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raclausing's review
5.0
I love love loved this! I can't wait to get more!
As for the prophecy (one will fail, one will die, and one is already dead), I think I have it down. Callum, of course, is already dead. That much is obvious. I think that the one who fails will be Tamara, because all her life that has been a gigantic fear of hers. And that leaves Aaron to die. I don't know if he will die for real, or come back to life, or whatever at the end of the series. But I am excited to find out.
Spoiler
To be honest, I was REALLY hoping that Ravan (Tamara's sister) was going to be the Enemy of Death. I thought that would give the series a real spin. And I thought that Callum would be a chaos-ridden. But then, getting close to the end, I knew that Ravan was not the Enemy of Death, and it was pretty clear that Callum was. But I love that! It is so cool. Now there are two Makars, Aaron and Callum, and I can't wait to see how long it takes Callum to tell his friends who he is. Ahhhh!As for the prophecy (one will fail, one will die, and one is already dead), I think I have it down. Callum, of course, is already dead. That much is obvious. I think that the one who fails will be Tamara, because all her life that has been a gigantic fear of hers. And that leaves Aaron to die. I don't know if he will die for real, or come back to life, or whatever at the end of the series. But I am excited to find out.
bluebeereads's review against another edition
3.0
Istyria book blog ~ B's world of enchanted books
I'll start off by saying that yes, there are a few similarities between this book and Harry Potter, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be and it's still surprisingly original. However, while I did like it quite a bit, I wasn't blown away at all.
The Iron Trial is the first book in the Magisterium series by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. It's about Callum, whose father has always warned him that the mages from the Magisterium were bad and that he should do everything he can to fail the Iron Trial he has to do to see if he can go to the Magisterium. And while he does fail, he gets chosen anyway by Master Rufus. But it soon becomes clear that there is more to the Magisterium and his past than he ever imagined. Is he a powerful mage, destined for greatness or is the truth more twisted than that?
Yeah it certainly has some similarities to Harry Potter, but at the same time it's not similar enough to call it a rip-off. Not at all. Callum Hunt is nothing like Harry. While Harry was shy and kind of introvert in the beginning, Callum is stubborn, says what's on his mind but still a bit antisocial because he never had any real friends. His leg is screwed up because of stuff that happened when he was a baby and everyone at home calls him a freak. The only real similarities is that there is in fact a magic school and a powerful bad guy lurking in the shadows. Of course there are the two other students, boy and girl whom Call befriends and one of the other students who hates him. But that is were the similarities end.
The magic in this book is not like in HP. Here it's really elemental, which I really really loved. The mages draw on the elements but can also be consumed by them if they're not careful and I liked that aspect of it. The ones that are complete consumed by their element are called elementals and they're kind of evil. The bad guy here is called the Enemy of Death and he's a master of Chaos. There's only one person who can defeat him and that is another master of Chaos they call the Makar. And that person is not the one you'd expect it to be. There is a big twist in the end that I did see coming for a bit.
Holly Black and Cassandra Clare are great together. While I love Holly Black, I'm not very fond of Cassandra Clare because City of Bones was kind of meh to me. But writing this together was a good move and I really liked the writing in this book. However, the story did get a bit boring around the middle, it was a bit slow. I am curious about how this series will continue so I'm definitely going to read the sequel!
The Iron Trial is a good first book in the series and as it goes along, these two authors will get better and better writing together. I see a lot of potential here, so I do encourage you to check this one out. If you love Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and other series like that, you should at least enjoy this one.
racheale123's review
3.0
Unfortunately, this reminded me too much of Harry Potter and I couldn't help but compare the two. I just didn't like the main character, Call, as much as I liked Harry Potter. Call came across as angry and jealous and I didn't have as much empathy for him as I did for Harry Potter. To me The Iron Trial got bogged down by the details of the story and didn't have the same excitement as the Harry Potter books (except for the ending with it's big twist).
hdbblog's review
3.0
The prologue of this book floored me. Suddenly I was thrown into a world where magic not only existed, but a whole war was being fought around it. Call's origin story piqued my interest. I wanted to know why he was so special. Why he was chosen to be the main character of this book. Trust me when I say that these authors know a hook when they see one. If my only experience with The Iron Trial had been the prologue? I would have wanted to buy it in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite keep up the pace after that. I was willing to let the slow progression of this story slide for a long time, simply because I understood that important foundation was being laid. We meet Call. We hear about his life, his abilities, and start to wonder why he hasn't been told more about his past. When The Iron Trial was finally mentioned, and I knew that real magic was coming around the end? I was ecstatic! Finally! Magic. I'm sorry to say friends, I was disappointed. I never really felt like this book picked up at all, even up to the ending.
That's not to say that the story itself is all bad. It's just, well, rather flat. I wasn't enchanted by the school that the kids attended, although I felt like I should have been. There was no excitement for me in following their lessons, or their day to day goings on. I just felt like I was sitting, and watching. Waiting for something to happen that would knock me off my feet. That feeling never came. Even the big climax, the huge reveal that explains Call's origin, wasn't all that surprising to me. I'm not sure how else to say it. The Iron Trial just wasn't thrilling at all.
I know, some will say that I'm being biased because I'm not of the age group this book is being marketed to. To them I'll say honestly, I read a lot of Middle Grade Fiction. Probably as much as I read Young Adult Fiction, both of which I'm well beyond the age group they are aimed to. I always try to put myself into the head space of a young reader. Would 11 or 12 year old me be drawn in by this? Would I be immersed? In this case, the answer is still likely a no. There were funny portions, the characters were likable enough, even the parts thrown in about friendship and being true to yourself were sweet. It just wasn't exciting. I craved adventure.
That being said, I did read through to the end. I'll even say that it's likely I'll pick up the next book to see where things go. It's a definite possibility that things will gain momentum. Especially now that the whole story foundation has been laid. I'm willing to give Call's story another chance. For now though, I'll sit the rating squarely at three stars. This is a solid book. The Iron Trial has promise. It just hasn't quite gotten there yet.
Unfortunately, things didn't quite keep up the pace after that. I was willing to let the slow progression of this story slide for a long time, simply because I understood that important foundation was being laid. We meet Call. We hear about his life, his abilities, and start to wonder why he hasn't been told more about his past. When The Iron Trial was finally mentioned, and I knew that real magic was coming around the end? I was ecstatic! Finally! Magic. I'm sorry to say friends, I was disappointed. I never really felt like this book picked up at all, even up to the ending.
That's not to say that the story itself is all bad. It's just, well, rather flat. I wasn't enchanted by the school that the kids attended, although I felt like I should have been. There was no excitement for me in following their lessons, or their day to day goings on. I just felt like I was sitting, and watching. Waiting for something to happen that would knock me off my feet. That feeling never came. Even the big climax, the huge reveal that explains Call's origin, wasn't all that surprising to me. I'm not sure how else to say it. The Iron Trial just wasn't thrilling at all.
I know, some will say that I'm being biased because I'm not of the age group this book is being marketed to. To them I'll say honestly, I read a lot of Middle Grade Fiction. Probably as much as I read Young Adult Fiction, both of which I'm well beyond the age group they are aimed to. I always try to put myself into the head space of a young reader. Would 11 or 12 year old me be drawn in by this? Would I be immersed? In this case, the answer is still likely a no. There were funny portions, the characters were likable enough, even the parts thrown in about friendship and being true to yourself were sweet. It just wasn't exciting. I craved adventure.
That being said, I did read through to the end. I'll even say that it's likely I'll pick up the next book to see where things go. It's a definite possibility that things will gain momentum. Especially now that the whole story foundation has been laid. I'm willing to give Call's story another chance. For now though, I'll sit the rating squarely at three stars. This is a solid book. The Iron Trial has promise. It just hasn't quite gotten there yet.
elizadeath's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to love this, I love Holly Black so much. And I tried to go into this with an open mind and not think about Harry Potter.
do not think about Harry Potter. DO NOT THINK ABOUT HARRY POTTER
....There were so many parallels to Harry Potter. Had to say, I was a little disappointed with the whole thing.
do not think about Harry Potter. DO NOT THINK ABOUT HARRY POTTER
....There were so many parallels to Harry Potter. Had to say, I was a little disappointed with the whole thing.
deeb_reads's review
2.0
I'm going to clear a few things up first:
1) I am not a rabid Cassandra Clare hater. I enjoyed a few of her books, and the plagiarism accusations against the Mortal Instruments series didn't consciously affect my rating.
2) I am aware that there are series besides Harry Potter where there are 2 guys and 1 girl, and they have magical powers!
3) This isn't a hate review where I complain about Ms. Black or Ms. Clare. This is 100% about the book itself and not said authors.
Yeah, now onto the review.
As I'm sure you've heard from Lola's review, Giselle's review, or perhaps Mizuki's review, this book is a heck of a lot like our beloved Harry Potter. I mean a HECK OF A LOT: so much that either the authors and editors willfully copied the HP universe or just turned an extremely, extremely blind eye to all the similarities popping up.
Let's see. The villain is an evil but extremely powerful wizard (or mage, in this book) who wants to cheat death, dubbing himself as the Enemy of Death. He went to war with the other mages/wizards and killed a whole bunch of them, including our MC's mom, and nearly killed our MC, Call, but didn't, and only left him with a scar- a lame leg that never healed. (Boy who lived? You betcha.) Even more suspiciously, the EoD vanished after that attack and hasn't shown up for years. Fast forward. Call lives with his dad, who is kind of an anti-mage crackpot, despite being a mage himself, and demands Call not be trained at the magic school place, because he hates mages and he's paranoid. He's also a pretty crappy dad, since people can heal other people with magic, but for some reason, the book never shows him attempting to heal Call's leg, which pains Call frequently. I guess the dad is basically the Dursleys, except rolled up into one guy. The magical school is kind of similar to Hogwarts, too- it's basically middle/high school and is hidden in the countryside, and has a whole bunch of weird magical food and hangout spots. Call passes the entrance test, and the teachers drag him off to the Magisterium on a bus (not a train) without his dad's permission, and the characters we meet are also like HP. We have know-it-all infodumper Tamara, except she's more of a snob than Hermione. We have a stuck-up bully, who hates Call for being *speshul* or whatever, Jasper, and he's basically a half-Asian version of Draco. (Why, Jasper, did you have to be the only Asian character! Why?!?) We have Master Rufus, the wise old mage, who takes our heroes under his wing and is basically Dumbledore except without the beard and looking kind of like Mace Windu. Call himself is a troublemaker, like Harry, and also like Harry, is somewhat famous due to surviving the EoD.
Oh, and the Enemy of Death himself is basically Voldemort. Even the names- Voldemort is derived from the word Mort, or death. They both have screwed-up faces. They both want to cheat death using forbidden spells. The EoD's Chaos-ridden minions are basically Inferi, like in [b: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince|1|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)|J.K. Rowling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361039191s/1.jpg|41335427]. And there's also a HUGE and extremely obvious similarity that Clare and Black and their editors would be BLIND to not see.
Yeah, think about it.
Secondly, Clare and Black could have distinguished this from HP by having a "will he turn out just like the EoD?" Nature v. Nurture thing going on. But they didn't.
That Clare and Black not only either copied HP or just ignored the extreme similarities is one thing, but the fact that they missed dozens of opportunities to distinguish this book from Harry Potter is another. Read the spoiler above at your own risk if you need an example, but here are a few more: the "I don't want to be a mage" thing and the "Oh no, I'm not the special snowflake, but my bestie Aaron is!" were totally underplayed.
You know what, correct me if I'm wrong, but while we're talking about Harry Potter, is it just me or does Kylo Ren look like Snape? You know, with the hair and everything?
In conclusion of this segment, the HP similarities totally ruined it. It would have been OK had I not read HP or known of HP's existence, but it also suffered from other non HP problems.
1) It was boring. There isn't really a plot until someone kidnaps Aaron about 30 pages from the end and Tamara and Call have to save him.
2) The worldbuilding was vague, even of the school. I didn't really get how kids were supposed to learn anything, and as Lola's review pointed out, the Magisterium seemed more like a camp than an actual school.
3) What wasn't obviously an Harry Potter thing was cliche or a trope. Aaron, the 3rd member of Call's trio, is the standard Golden Boy trope. There's also a grumpy Council of magicness, and the whole Chaos thing sounds a lot like the Dark Side or something.
Other than that, it was fairly enjoyable, and standard Middle Grade fare. Maybe if I was younger, I'd have liked it more.
Conclusion: This book was ruined by the huge amounts of Harry Potter similarities, its unoriginality, and lack of worldbuilding. However, it's only standard middle grade, and is readable.
Oh, and one more HP meme. You deserve it for reading this long review.
1) I am not a rabid Cassandra Clare hater. I enjoyed a few of her books, and the plagiarism accusations against the Mortal Instruments series didn't consciously affect my rating.
2) I am aware that there are series besides Harry Potter where there are 2 guys and 1 girl, and they have magical powers!
3) This isn't a hate review where I complain about Ms. Black or Ms. Clare. This is 100% about the book itself and not said authors.
Yeah, now onto the review.
As I'm sure you've heard from Lola's review, Giselle's review, or perhaps Mizuki's review, this book is a heck of a lot like our beloved Harry Potter. I mean a HECK OF A LOT: so much that either the authors and editors willfully copied the HP universe or just turned an extremely, extremely blind eye to all the similarities popping up.
Let's see. The villain is an evil but extremely powerful wizard (or mage, in this book) who wants to cheat death, dubbing himself as the Enemy of Death. He went to war with the other mages/wizards and killed a whole bunch of them, including our MC's mom, and nearly killed our MC, Call, but didn't, and only left him with a scar- a lame leg that never healed. (Boy who lived? You betcha.) Even more suspiciously, the EoD vanished after that attack and hasn't shown up for years. Fast forward. Call lives with his dad, who is kind of an anti-mage crackpot, despite being a mage himself, and demands Call not be trained at the magic school place, because he hates mages and he's paranoid. He's also a pretty crappy dad, since people can heal other people with magic, but for some reason, the book never shows him attempting to heal Call's leg, which pains Call frequently. I guess the dad is basically the Dursleys, except rolled up into one guy. The magical school is kind of similar to Hogwarts, too- it's basically middle/high school and is hidden in the countryside, and has a whole bunch of weird magical food and hangout spots. Call passes the entrance test, and the teachers drag him off to the Magisterium on a bus (not a train) without his dad's permission, and the characters we meet are also like HP. We have know-it-all infodumper Tamara, except she's more of a snob than Hermione. We have a stuck-up bully, who hates Call for being *speshul* or whatever, Jasper, and he's basically a half-Asian version of Draco. (Why, Jasper, did you have to be the only Asian character! Why?!?) We have Master Rufus, the wise old mage, who takes our heroes under his wing and is basically Dumbledore except without the beard and looking kind of like Mace Windu. Call himself is a troublemaker, like Harry, and also like Harry, is somewhat famous due to surviving the EoD.
Oh, and the Enemy of Death himself is basically Voldemort. Even the names- Voldemort is derived from the word Mort, or death. They both have screwed-up faces. They both want to cheat death using forbidden spells. The EoD's Chaos-ridden minions are basically Inferi, like in [b: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince|1|Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)|J.K. Rowling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361039191s/1.jpg|41335427]. And there's also a HUGE and extremely obvious similarity that Clare and Black and their editors would be BLIND to not see.
Spoiler
THE EoD'S SOUL IS INSIDE OF CALLLLLLLLLL! OK, some people have said, well, only PART of Harry is Voldemort, whereas 100% of Call is supposedly the EoD. But come on, how many books do you have where the death-cheating antagonist puts his SOUL inside the MC?Yeah, think about it.
Secondly, Clare and Black could have distinguished this from HP by having a "will he turn out just like the EoD?" Nature v. Nurture thing going on. But they didn't.
That Clare and Black not only either copied HP or just ignored the extreme similarities is one thing, but the fact that they missed dozens of opportunities to distinguish this book from Harry Potter is another. Read the spoiler above at your own risk if you need an example, but here are a few more: the "I don't want to be a mage" thing and the "Oh no, I'm not the special snowflake, but my bestie Aaron is!" were totally underplayed.
You know what, correct me if I'm wrong, but while we're talking about Harry Potter, is it just me or does Kylo Ren look like Snape? You know, with the hair and everything?
In conclusion of this segment, the HP similarities totally ruined it. It would have been OK had I not read HP or known of HP's existence, but it also suffered from other non HP problems.
1) It was boring. There isn't really a plot until someone kidnaps Aaron about 30 pages from the end and Tamara and Call have to save him.
2) The worldbuilding was vague, even of the school. I didn't really get how kids were supposed to learn anything, and as Lola's review pointed out, the Magisterium seemed more like a camp than an actual school.
3) What wasn't obviously an Harry Potter thing was cliche or a trope. Aaron, the 3rd member of Call's trio, is the standard Golden Boy trope. There's also a grumpy Council of magicness, and the whole Chaos thing sounds a lot like the Dark Side or something.
Other than that, it was fairly enjoyable, and standard Middle Grade fare. Maybe if I was younger, I'd have liked it more.
Conclusion: This book was ruined by the huge amounts of Harry Potter similarities, its unoriginality, and lack of worldbuilding. However, it's only standard middle grade, and is readable.
Oh, and one more HP meme. You deserve it for reading this long review.
darthvale's review
3.0
3 stelline e mezzo!
All'inizio trovavo davvero troppe somiglianze con Harry Potter ma alla fine non è stato poi così male..
L'unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta è il finale: hanno voluto creare un finale a effetto e direi che non è nemmeno brutto, solo che è come hanno deciso di continuare la storia che non mi è andato molto a genio. Spero che si riprenda nei prossimi libri!
I personaggi, purtroppo, non mi hanno lasciato quasi nulla e in loro ho rivisto troppo il trio Harry, Hermione e Ron, per cui anche questa somiglianza non mi è piaciuta molto. Indubbiamente la lettura è stata molto veloce e lo stile mi è piaciuto ma, purtroppo, la storia l'ho trovata un po' sciapa.
All'inizio trovavo davvero troppe somiglianze con Harry Potter ma alla fine non è stato poi così male..
L'unica cosa che non mi è piaciuta è il finale: hanno voluto creare un finale a effetto e direi che non è nemmeno brutto, solo che è come hanno deciso di continuare la storia che non mi è andato molto a genio. Spero che si riprenda nei prossimi libri!
I personaggi, purtroppo, non mi hanno lasciato quasi nulla e in loro ho rivisto troppo il trio Harry, Hermione e Ron, per cui anche questa somiglianza non mi è piaciuta molto. Indubbiamente la lettura è stata molto veloce e lo stile mi è piaciuto ma, purtroppo, la storia l'ho trovata un po' sciapa.
sivukerrallaan's review against another edition
4.0
Mielenkiintoinen ja jännittävä aloitus sarjalle. Lemppareita taikajärjestelmissä ovat ne, jotka perustuvat luonnonvoimiin ja tässä on juuri sellainen, joten se kiehtoo erityisesti.
mhuang's review
4.0
Rating: 4 stars
I really, really loved this book.
Yes, I know loads of people are calling it a 'rip off' of Harry Potter, but I absolutely don't think it is.
Of course, there were a lot of similarites:
2 boys & 1 girl main character going to a sort of school where they are taught how to handle their magic. Call (the "true main character", the story's written in his pov - it's in third person but still) didn't have any friends, got bullied before, just like Harry did. Tamara (the girl main character) was the "smartest one" like Hermione, and Aaron (the other main character).. Well I don't think he was like Ron at all to be frank, he was that person that is always kind to everyone and everyone loves - I don't know why I'm putting this here since I wanted to sum up the similarites first buuuut, moving on.
There were loads of other differences too;
Call was (quoting Aaron;) a jerk sometimes, and had been very skeptical in the beginning - which he couldn't help, he was taught that everything of the Magisterium was bad but yeah.
The magic was very different too, they use 'Elementals' which I thought was intriguing.
⠀ "Fire wants to burn,
⠀⠀Water wants to flow,
⠀⠀⠀Air wants to rise,
⠀⠀Earth wants to bind,
⠀Chaos wants to devour."
There were other many other differences besides these ones I just listed but I won't get into those too deeply since I'd be spoiling the plot. And I also must say that this has been the longest review I've ever written, haha!
Anyways, I think you should definitely give this one a try if you love fantasy novels that're about a special school for magic and all that :3
I really, really loved this book.
Yes, I know loads of people are calling it a 'rip off' of Harry Potter, but I absolutely don't think it is.
Of course, there were a lot of similarites:
2 boys & 1 girl main character going to a sort of school where they are taught how to handle their magic. Call (the "true main character", the story's written in his pov - it's in third person but still) didn't have any friends, got bullied before, just like Harry did. Tamara (the girl main character) was the "smartest one" like Hermione, and Aaron (the other main character).. Well I don't think he was like Ron at all to be frank, he was that person that is always kind to everyone and everyone loves - I don't know why I'm putting this here since I wanted to sum up the similarites first buuuut, moving on.
There were loads of other differences too;
Call was (quoting Aaron;) a jerk sometimes, and had been very skeptical in the beginning - which he couldn't help, he was taught that everything of the Magisterium was bad but yeah.
The magic was very different too, they use 'Elementals' which I thought was intriguing.
⠀ "Fire wants to burn,
⠀⠀Water wants to flow,
⠀⠀⠀Air wants to rise,
⠀⠀Earth wants to bind,
⠀Chaos wants to devour."
There were other many other differences besides these ones I just listed but I won't get into those too deeply since I'd be spoiling the plot. And I also must say that this has been the longest review I've ever written, haha!
Anyways, I think you should definitely give this one a try if you love fantasy novels that're about a special school for magic and all that :3