Thief's Magic

Thief's Magic, Trudi Canavan – 2014

Trudi Canavan's Black Magician trilogy was one of the forerunners of the modern YA genre. It was published during the Potter phenomenon, but well before the dark shadow of Twilight began to spread over YA writing. Seeing them in the school library, I remember being intrigued by the simple covers, which bore a plain white background and a black robed figure dead centre, and they remain on my to-read list. However, during the NaNoWriMo-dominated November, I called into my local library and discovered the first book in Trudi Canavan's latest trilogy: Thief's Magic. 

The book concerns Tyen, a young student studying sorcery and archaeology at The Leratian Academy, and his discovery during an archaeological trip, of a book of powerful magic. So powerful, that upon being touched, it scans the mind of the one holding it, and adds their knowledge to its store. Much of this power comes from its sentience, as within its pages is incorporated the spirit of a young woman, Vella, once a great sorcerer/bookbinder herself, before being transmuted into the book by the mightiest sorcerer of the age. Aware that the Academy will not accept much of Vella's knowledge, and scared that they will simply hide her away, Tyen at first conceals the book, until he is betrayed and Vella confiscated. When he realises that they plan to destroy the book for fear of the knowledge she now holds about the Academy, as well as, by extension, about the entire Leratian Empire because the professors have touched Vella, Tyen steals her back and goes on the run. Meanwhile, in another time, on another world, Rielle, the daughter of a prosperous middle-class family, finds herself in the precarious position of having a talent for magic, in a land where magic is considered property of the Angels, and only their exclusively male priests may use it. Even to be able to see or acknowledge where magic has been used carries dire penalties, yet a 'corrupter' haunts the city, teaching those who would learn, against the wishes of the priests. Then Rielle finds herself falling for the poor, charismatic painter, Izare, and everything begins to fall apart…

Within the overaching YA fantasty, there are two distinct genre at work in Thief's Magic. Of the two interwoven strands, neatly presented to us in alternating sections, Tyen's is essentially a 'boy's own' adventure story, fitting nicely into the John Buchan/Alfred Hitchcock-esque 'man on the run' style narrative, while Rielle's plot is far more that of a social and romantic story, though it does bring to mind a toned-down, magical 'A Handmaid's Tale'. Common threads running through both are a suspicion of mysterious authority figures, in Tyen's case the Academy and in Rielle's the priests, and the narrative of a young person's disillusionment with such powers. Misogyny is one of the major themes of the novel, and though it is far more overt in Rielle's narrative, Tyen's perspective offers the interesting narrative of a compassionate person beginning to understand his own privilege. When, whilst on the run, he encounters two women, Veroo and Sezee, one an untrained sorceress, the other the rightful princess of her country, he is forced to confront the prejudices of his own Leratian upbringing. Veroo's request to study sorcery at the Academy has been denied, and Tyen realises 'I know of no female sorcery students. I assumed there had been none with enough ability to qualify'1, while Sezee's crown was lost to her when the Leratian Empire colonised her land, and enforced succession through the male, rather than the female line. During moments like these, Tyen also has to confront the troubling colonial heritage of his land, and the changing of his mind is handled superbly by Canavan.

Indeed, both Tyen and Rielle are excellently written; laced with insight, easy to empathise with and genuinely likeable characters, both naturally quiet and submissive, but both also making huge and divisive decisions. Although Tyen's theft of Vella is a dramatic moment, Rielle's choice to be with Izare carries far greater emotional weight for the reader. Their romance is also handled well, and though it follows the well-worn cliché of a young woman of social standing falling for a roguish artisan, Canavan injects it with enough fire and realism to make it believable, not only that their relationship might start, but also that it might last. A relationship of a much stranger nature, but one which holds equally as much chemistry is that between Tyen and Vella, a relationship with difficulties far greater even than Rielle and Izare's, yet written with enough nuance by Canavan that I will be interested to see what future installments of the series bring.

There is also a clear analogy at work in the text, most prominently in Tyen's section, in the fear that magic, which suffuses the air all around and which the sorcerers need to draw on, is running out. The idea of depleting natural resources seems an easily drawn parallel with global warming, but it is subtly enough done that the message does not feel forced.

The book's biggest problem, one that, in a sense, it advertises on the front cover is that it is the first in a trilogy. This, of course, shouldn't be a problem in itself; the issue comes with the simple fact that the entire book is the interwoven story of two people, their lives and times, all building towards, presumably, when they eventually meet. And that word 'presumably' is the problem. Because they don't meet. Not in Thief's Magic. And while keeping their stories separate is an excellent way of allowing each main character room to breathe and develop, and each have their own dramatic climaxes, not having them meet denies the book as a whole any emotional resolution. While I am fully aware that this is a trilogy, not including the encounter that the series is clearly building towards gives Thief's Magic the unsatisfying feeling of being a glorified, extended prologue.

Despite this, Thief's Magic is an excellently written YA novel, featuring compelling characters, exciting emotional episodes and mature exploration of issues such as sex, authority and the cultural institutionalism of racism, jingoism and misogyny; issues that, right now, it is more important than ever that literature should discuss. Hats off to Canavan for dealing with it all so skilfully, it would just be nice if the plotting had received the same attention.

Thief's Magic page on Canavan's website, where it can be purchased: http://www.trudicanavan.com/books/millenniums-rule-trilogy/thiefs-magic-2/


1Canavan, Trudi. Thief's Magic, Orbit, 2014 pp. 284