Heroes and Villains

Magisterium: The Iron Trial is the first in a series by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black, telling the story of Callum Hunt, who is sent to mage school against his father's wishes, and finds both friends and enemies, inside and outside the school. I listened to the audiobook, which had a good narrator. The opening is fun, since Callum is trying fail the entrance exam for the school, which is an interesting inversion of the usual story of kids being very keen to be trained as mages. The school itself is well-drawn and the characters are engaging, but it surprised me every time I was reminded that the main kids were only 12, as they seemed much older in the narrative. There are some very good twists that continue to subvert expectations, but I wasn't engaged enough to want to carry on with the rest of the series.


Steelheart is the first book I've read by Brandon Sanderson, and tells the story of a world where people have started gaining superpowers, but all those affected (called Epics) turn evil. The protagonist, David, has spent the last ten years doing research on the Epics, and wants to join The Reckoners, a group of people who are fighting back. David has a vendetta against Steelheart, who runs the city he lives in, and the book charts The Reckoners' plan to take Steelheart down. It's an interesting concept, but I found the writing very clunky and a bit painful. It's pointed out repeatedly that David (our first person POV) is an 18-year-old boy, which is offered as an excuse for his unfortunate obsession with a female member of the team and for the bad narrative style - but that doesn't stop either of those things actually being bad. I figured out some of the twists, but not others. It got a bit better as it went along, and some aspects of the ending were pretty good, but another series I'm not invested in enough to want to carry on with.