a handicap with one leg and that was there since his childhood. He doesn't really know how he got it until the end of this book. But even when he doesn't do spectacularly well on the iron trial that allows Masters of Magisterium to choose their students, he gets selected. His screaming and unbelieving father is escorted out of the auditorium. Even after his studies commence, he finds out how his father is trying to sabotage and end his magical studies at the school. He doesn't understand the tenacity and the reason why he cannot do what he likes. He never felt like belonging or like having friends before until he met Tamara and Aaron. He clearly wants to stay. As the days pass, he makes friends with an elemental - a talking lizard that guides him through the tunnels of the school which happens to be underground. He also brings a wild wolf cub which is chaos ridden into his dorm room. One of the students try to run away from the stress of school, Aaron becomes someone bigger than what others are, for once Call is not the center of attention and then ... and then .. we learn about the Enemy of Death and I frankly didn't see it coming. Clearly, I have been lured into a lull by the similarity this story has with Harry Potter to imagine it ever being anything different. 

I liked how all the varied supernatural experiences that Call had growing up didn't suggest how different and special he is from other students around him. Everytime he gets angry, some magic breaks away from him and draws the scene to an end. I liked the world building, the elemental lizard Warren, and the wild chaos ridden wolf cub Havoc. The character development is also good. The pacing is fast. This is a small book but it laid out for a very interesting series. Will pick up the next book soon !! Do check it out.