The Silver Mask

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 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 fourth book in the Magisterium series; five books are planned for this series. This was a short but good continuation of the Magisterium series. I felt like this was more of a novella than a full length novel. It's just over 200 pages and I read it in one 2hr sitting.

Call has been imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. His friends come to his rescue but when another Chaos mage gets involved Call ends up in even more trouble than he started in.

Fans of the series should be pleased. The ending was the best part; something huge happens and sets things up nicely for the final book in the series.

Overall this was a good, but not great, addition to the Magisterium series.

Cal and the gang are reunited in what I thought would be the end of the series . . . and I was wrong. Let me say that after the Brozne Key, I was disappointed and thought their series was going down in a nose dive at 120 mph; however, the Silver Mask helped me to regroup and join in again to the magical, and often demented, world that Holly Black and Cassandra Clarke have created. With intense action sequences, suspenseful back stsbbing plans and the excitement of twists and turns (and the comedic rants of Jasper), The Silver Mask is the best addition to The Iron Trial series, so far [in my opinion]. If there is an extension to the tale, I can't wait to get my hands on it!!

Okay, to be fair, the series does jump the shark a little bit on this one. What I mean is, they planned a five book series at the start, meaning it needed to be five for even the titles to work, but the setup to get enough material for that begins to feel rather forced at the end here. That said, I am still very excited for book five later this year, because I do love the characters and the storyline and it is in the hands of two authors who I know can pull it off well. As it stands, now that people know the truth about Call, what will happen in the aftermath? In this book, we start to really find out.

Recensione presente su BookLover

Callum è in prigione. Non sa cosa pensare, nessuno viene a trovarlo e ha il dubbio che suo padre e i suoi amicilo credano davvero il Nemico della Morte. Tutto cambia quando viene aiutato a fuggire, e Callum dovrà fare delle scelte che cambieranno la sua vita in bene o in peggio.

Aspettavo con ansia il fatto di poter leggere questo libro, perché il mondo creato dalle due autrici mi piace molto. Inoltre, è il libro che mi ha fatto uscire da un bruttissimo reading slump e leggerlo è stato un piacere.

Questo quarto volume è più "lento" rispetto agli altri, nel senso che non c'è troppa azione. Il libro si concentra di più sui sentimenti di Call, la sua paura di perdere gli amici, il suo senso di colpa show more per la morte del suo migliore amico, il terrore di diventare come Constantine Madden.
È stato interessante vedere l'evolversi della situazione e i pensieri di Call cambiare a ogni nuovo avvenimento nella sua prigionia.

Ovviamente Callum è un ottimo protagonista. Non completamente un eroe, cerca comunque di fare le cose giuste e di differenziarsi da Costantine. A volte è un po' stupido, e in questo volume lo dimostra benissimo con certe cose che fa, pur essendo spinto da buone intenzioni.
Call ormai non sa più se può fidarsi dei suoi amici, soprattutto Tamara ma anche Jasper che, pur essendo insopportabile, cerca comunque di aiutare Call a non diventare un Signore del Male.
Tamara in questo libro non mi è piaciuta molto se non verso la fine. Ovviamente cerca di non dubitare di Call, ma non è che ci riesca benissimo, anzi. La sua intelligenza non è molto d'aiuto in questo libro, anzi; crea molti più problemi a tutti.
Jasper... è Jasper. Antipatico e arrogante, ha un solo chiodo fisso. Forse è uno di quei personaggi che sembrano più stupidi di quello che sono, ma fin'ora non me lo ha dimostrato. Le scene con lui sono quelle più irritanti, e la colpa è solo sua.

I due stili di scrittura delle autrici si mescolano bene, creando una storia interessante con una scrittura leggera che ti porta a perdere la cognizione del tempo e ti fa leggere più di quanto ti aspetti. Ci sono anche molti colpi di scena che ho adorato, ma non voglio parlarne perché sono spoiler grandissimi.

Insomma, a me questo libro è piaciuto tantissimo. show less

My heart is broken, I'm not sure if the next and final book will turn me against the whole series and make me wish i had never read them or turn me into a lifelong fan thinking about this story for years to come.
I'm holding out hope that they can repair the loss I feel.