Black Magician vs. Age of Five
On amazon here there is a review of AotF that states it'd be written much more boring than BMT, and that BMT is much better. Do you agree? Imho AotF is even better than BMT. The first book I read from Trudi Canavan was PotW and when I red The Magicans Guild afterwards I was like: Oh my god, that is quite a difference. She had come a long way from TMG to PotW. Both are good in my opinion but I think she was a far more professional writer when writing AotF. EDIT: Made sense to create it's own topic for that.. thanks Lorlyn :)

You can tell that she has previous experience in AotF. I love BMT but it is written completely different to AotF, AotF is more mature and has more complex storylines. I love them probably as much as each other just in different ways!

your welcome. it was such a good point. we haven't had a thread to throughly compare it yet. I haven't read Age of five so I can't really give input. :)

I liked AoF, in fact I think I like it alot more then I orginally thought. I think it is differently better written, you can tell that her writing style has matured in the book, and I love how it touches on more mature themes and goes into more detail. The problem is, is that it didn't grab me in the same way. With the BMT I couldn't put it down, I had to continue reading, that didn't happen with AoF, however it did make me more nervous, to the point of my appeitate going alittle.

I agree, AotF is more mature, but less gripping. The AotF story line is much more complex, but the many characters who tell a part of the story also make it a little confusing. I don't yet know how some parts fit into the book, so I will only give my full opinion about this after reading VotG. :)

I almost can’t believe that PRIESTESS OF THE WHITE was written by the same author as THE BLACK MAGICIAN TRILOGY – it’s a completely different style. The sentences often seem awkward and short (Auraya learning how to fly: “I have to try. Me in relation to the world. I want to turn over and face upward”). It’s difficult to find access to the personalities of the characters, even if they (should) experience strong emotions they seem somehow distant. Especially Auraya is a disappointment. Her amazing powers are more disturbing than intriguing and her secret love affair is about as spicy and exciting as bland noodles. (It was like this: Oh, I’m reading unexpected passion in his mind. When I think about it – let’s have at it!) The storyline isn’t much better. I was bored to tears by page 50 and had to struggle to keep on. It’s mainly about forming alliances and introducing different societies. The only people you gain absolutely no insight on, is the enemy that remains a threatening bloodthirsty shadow with unknown ambitions and motivations. Not until the end you get a tiny glimpse of the greater picture and you realize that there could be a deeper reason behind the amassing of allies and armies and the animosity towards the Dreamweavers. It’s only sad and typical of the book that Canavan employs the stereotype picture of a chess board to do so. PRIESTESS OF THE WHITE is the first novel in the trilogy AGE OF THE FIVE – a complete waste of time and money. I just hope that Canavan will provide other books that are up to the standards of the BLACK MAGICIAN TRILOGY. This is part of the first review on PotW on Amazon.de http://www.amazon.de/Priestess-White-Age-Five-Book/dp/1841493864/sr=8-5/qid=1170786963/ref=sr_1_5/302-2722330-1747220?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de I, too, think that AotF is much mor mature then BMT. There is more contrast in the character types. I.e Emeral and Auraya. The whore (no insult intended) and the loyal, sweet priestess. She weaves the different mionor and main plotlines together perfectly. A thing she did quite well in BMT, too, but not as good. For example, the whole quest on having Dannyl reseach ancient magic is worth nothing in the end (exept for him finding Tayend). It's a nice plot but does not affect Sonea's plotline in the least. On the other hand, Tryss builts his harness that has a major role in the great battle and is treated by our main dreamweaver, too. (sorry I try to make as little spoilers as possible) ... ... ... What do you think of Mirar? I think he is quite similar to Akkarin (tragic past, special powers, emotionally reserved). Does that mean she will kill him, too????! *sigh* I did not like him as much when he was Leiard. Leiard was more a father figure and not a lover... Just like Sonea having a love affair with Rothen EWWWW... But now whithout beard and more flirty I just LOVE Mirar.. ... ... ... BTW @ Lorlyn: I have been to forums who have a special spoiler tag! Theirs is a phpBB as well.. so perhaps you could include the new feature sometime? I'd really come in handy i think

Yes, I think I'll have to make up my final decision after VotG comes out.

i think i prefer BMT. i love the characters more. Trudi gives you a chance to become really attached to them in BMT whereas in AOTF there were just so many characters and she didnt go into much detail with them either so i found it hard to become attached to them. although i did love Tryss very muchly.

Whoever wrote that stuff was partly right, it's true what he says about the charas and Auraya being disappointment. She seems to be rather feelingless, she doesn't feel much when she learns to fly, you'd think she was happy about such a gift, but she gets used to it within seconds and doesn't say much about it. Anyway, the way that person wrote it is exaggerating. I still enjoyed reading AotF.

Yes, I did feel confused at points because of the number of characters, but I still managed to attached to several of them.

The bird.....erm, maybe not. I got the impression that she was thrilled with her gift in the first book.

Sadly, in some parts the reviewer is right. I like Age of the Five, but at certain points I had to tell myself 'I will finish this, I will finish this'. In each of the frist two books, after a certain amount of pages, I began to skip to the really interesting parts, and although I read plenty of those, there's probably quite a bit I haven't read. I hope I can finish the third one. Maybe it's just taste, but I'm just not as interested in devouring every word, like I was with BMT. I sincerely hope the prequel and sequels to BMT will be much better. AotF may be more adult, but that doesn't make it better. I've read adult(not as in graphic) novels, so I can't say that I just don't like that sort of thing.

I too kept looking at bits further on in the book. Maybe I need to read the last book before making my mind up completely about it. Maybe because thew main bits I was interested in were the bits with Auraya and Lieard (i like the Tryss bits as well), but other bits (apart from the white bits which were usually interesting at least) I thought kinda tideous. Espcially the bits with Imi, sorry, but I really didn't care about her. I didn't actually think the books were that graphic.

I think the person who reviewed the AOF books saying crap is wrong or should of worded it differently. I haven't read the books so I can't say how it's written. I think how you like the plot makes a world of a difference. If you don't like the plot no matter how good the auther writes it your going to dislike it and find more faults then are really there.