Maureen Johnson

 Cassandra Clare

Simon and Clary reunite as they witness a Parabatai ceremony…and discuss their own plans to be bonded. One of ten adventures in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy. Simon and Clary act as witnesses to the parabatai ceremony of Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn…and discuss their own parabatai plans in this precursor to The Dark Artifices. This standalone e-only short story follows the adventures of Simon Lewis, star of the #1 New York Times bestselling series, The Mortal Instruments, as he trains to become a Shadowhunter. Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy features characters from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments, Infernal Devices, and the upcoming Dark Artifices and Last Hours series. The Fiery Trial is written by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson. Read more of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles in The Infernal Devices, The Mortal Instruments, and The Bane Chronicles.

The Fiery Trial

Holly Black

Callum Hunt precisa enfrentar o Desafio de Ferro. Um teste para os potenciais alunos do Magisterium, uma renomada escola de magia. Todo mundo faria tudo para ser aceito, mas não Callum. Após tudo que o seu pai lhe contou sobre o lado sombrio da magia, Call está decidido a falhar na prova. Mas parece que alguém está determinado que ele seja bem-sucedido e, apesar de um teste nada promissor, ele se encontra sendo levado para o mesmo lugar que cresceu aprendendo a temer, com uma série de mentiras e segredos sendo trazidos à tona.

No entanto, o Desafio de Ferro é apenas o começo. O mais difícil teste de Call ainda está por vir...

Box Magisterium

O Desafio de Ferro 

Ana Luiza

2.5 ⭐️
Foi uma leitura que eu gostei, pra ser sincera, mas só por que fala sobre uma escola de magia, que deve ser o melhor assunto do mundo. Foi tudo muito parado, e eu entendo que os primeiros volumes de séries costumam ser assim, pra descrever o universo e etc, mas em, sei la, 200 páginas NADA acontece. Minha maior motivação pra terminar logo o livro foi o ano novo (não gosto de fechar o ano com leitura inacabada), caso contrário esse com certeza seria um livro que eu enrolaria muito pra ler. Não me importei muito com nenhum dos personagens, acho que sequer tenho um favorito (os três principais são MUITO chatos). No final, quando realmente acontece alguma coisa, eu achei meio ruim o plot, sabe? Não fiquei interessada em continuar. Apesar da descrição ter sido exagerada, foi uma das minhas coisas preferidas porque o Magisterium é muito interessante. Não pretendo pegar o segundo livro nem tão cedo, mas quem sabe ainda esse ano.

The iron trial

Melissa Palmer

Book #30 Read in 2016
The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare 

Two of the hottest paranormal authors in the YA realm team up to write this series, which is scheduled to consist of five books; this is the first one. Call is selected to try out for a magic school which his father definitely does not want him to attend. Call struggles to find out what his magic is and what secrets his father has hidden from him all of these year. This reminds me a bit of Harry Potter though not as well-developed as that series. That being said, it was a good, quick read--perfect for middle schoolers or high schoolers. I will continue this series; #2 is in my TBR pile and #3 comes out in September.

From the imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping plunge into the magical unknown. Think you know magic? Think again. The Magisterium awaits . . . Most people would do anything to get into the Magisterium and pass the Iron Trial. Not Callum Hunt. Call has been told his whole life that he should never trust a magician. And so he tries his best to do his worst - but fails at failing. Now he must enter the Magisterium. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister. And Call realizes it has dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future. The Iron Trial is just the beginning. Call's biggest test is still to come . . .

The Iron Trial

Nessa Luna

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This has not changed my opinion on the book in any way. This review might also have some spoilers, so if you haven't read the book but you want to, be careful. 

You all probably know how much I dislike Cassandra Clare. But when I heard about her writing a book that was NOT about the Shadowhunter world, I was both interested and not interested at all. When I read she was co-writing it with Holly Black, I was a (tiny) bit more interested. I had read one book written by Black (The Coldest Girl in Coldtown), and though I wasn't a huge fan of it, I found it likable. So yes, I decided I might give The Iron Trial a try, if I could find if for cheap.

And then, one day, I was surfing around on Netgalley, just looking at some of the books, when I came upon a galley for this book. I requested it, expecting I would never get accepted, but I did, and so I started reading it. Personally, when I read the summary, I found it very Harry Potter-ish, even the cover looked like it. The left kid (Callum) looked like Harry, the middle one (Aaron) looked like Draco and the girl on the right (Tamara) looked like a darker-skinned Hermione. The guy behind them looked a lot like a death eater. But all that aside, I was still curious to see if it really was like Harry Potter. And personally, I thought it did.

Right from the start already, there was a tragedy in which Callum lost his mum, there was someone trying to stop him from going to 'magic school', and there was a snobby kid that reminded me so much of Draco Malfoy. Throughout the story, I just started comparing a lot of things to Harry Potter, including the trio (yes Callum, Aaron and Tamara are a 'trio' hurray) hiding a chaos-ridden wolf puppy in their dorms which reminded me of Hagrid and Norbert(a) the Dragon. Sure, I might have been trying to compare everything to HP but if you know the history Clare has with stuff like this, you'd probably do it too. (I have a whole list of things that happened in this book that reminded me of events that happened in the entire Potter series, but I will not bore you with that right now).

To me, it felt like the entire book was written by Clare, because I couldn't really feel any of Black's influence, though that might have been because I've read two and a half books by Clare and just one by Black. Still, I would have loved to see more of a collaboration rather than this. The writing was just like TMI which I wasn't a fan of, and I found myself sighing a lot of times when there was an unnecessary word added to describe something (like 'his amber goggles', there were pretzels 'sparkling with salt', someone's bald head was 'as smooth as a macadamia nut' (seriously stop comparing people to food, you are not called Hannibal) and so forth).

Besides, I found the entire book boring and predictable (I had kind of figured out the ending already halfway through the book; okay, it kind if surprised me but not as much as the authors would have wanted it to I guess). Yes, some small exciting things happened, but other than that it was just them learning magic. And that happened very slowly. There were days where they were only moving sand, organising it into different colours. I even found the more exciting parts kind of boring, because I thought they weren't described really well. It all just felt weird and yeah I was just bored while reading this book. That is probably why it took me so long to finish it, it was boring and I really felt like not finishing the book and reading Harry Potter instead because there even the 'boring' parts are exciting. There were also so many things that didn't make sense. One of the Iron Year kids went missing, so they rallied up the entire school (including twelve year old kids) to go and search for him in the middle of the night, inside a forest that was apparently crawling with chaos-ridden animals.

Also the food at the school made no sense. They had weird looking food, like 'lichen' and mushrooms (that did taste like normal food, apparently) at the cafetaria, but at some point in the story the 'trio' got pizza for dinner and a normal breakfast after the incident with the kid going missing. Why not just give them actual food in the cafetaria as well? Is that so hard? This book felt like a trainwreck, honestly.

I did not relate to any of the characters at all, I found them to be bland and boring. Callum was a bit of a dumbass; sneaking a chaos-ridden animal into the school after being told they are dangerous and he could get thrown out of school for bringing one in. Sneaking into his Master's office to talk to his father after being told he had to wait until he was more settled. Stealing a damn chaos-ridden lizard from his Master's office and trusting that thing to take him back to his dorm. Seriously, Callum was a very dumb kid and I honestly don't get how he ever got into the Magisterium (okay, near the ending it kind of made more sense, but still). Sometimes, the twelve-year-olds didn't feel like they were twelve, but they felt much older by the way they acted and talked; and then at other points they felt a lot younger, like little kids. That really annoyed me, a lot.

In the end, I really disliked The Iron Trial, and I am not sure if I am going to continue reading the series. Perhaps if I can get them on Netgalley again, or at the library, but I will not be purchasing any of the books in this series.

My opinion on this book in one gif:

Rachel Kanyid

Soo.....I'm giving this like... 3.75/5 stars...
It was good, but I honestly did not love it..

I kinda saw where it was going almost immediately, which made it somewhat less enjoyable, and the end scene in the hospital? Seemed like a Harry Potter rip off, even if it wasn't meant to. Like... Waking up in the hospital with the mysterious "master" there to tell him what happened, and the candy and presents from people, and the friends rushing in all worried... Exactly like the end hospital scene in The Sorcerer's Stone... Just sayin.

That being said, even if it is heavily drawing from Harry Potter, I'm probably still going to read the next book... I mean, if I can read Midnight for Charlie Bone/Charlie Bone books, which are huge Harry Potter rip offs, and love them, I should be able to do the same with these,right?

That being said, the only character I really liked was Warren.

Julia Lotz

Inhalt: Geschlagen mit einem lahmen Bein und einer scharfen Zunge ist der zwölfjährige Callum nicht gerade der beliebteste Junge auf dem Planeten. Doch das ist erst mal sein geringstes Problem. Denn just in diesem Moment befindet er sich auf dem Weg ins Magisterium. Der unterirdischen Schule für Zauberei. Ein dunkler und geheimnisvoller Ort. Dort soll er bei Master Rufus, dem mächtigsten Magier der Schule, in die Lehre gehen. Doch alles was Call über ihn und das Magisterium weiß, lässt ihn befürchten, das erste Schuljahr nicht lebend zu überstehen. (Quelle: lovelybooks.de)
The Magisterium awaits . . . Most people would do anything to get into the Magisterium and pass the Iron Trial. Not Callum Hunt. Call has been told his whole life that he should never trust a magician. And so he tries his best to do his worst – but fails at failing. Now he must enter the Magisterium. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister. And Call realizes it has dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future. The Iron Trial is just the beginning. Call’s biggest test is still to come . . . (Source: lovelybooks.de)
Vor der Rezi: The Iron Trial ist nach The Queen of the Tearling meine zweite Rezension eines englischsprachigen Buches. Nachdem ich die Queen genauso rezensiert habe, wie alle anderen deutschen Bücher habe ich nun beschlossen, die Rezension von englischen Büchern etwas anders zu gestalten. Erst mal, das werdet ihr sicher schon gemerkt haben, werde ich die komplette Rezension zweisprachig posten. Inhaltlich werden sie aber gleich sein. Allein beim Klappentext werde ich es so machen, dass ich die originalen Klappentexte des englischen Buches und des deutschen Buches posten werde. Ich hoffe nun wirklich, dass ich meine Gefühle für das Buch nun auch genauso gut auf Englisch ausdrücken kann. Außerdem erwartet euch für die englischen Rezensionen ein komplett neues Design und ich werde auch bewerten, wie gut sich das Buch für nicht „native speaker“ gelesen lässt.
After The Queen of the Tearling, Magisterium: The Iron Trial is my second English book to review. I reviewed the Queen just like all those German books I’ve read and now I decided to do it different. First of all I’d like to post those reviews bilingual. So there is the chance that all my English speaking visitors who find my blog online can read this review as well as my German followers but the content stays the same in both languages. So right now I really hope I can express my feelings for the book and all the other stuff I’d like to mention in my reviews as well in English. The second thing, you might have noticed it, is that I have another design for my English reviews. So you can also notice the difference visual and it fits perfectly. Furthermore there’s a new topic that deals with how easily nonnative speakers will understand the language and how good your English skills have to be to understand that book well.
Meine Meinung: Der Junge, der als einziger überlebt hat, ein dunkler Magier, der die ganze Zauberwelt in Schrecken versetzt und ein Trio, das gemeinsam die Zauberwelt unsicher macht. Na? Kommt euch das nicht alles bekannt vor? Na klar. Harry Potter. Da seid ihr euch alle sicher. Aber das ist nicht Harry Potter, das ist Magisterium. 
Als ich mit Magisterium begonnen habe, ging es mir erst mal so, wie euch beim Lesen des ersten Abschnittes. Ich wurde wirklich die erste Hälfte des Buches über sehr stark an Harry Potter erinnert und habe, ohne es bewusst zu wollen, ständig neue Parallelen entdeckt. Das hat mich anfangs sehr enttäuscht. Ich war so froh dieses Buch in den Händen zu halten, was wirklich sehr groß angekündigt wurde. Denn ich halte sehr viel von Cassandra Clare und Holly Black und von den beiden zusammen habe ich einfach Großes erwartet. So kam es auch, dass ich wirklich während den ersten 150 Seiten nur sehr langsam voran kam und das Buch auch öfter mal zur Seite gelegt habe um ein anderes Buch zu lesen.
Aber dann plötzlich wendet sich alles. Immer mehr erkennt man, dass es eben ganz und gar nicht Harry Potter ist und all das, was man vorher als Harry Potter-ähnlich gehalten hat entwickelt sich plötzlich in eine ganz andere Richtung und hat dann gar nichts mehr mit unserem allerliebsten Zauberlehrling gemeinsam. Und so war ich auch wirklich im gesamten zweiten Teil so begeistert von dem Buch, dass ich es am liebsten in einem Rutsch durchgelesen hätte.
Call, der Protagonist des Buches, macht es einem aber auch wirklich leicht. Er ist wirklich mein absoluter Liebling und er hat in mir wirklich ständig das „Ich-will-ihn-als-kleinen-Bruder-Gefühl“ ausgelöst. Von seinem Vater ist er so erzogen worden, dass er das Magisterium als etwas böses und Zauberei generell als etwas schlechtes ansieht und als er dann unerwartet doch aufgenommen wird, obwohl er alles getan hat, um bei dem Test zu versagen, geht er auch erst mal mit so einer Einstellung an die ganze Sache. Nach und nach findet er zwar heraus, dass das Magisterium gar nicht so schlimm ist wie erwartet und auch so seine Vorzüge hat aber eines hat er dank der Erziehung seines Vaters nie gelernt: den nötigen Respekt vor dem Magisterium und vor Sachen, die eventuell mit schwarzer Magie in Verbindung stehen könnten. Und so kommt es einfach zu unglaublich vielen Gelegenheiten, in denen Call etwas macht und alle anderen sich dann so sehr aufregen und sagen: Call! Wie kannst du nur?! Und das sind einfach so komische Szenen, die mir Call noch mal mehr sympathisch machen und mir wirklich immer ein Lächeln aufs Gesicht gezaubert haben.
Auch alle anderen, Calls Freunde, Feinde, Lehrer… Einfach jeder wurde von den Autorinnen mit so viel Liebe zum Detail erschaffen auch wenn er eine noch so kleine Rolle hat. Mit wenigen Worten schaffen es die beiden wirklich bei jedem vor meinem Auge ein so genaues Bild von den Personen aber auch von Orten zu erschaffen, dass man wirklich immer gerne gelesen hat und auch komplett in die Welt des Magisteriums abtauchen konnte.
The boy who lived, a mage who practices black magic and a trio that turns the whole magisterium upside down: Does that remind you of something? Yeah! Harry Potter. That’s for sure. But it isn’t Harry Potter. It’s the magisterium.
As I started Magisterium I thought about the same things as you, reading the paragraph above. During the first half of the book I was reminded of Harry Potter the whole time. It’s like I did not really want to think about it but finally I saw parallels all the time. So I was really disappointed because I was so proud to own the new book by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. It was hyped so much and those two really belong to my most favorite authors and I had high aspirations on them working and writing together. That caused that I did not really come into the first, let’s say about 150 pages and I read really slow and paused the book several times in order to read an finish another book first.
But then, suddenly, everything changed. More and more I noticed that the things that I related to Harry Potter first became time after time more different and went into a completely different direction. So after a while I haven’t seen any relation to Harry anymore except the mage stuff for sure and I was so excited to finish the book that I read it with an enormous speed at the end. 
Call, the book’s protagonist, did also a great job making the reader love him. He’s absolutely my favorite character. He just allways made me think that I’d be really thankful to have him as my little brother. He’s always too cut! His father taught him to see the magisterium as something bad and evil and also wizardry in general as something completely sinister. So Call tries everything to fail in the test but as he is admitted by Master Rufus in the Magisterium he just still tries to do his worst and hopes to be sent home soon. But after a while he notices, that the Magisterium isn’t as bad as he always thought and he sees, that he has friend and for the first time in his whole life, he’s completely good at something. So he starts to really love it down there. But there’s one thing his father’s education caused: Call really has no respect towards the Magisterium, his teachers and some sort of black magic. Therefore there are happening so many funny things where everybody just yells: Call, how could you just do this? These scenes were just so funny that I really began to love Call more and more.
Call’s friends, teachers and also his enemies are as well created with so much love and detail. As well as all the placed they were described so good, that there’s really a picture inside your head while reading. That caused that I really enjoyed reading that book and that I could completely disappear into this new and fantastic world that Cassandra Clare and Holly Black created.
English Skills: Call ist in dem Buch 12 Jahre alt. Wie auch beim ersten Harry Potter Band stört der Altersunterschied der in vielem Fällen zwischen Leser und Call ist kein bisschen. Dennoch kommt der Altersunterschied uns zu gute, denn das Buch ist wirklich so geschrieben, dass es ein 12-jähriges englischsprachiges Kind gut lesen könnte. Das bedeutet, die Sätze sind nicht zu lang, die Sprache ist eher einfach gehalten und man kann das Buch auch als Anfänger sehr gut lesen. Grade weil das Buch jedoch ein Fantasy Buch ist, gibt es hin und wieder wirklich einige Ausdrücke, die man so aus dem Schulenglisch nicht kennt. Wenn man jedoch sonst mit dem Lesen kein Problem hat kann man sich gut an diese Ausdrücke gewöhnen. Das Buch bekommt von mir ein englisches Lesefüchschen der Stufe 2.
Call is twelve years old. This difference that might be between Call’s age and the readers’ age isn’t that disturbing. You can really compare it with the Harry Potter series. But the age difference is really good for those who are nonnative speakers because the authors wrote the book also as a book for 12-years-old boys and girls. That means that the sentences weren’t too long and the language is really simple without any expressions that are heavily to understand. So you can understand the book easily if you’d just started to read English books. Nevertheless it is a Fantasy book. This means, there are many expressions that aren’t really clear or that are invented. So these expressions can distract the reader and there might be no clear translation. Therefore I’ll give Magisterium the Reading Fox Level 2.
Bewertung: Trotz des holprigen Starts bekommt Magisterium von mir 5 von 5 Füchschen. Die Geschichte entwickelt sich wirklich in etwas, das komplett nichts mehr mit Harry und Co. zu tun hat und wimmelt nur so von tollen, neuen Ideen und einem durch und durch liebenswürdigen Protagonisten. Fans von Cassandra Clare und Holly Black werden nicht enttäuscht und dürfen sich schon auf die nächsten vier Bände freuen.
Dankeschön an Randomhouse UK für das *Rezensionsexemplar. 
Despite the beginning that wasn’t that good, Magisterium receives 5/5 Foxes. The plot developed page after page from something that is really similar to Harry Potter to something completely different. Crowded with fabulous characters and places and new ideas, it is the perfect book for all Harry Potter, Fantasy and Witchcraft Fans. These guys and all of Cassandra Clare’s and Holly Black’s Fans should really read The Iron Trial und we can all look forward to the other books that kidnap us into the secret world of the Magisterium once again.
I wanna say thank you to Randomhouse UK for the *review copy. I appreciate it so much!

Kirsten Simkiss

Just because there seem to be an influx of reviews from people that sat around complaining about Cassandra Clare, I'm going to state this at the beginning: I read Harry Potter growing up. I've read this book now as an adult. I've read other magical school stories before and after Harry Potter. This one is just another magical school story. It's really not that similar to Harry Potter at all, aside from the ages of the characters at the start of the first book and the fact that they attend a magical school. Actually, it reminded me more of Percy Jackson and Avatar: The Last Airbender more often than it did Harry Potter, but even then they were just casual observations. This book did not seem to me to be a rip-off.

Now, I have to say I rather enjoyed it. It wasn't the best book I've ever read, sure, but it was a good story and it sets up the series well at the end because you want to see the choices the characters make. Provided, that is, that you liked the characters. 

Personally, I found Callum to be a little bit of a dick for the better part of the book. I get he's a frustrated kid with a disability, but he was pretty much awful to most people for most of the book. The kid is a train wreck of bad decisions in book one. Granted, he is supposed to be 12 years old. At that age, can any of us really claim to have made perfect life choices? No. And armed with magic and magical problems? It's a lot for a preteen to handle. That being said, I forgot for the better part of the book that the main characters are meant to be 12. Here I was picturing them as 15 year olds and I had to stop and reevaluate.

(Of the main trio, my favorite was definitely Aaron.)

The plot is definitely interesting. The twist at the end kind of felt like it came out of the blue, but I think it was meant to. You get little tiny hints, but you can't make a guess at it really until you learn more about chaos magic, which comes later in the book. I just finished reading it myself and I have a few questions, but Callum doesn't know the answer so neither do you as the reader since everything is filtered through Callum's perspective.

All in all, I enjoyed it and I'll be keeping my copy of the book. I'll probably look into the second book when I knock out a few more books on my to-read list. But, if this is something you're considering reading, I'd say go for it. Don't go in expecting Harry Potter and you should be fine.

Ofelia

** spoiler alert **
           -Potresti morire!
-Beh non uccidermi.Facciamo che il nostro obiettivo comunque è non morire? nessuno dei due. Insieme. Non morire.

E' indubbio che Harry Potter abbia lasciato una traccia indelebile nei libri fantasy, ormai tutti lo hanno letto ed ormai tutti associano qualsiasi cosa che parli anche solo lontanamente di magia con i libri di JK Rowling. Mi è capitato più volte, spesso con libri che con le storie di Harry e compagni non avevano nulla a che spartire, di sentire "è l'erede di Harry Potter" o "il nuovo Harry Potter" perciò la cosa mi aveva un po' seccato.
Veniamo a questo libro invece, ecco non lo definirei assolutamente l'erede di Harry Potter perché non ha nemmeno un briciolo della magia dei libri di JK Rowling, però è indubbio che il tentativo fosse quello di avvicinarsi se non prendere molto spunto dalla famosa saga.
Cassandra Clare non ha mai fatto mistero di essere una grande fan di HP, visto che è partita scrivendo fanfiction proprio su Harry , e il sul primo libro di Shadowhunters anche se non parlava strettamente di magia aveva un sacco di cose palesemente copiate dai libri della Rowling (lo stilo che è palesemente una bacchetta magica rivisitata, Simon che viene trasformato proprio in un topo, Clary che scopre improvvisamente di fare parte di un mondo 'magico' da cui la madre la voleva tenere fuori, ecc) quindi non mi ha stupito affatto che anche questa volta la Clare avesse attinto a due mani dalle storie della Rowling.
Una cosa bisogna dirla però, la gente cita le cose sbagliate quando parla di questo libro e di Harry Potter. Si ok sono un trio, si ok sono due ragazzi ed una ragazza, si ok il cattivo vuole essere immortale (come il 99% dei cattivi dei libri fantasy) e si vanno ad una scuola di magia (come un sacco di libri fantasy) ma non sono queste le cose che mi hanno fatto pensare che Clare e compagnia avessero preso spunto dai libri della Rowling, queste cose le trovi in milioni di libri fantasy e nessuno ci fa nemmeno caso!
Se parliamo di citazioni allora Groviglio mi ha ricordato troppo Gollum, con il suo parlare in terza persona di sé stesso, il suo guidare Callum attraverso le gallerie, il fatto che sia un esserino inquietante di cui anche Call dice di non potersi davvero fidare al 100%. Una cosa che non ho capito è la relazione di Call ed il cucciolo di lupo. Capisco che lo abbiano inserito perché fio a poco prima ci avevano detto che gli animali del vuoto erano mostri, assetati di sangue, bla bla, mentre poi dobbiamo vedere Call come il buono nonostante tutto. Quindi, per non farci urlare al deus ex machina hanno prima inserito il dolce cagnolino per giustificare quello che sarebbe successo dopo ma... davvero!? insomma Call dice e ridice che è terrorizzato dall'idea che gli tolgano la magia prima dell'anno di ferro, però fa di tutto pur di farsela togliere tanto da portare un animale potenzialmente pericoloso nella scuola. Ha senso? no. Almeno avrebbero dovuto dire che a Call non fregava niente di farsi scoprire, avrebbe avuto più senso! Come il "non si può uscire dalla scuola!" che ci dicono per metà libro, poi tutti escono per far pisciare il cane almeno una volta al giorno. Davvero, non ha il minimo senso!
Il fatto che i compagni di Call poi lo scoprano anni dopo questo lupo ha ancora meno senso per me. In un pezzo Callum esce e dice che sente Aaron e Tarama respirare nelle loro stanze quindi sa che stanno dormendo, Tamara invece passa due giorni con Call ed il lupo ma non si accorge che questo cucciolo di lupo che urla, morde e graffia tutto sta a pochi metri da lei. E' possibile?
Callum Hunt non è un protagonista facile da apprezzare, almeno non da subito.
Probabilmente volevano puntare sul fattore pena per farcelo piacere, della serie povero ragazzo guarda che infanzia triste che ha avuto ed ha anche la gamba che gli fa sempre male! non ti fa pena? bene ora fattelo anche piacere. Beh no, non è così che funziona. Callum si lamenta troppo per i miei gusti, sempre pronto a sottolineare quello che può e non può fare (che generalmente sono quello che vuole e che non vuole fare, ma che traverste abilmente in "no, non posso!"). Si lamenta quando la gente non lo aiuta e non considera che lui è zoppo e che quindi non può tenere il passo con gli altri come fosse niente, però appena cercano di aiutarlo lui se la prende perché vuole fare tutto da solo. Pronto? fai pace col cervello.
Da metà libro in poi cambia completamente. Smette di lagnare (ed anzi a momenti si fa ammazzare pur di fare l'esercizio con il tronco) e passa dall'eroe goffo al personaggio sarcastico. Diventa amico di Tamara ed Aaron, diventa uno dei migliori dell'anno di ferro (se non il migliore in alcune situazioni) e si trasforma improvvisamente in un personaggio che non ci si aspettava di vedere. Questa è la forza di questo libro secondo me: da metà libro in poi niente è scontato.
Si perché chi si aspettava di vedere Aaron diventare il Makar? lo dicono anche le autrici alla fine del libro: "vi aspettavate fosse Callum eh? ed invece no! TROLOLOLOL!" ed infatti lo schema che aveva seguito la prima metà del libro faceva pensare che fosse Callum l'eroe predestinato perché è sempre così che funziona nel fantasy. Colpo di scena ben gradito ovviamente perché rimescola la trama e da lì in poi non c'è più niente di scontato. Non mi aspettavo che Drew fosse un infiltrato dei cattivi, sinceramente non avevo nemmeno trovato sospetto che fosse fuggito dalla scuola perché lo avevano dipinto come un personaggio credibile quindi ottimo lavoro! E non mi ero assolutamente aspettata la rivelazione finale su Call, anche se alla fin fine quindi è anche lui un Makar come Aaron quindi l'idea iniziale di tutti "il makar è sicuramente callum!" non era poi così sbagliata!
Libro promosso comunque.
La trama è interessante, da metà libro in poi è molto avvincente tanto che non riuscivo più a metterlo giù e dovevo assolutamente sapere come sarebbe andata avanti. Personaggi riusciti anche se purtroppo alcuni appena accennati, ma le perdono perché capisco che questo è il primo libro della saga quindi avevano un sacco di cose da introdurre e non c'era tempo per fare tutto quanto adesso ma mi aspetto siano più delineati nei prossimi libri. Che dire? ottimo lavoro secondo me, non vedo l'ora di avere tra le mani il seguito!

“Fire wants to burn
Water wants to flow
Air wants to rise
Earth wants to bind
Chaos wants to devour
Cal wants to live”

estoy un poco sorprendida conmigo misma por haber terminado este libro, pensé que no lo haría nunca. No ha sido lo mejor que he leído, pero tampoco lo peor. Fue una lectura casual, y puede que haya quedado con un poquito de curiosidad por saber qué es lo sucede en los próximos libros; y más porque acá amamos a los protagonistas egoístas con mucho potencial <3

jo solimo

Milagros Martinez 

siempre es un placer tener cerca a los Blackthorn

Diogo Nunes

Reminds me of Harry Potter, so if you are a fan I highly recommend you give this saga a try ;)

Além de “O Desafio de Ferro” trazer representatividade de pessoas com necessidades especiais, mostrando como este é tratado pela sociedade, mostra o começo de uma profunda amizade com 2 outros de seus colegas.

Como já era de ser esperado tendo Holly Black e Cassandra Clare como suas escritoras, o livro trás diversos plot twists e revelações, assim como cenas de ação que o deixarão chocado e com um gostinho de quero mais ao fim da leitura.

Gostaria de frisar que o livro tem público-alvo um público infanto juvenil (YA - Young Adult), portanto é uma leitura leve e bastante focado no plot.

Bia || Alpi 

Além de “O Desafio de Ferro” trazer representatividade de pessoas com necessidades especiais, mostrando como este é tratado pela sociedade, mostra o começo de uma profunda amizade com 2 outros de seus colegas.

Como já era de ser esperado tendo Holly Black e Cassandra Clare como suas escritoras, o livro trás diversos plot twists e revelações, assim como cenas de ação que o deixarão chocado e com um gostinho de quero mais ao fim da leitura.

Gostaria de frisar que o livro tem público-alvo um público infanto juvenil (YA - Young Adult), portanto é uma leitura leve e bastante focado no plot.

mary

3.75⭐️
Molto carino,ma nulla di che.Spero di più nei prossimi libri

Magda Silva

I tried, I really tried. But I can't seem to get interested in the Shadowhunter world. Not even the beautiful voice of Sam Heugan made me like the story or the characters.

Reyna Wren

Yeah, it's a bit of a Harry Potter rip off. However, it's still engaging and fun, and the storylines are interesting. :)

Camila Eduarda Vilela Lobianco

Everything was fun, I really enjoyed the hole middle grade thing, although I can't see much of Holly Black nor Cassandra Clare writing style. That can mean they are versatile, but I honestly believe someone wrote for them and they give the ideias. Maybe, don't get me wrong.

Something I have to admit is that this book went to a hole other place than the original the chosen one plot and that made me surprise and quite anxious because I can see future problems that the main character will have to deal with. The reason I gave it three stars and not four is because the beginning was a little bit slow and the book missed some of the middle grade funny touch that I like.

Five stars to the ending though, I don't know if I was dumb to not notice, but I really think it was a nice idea.

Renee K Hopper

If Harry Potter were the star of Divergent...

Maria

два мальчика и девочка учатся в школе магии и противостоят злому магу - бывшему ученику школы 

so I was like



но к концу книги стала видна разница, так что попробую дальше серию

Morgana

** spoiler alert **
           
Cosa positiva di questo libro: ci sono parecchi colpi di scena.
Iniziamo dal principio, tutti sicuramente hanno pensato fin dall'inizio ( io pure, ovviamente! ) che Callum fosse l'eroe della situazione. Vita difficle, senza madre, padre un pochino pazzo ( un pochino tanto in verità ) che vuole allontanarlo dalla magia e bla bla. Ovviamente viene scelto dal magister più bravo/talentuoso di tutti e ci sta, e ovviamente si crea subito un nemico (Jasper) che lo detesta perché essendo arrivato lui terzo pensava di meritarsi il posto. Tamara e Aaron mi sono sembrati fin dal principio un duo interessante e tutti e due portano con le loro storie personali colpi di scena nella trama ( quindi wow non sono solamente gli amichetti del protagonista!). Mi aspettavo la tragedia nella famiglia di Tamara perché fin dal principio tutti la guardano storto e si capisce che qualcosa sotto c'è, si capiva che Aaron una famiglia non l'aveva ( sveglia Call, solo tu non lo avevi capito!) ma non mi aspettavo assolutamente che il Makar fosse lui! Quando è venuto fuori che era lui sono rimasta tipo


  


A quel punto ho pensato " non è Callum? e Callum che cavolo è allora?"
Ovviamente la trama vuole farci pensare che sia Callum, lui è bravissimo, si sforza di NON essere bravo nel test, riesce a fare cose prima e meglio degli altri e fa anche un sacco di cose idiote. Chiamare il padre dall'ufficio di Rufus con il tornado ad esempio è un'idea scema da morire. CCapisco che lui volesse parlare con il padre, non lo sentiva da un pezzo e sicuramente gli mancava ( infondo sono sempre dei bambini anche se sanno usare la magia!) ma non poteva semplicemente sollecitare il Magister? non sai nemmeno guidare la barca! Poi trova una strana lucertola ingabbiata e se la porta via con sé. Cosa? secondo te non si noterà che manca? e poi cosa la liberi e la fai dormire nella tua stanza? non sai nemmeno che cos'è, potrebbe divorarti! ci sarà un motivo se Rufus la teneva ingabbiata,no?
Call poi ha la mania/ossessione per gli animali. Che senso ha prendersi un lupo del caos? Ok, lu è capace di farsi ascoltare dalle creature del caos o cose così ma mica lo sapevi, però sapevi che la madre di quel lupetto due secondi fa ti ha quasi divorato e te lo porti in camera! Non mi aspettavo assolutamente che Callum fosse in cattivo della storia, o almeno sia destinato ad esserlo visto che per ora la cosa non sembra toccarlo per niente. La scena in cui l'uomo mascherato si inginocchia e lo chiama 'mio magister' mi ha ricordato troppo Star wars, insomma ciao Palpatine sfigurato, ciao Anakin un po' più minorenne del previsto.

Perché si ostinano a mangiare licheni? poi quando devono festeggiare ( quando vincono la prova contro gli altri gruppi ad esempio ) Rufus prende la pizza, ma allora lo sapete che la pizza è buona e quella roba è inquietante!
Perché hanno costruito una scuola vicino a quel bosco pieno di animali del caos? se sono scappati quando è scappato il cattivo allora forse dovevate pensare di trasferirsi visto che uno non può nemmeno uscire tranquillamente a far pisciare il cane.Non è un po' assurdo che il padre di Callum abbia solo 35 anni? Poteva sinceramente dargli qualche annetto in più.

Parliamo delle tanto tanto citate similitudini con Harry Potter. E' indubbio che a cercarle qualcosa c'è, ma qualcosa di significativo? non credo. I cavalli 'zombie' all'entrata della scuola dalla descrizione sembrano Thestral, potevano mettere che so, un furetto fuori, un lupo, una mucca almeno non sembrava così forzato, no? Capisco che la Rowling non abbia il copyright dei cavalli mezzi morti e tutti ossuti, ma è difficile non farsi venire in mente i Thestral se si descrivono cavalli così fuori da una scuola di magia! La porta/arco di Ferro che attraversano per passare l'anno mi ha un po' ricordato l'ufficio misteri di Harry Potter, ma questa immagino sia una mia impressione, e anche se tutti calzano sul "TRIO FEMMINA-MASCHIO-MASCHIO = GOLDEN TRIO!11" io questa forzatura non la vedo, e non potete dire "scuola di magia"= harry potter perché mica le ha inventate la Rowling la scuola di magia, ci sono milioni di libri, film etc che ne parlano! Detto questo le critiche che dicono che questo libro ha copiato Harry Potter sono spesso forzate e spesso citano cose che la Rowling stessa ha copiato in giro ( e lo dico da fan di Harry Potter ). Il cattivo che vuole essere immortale è un clicHé non è SOLO voldemort così, se pensate subito a Voldemort per quello allora non avete letto molti libri/visto molti film ma chiamarlo 'nemico della morte ' allora un po' fa pensare a Voldemort! Comunque la Clare nel primo shadowhunters ha preso moooolto più "spunto" da Harry Potter, questo non è niente.

Bailey Lagarde

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare have created an enthralling story about three kids who, while in the midst being taught how to harness their powers at the Magisterium are realizing who they truly are.

Emily

Jessica Williamson

Interesting one. A good lead up for the Last Hours but not my favorite of these.

3.75 Stars

First, let me address the same thing everyone else does. This story has many, many similarities with the Harry Potter series. The biggest glaringly obvious one for me is the villain is a guy who is afraid of death and wears a giant cloak and a silver mask. I mean come on, it's legit Voldemort in a Death Eater mask. USE YOUR IMAGINATION GIRLS.

Outside of that and a few other similarities, everything else was really good.

I enjoyed the plot, and while there were some plot points that we easy to guess, I was a little off from the big twist at the end. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. 

Callum is a snarky kid, and I like that about him. He's had a pretty crappy life growing up, especially in the bullying aspect and he's used his sarcasm to cope. He can be a bit dumb at times but I think he's like 12 or 13 so, understandable. 

Aaron. Aaron is my new George Lovelace (from the Shadowhunter Academy novellas, if you get it, you get it). He's this athletic popular guy who sticks up for those who are bullied and doesn't give a crap what others think of the friends he keeps. Such a good guy.

Tamara is a harder character to understand. Sometimes she's nice, sometimes, not so much. Her personality is fun to learn about as the story progresses. 

All in all, a decent story with magic, adventure, and growing character relationships. I plan to continue the series.

The Fiery Trial

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