The Bronze Key

This review, without spoilers, is for the whole five-book series.

Cassandra Clare is an author who became known as an amateur writer through her Harry Potter fanfiction. When she started writing professionally, she wrote the Shadowhunters series, and many readers who were familiar with her amateur writing felt that she had used a thinly-disguised version of the three main characters of her Draco Dormiens fanfiction trilogy: Jace is her Draco Malfoy, Simon is Harry Potter and Clairy is Hermione Granger (not bookish as Hermione, true, but she plays a similar role in the love triangle).

Anyway, given all the antecedents, it's an odd choice that when she writes a brand new series, in collaboration with Holly Black, she'd choose to write about show more a boy who finds out he's a wizard, is invited to a wizards' boarding school, finds out his mother was murdered by an evil magician as she tried to protect him as a baby, becomes friends with two other students, a boy and a girl, and finds out that his destiny is linked to that of the evil magician. I mean, it's an odd choice because given her background you'd think that she would prefer to distance herself from more Harry Potter associations. And even if that's not a consideration, when you write a middle grade fantasy series with that premise you are inevitably inviting people to compare with Harry Potter, and that's a tough act to follow.

Having said all that, let me stress that despite the similarities in the premise, this is not at all plagiarism of Harry Potter. The story is original and follows its own path, not Harry Potter's. And I rather enjoyed it for what it is. It is not as good as Harry Potter, but then, J. K. Rowling's series was so wildly successful for a reason.

The whimsical worldbuilding of Harry Potter is not here. The Magisterium series is inferior in that way. Also, one of the reasons Harry Potter was so successful is the characterization, and how easy it is to really get to know those characters, put yourself in their place and live the story from their point of view. Magisterium is not as good as that. I ended up quite fond of Callum, but I don't think I know Tamara and Aaron quite as well as I know Hermione and Ron.

On the other hand, the story is similarly epic, and the character arc Callum goes through is rather interesting and original. Unfortunately, I cannot discuss it without massive spoilers, but it's more morally-ambiguous and less black-and-white than Harry Potter.

The five books are quite thin, little more than 200 pages each. The series does not really go from middle grade to young adult as Harry Potter does, but remains close to middle grade tone all the time, although it can also be enjoyed by older readers.

My favorite book was the fourth, but in general I did enjoy the ride. show less

This is the third book in the Magisterium series which is planned to have five books in it. This was an excellent continuation of the Magisterium series, I really enjoyed this book a lot. This has been a well done middle grade fantasy series which both me and my 9 year old son enjoy.

We see a lot more of Call and Aaron wielding their Makar talents in this book and learn a lot more about Chaos magic. Call isn’t questioning his evilness quite as much but is still struggling with the idea that he is the soul of an evil mage reborn.

Much of the story is focused on Call, Aaron, and Tamara trying to track down a spy in the school...a spy who may also be a murderer. Some interesting secrets are revealed about Call’s past and Aaron is show more struggling with what it means to be a Makar.

Overall this is a quick and fun read and I enjoyed it a lot. These characters are fun and engaging and the story takes some unexpected turns throughout. I think fans of middle grade fantasy will enjoy this series a lot. I love the elemental magic in it and how well the writing flows. I am looking forward to see what happens in book four. show less

Library Merit: Good
Characterization: Excellent
Recommended: Highly Recommended
Level: Middle Grade

The third book in the Magisterium series was amazing. There are a lot of plots going on in this series and not just one "bad guy" to focus on. There are also people that you can't figure out exactly if they are good or bad. It just depends on how things are going to play out. There are several twists in the end of this book, some of which have lasting effects. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in later books. The end of the third book, completely sets the reader up for a fourth installment. It also makes the reader ready to pick it up as well.

The characters have grown a lot in the series. Do the three main character still make show more unwise decisions? Yes, because they are just kids. Which is part of the appeal. They make decisions on the spur of the moment. The three main characters still have secrets that they keep for each other and it has made their bond stronger. Even the inclusion of Jasper has been interesting as a fourth member of the party who is still somewhat on the outside looking in. It was very interesting to see how the story would handle the potential for a love triangle. But my take is that Call isn't interested in Tamara in a romantic way. He is just worried about losing his friendship with Aaron for it. It was a nice change of pace to see that Call's friendship with Aaron and Tamara meant so much to him that he didn't want to lose either of them. All in all, this is a great series so far and I am excited to see how they progress with future books! show less

This is one of those series where I'm not sure why I keep reading it except to be able to say that I'm done the series. To be fair, I think kids will like this if they don't mind reading a different version of Harry Potter because that's what this feels like.

- I saw the similarities to Harry Potter in the first two books but I found they were either worse in this book or they bothered me more in this book. There's being inspired by a book and then there's basically rewriting it.

- I found the plot wasn't as exciting in this book as it was in the others. There wasn't much of a big battle in the end, it seemed way too short. Most of the plot revolved around the mystery of trying to figure out who was attempting to kill Call but I found show more that to be pretty boring. There was no adventure this time, only mystery.

- I'm not sure how I feel about the characters anymore. Sometimes I like them and other times I'm not sure. I don't understand the relationships between the characters half the time. Sometimes Call makes a remark about Tamara that makes it seem like he has a crush on her but then he talks about another girl. And is Jasper a friend or not because they all seem to hate each other but he's still part of that inner group now. It's messy and I'm not a fan of how it's going.

I still like the idea of this series but after this ending I'm a little worried I won't like where it's headed. I'll probably give the next book a chance but I'm not holding out hope. show less

Kommt es nur mir so vor oder ist dieses Buch einfach nur...kurz? Kaum hat man angefangen zu lesen und ist wieder in der Geschichte drin, ist es auch schon wieder vorbei.

Ich mag das Setting und die Charaktere, daher war es nett zu lesen.

Ein großer Pluspunkt der Serie ist derjenige, dass sie wirklich nicht vorhersehbar ist. Den Cliffhanger habe ich so nicht erwartet, und ich bin gespannt wie es weiter geht.

This is an AMAZING continuation of the series. There's a LOT that happens in this book to further the central narrative, as well as having an engaging mystery as a plot for the individual book itself. This is definitely a good example of a series staying strong several books in, and this is definitely a series worth reading. After all this time, it's time for Call's secret to become known, but, of course, who will believe anything he says afterwards? Definitely will be reading the next book ASAP.

SWEET MOTHER OF GOD WHAT AN ENDING!



I did NOT see that one coming at all!!!!! I did, however, foresee who the Magisterium spy was although only when they did the thing (omitted due to spoilers) to hear what their witness had to say about the chandelier crash at the party.

EXCELLENT BOOK - leaving me waiting impatiently to see how this plays out in the end. I could expect nothing less from something from [a:Holly Black|25422|Holly Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1261867163p2/25422.jpg] & the delightful [a:Cassandra Clare|150038|Cassandra Clare|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1270502031p2/150038.jpg]!