The Golden Tower

Finally finished it. The series is really quite good, sort of HP with a twist. Although I feel it doesn't match HP in depth and world building, it is entertaining. And it gets extra points for including plenty of non-white people as well as other-than-straight relationships.

Ok, I thought I was going to leave it there, but I want to say more after all.
I just feel that a lot didn't make sense. That's where the lack of depth and shallowness comes in.

SPOILERS
I mean, really, why did Cal remain Cal? He had 16 years of memory against a hell of a lot more. But bury the memories for a bit, and all of a sudden he's a completely different person, and when the memories come back, he goes mad for a few days and that's it? It would have made more show more sense if he became his previous self. Or there should have been a lot more struggle. But conveniently, he gets an easy solution for undevouring someone out of the memories and other than that he is unchanged. (Also, what kind of random solution was that?)
It's all just a bit too easy, and it doesn't make sense psychologically. The authors are clearly trying, with the messages about treatment of the devoured, and the characters' personal issues, but it doesn't quite cut it.
Still entertaining though. 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 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

I'm glad I stuck with the series. In book 1, The Iron Trial, the feel of the book was more of an angry Harry Potter, but by this last book (#5) I found had grown to really respect the characters for who they are and, I won't lie, I cried with this series. Sad tears, happy tears, angry tears. I am happy i stuck with it.

In this final year at school, Call isn't the only one who doubts his intentions. Most of the other students fear and resent him and his connection to the Enemy of Death. Many of his friends aren't exactly his friends anymore. He feels alone, except for the voice in his head that is (I won't explain this because I don't want to spoil it).

This book is fantastic. My only complaint is that this is the final book in the series. I keep hoping the story might continue when Call and his friends go to the Collegium, but the summary refers to this as "the monumental conclusion to the Magisterium series," so it seems like I'm out of luck.

I highly recommend this book especially to grades 4-8.

Definitely a worthwhile conclusion. It wraps things up nicely in a really compelling way, and is an exciting read. It definitely didn't feel as forced as I feared it would at the end of book 4, since they did indeed come up with a new compelling plot to move forward with.

This is the fifth, and final, volume in the Magisterium series. As with the last book in the series I felt like this one was really short, almost more novella than book. I also felt like this was more a laying out of predictable events than an engaging story.

Callum returns to the Magisterium to find himself shunned. However when the Magisterium finds out that Alex has returned as a Chaos Devoured, they plead Callum for help. Additionally Callum is trying to figure out how to tell Tamora that Aaron’s soul is still alive and in Callum’s body.

I had some trouble engaging in this story despite its short length. It just seemed so predictable and the writing style was really simple. I felt this way about the fourth book too. While, I am show more glad aI finished the series...I wasn’t super thrilled with this book.

Overall this was an okay end to the series. It wraps things up well in a very happy, happy type of way. I thought the story was too short, predictable, and boring. I also felt like the writing style was over simplified; I felt this way about the 4th book too. I would recommend this series to middle grade readers who enjoy adventure, magic, and fantasy. I don’t think adult fantasy readers will enjoy it as much because of the over-simplification and predictability. show less