The Traitor Queen

The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3

by Trudi Canavan

Discover the magic of Trudi Canavan with her brand new novel in the Traitor Spy trilogy. . .

Events are building to a climax in Sachaka as Lorkin returns from his exile with the Traitor rebels. The Traitor Queen has given Lorkin the huge task of brokering an alliance between his people and the Traitors. Lorkin has also had to become a feared black magician in order to harness the power of an entirely new kind of gemstone magic. This knowledge could transform the Guild of Magicians -- or make Lorkin an outcast forever.

The Traitor Spy trilogy, which began with The Ambassador's Mission and The Rogue, is the new series set in the world of the international bestselling Black Magician trilogy.

Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Fiction, High Fantasy, Young Adult, Epic Fantasy, Adventure

509 pages, Hardcover

First published August 14, 2012

About the author

Trudi Canavan was born in Kew, Melbourne, and grew up in Ferntree Gully, a suburb at the foothills of the Dandenongs.

In 1999 she won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Short Story with “Whispers of the Mist Children”. In the same year she was granted a writers residency at Varuna Writers’ Centre in Katoomba, New South Wales.

In November 2001, The Magicians’ Guild was first published in Australia. The second book of the trilogy, The Novice, was published in June 2002 and was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel. The third book The High Lord was released in January 2003 and was nominated for the Best Novel Ditmar category. All three books entered Australian top ten SF bestseller lists.

The Black Magician Trilogy reached the international market in 2004, published by HarperCollins’ EOS imprint in North America and Orbit Books in the UK. The trilogy is now rated by Nielsen BookScan as the most successful debut fantasy series of the last 10 years.

Trudi’s second trilogy, Age of the Five, has also enjoyed bestselling success. Priestess of the White reached No.3 in the Sunday Times hardback fiction bestseller list, staying in the top ten for six weeks.

In early 2006 Trudi signed a seven-figure contract with Orbit to write the prequel and sequel to the Black Magician Trilogy. The prequel, The Magician’s Apprentice was released in 2009 and won the Best Fantasy Novel category of the Aurealis Awards.

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

***Spoilers may follow!!***

Hmmm...Hard to rate this book, I REALLY wanted to like it as I loved the magicians guild trilogy, but I have to say this book was pretty unremarkable, the plot struggled along at a snail’s pace, nothing happens in the first half and then ALL the action is crammed into the second making it rushed and awkward, no middle ground or easing into it.

Most of the POV characters are very difficult to get to know, I tried hard to like Lorkin but I find his character cardboard and bland and Canavan's attempts to give him some character development fall flat, maybe it's a bit of prejudice on my part but the old original characters Dannyl, Sonea and even Regin were far more well-rounded and relatable than the painfully flat, boring and let's face it bafflingly stupid "new generation", namely Lilia, Lorkin, Tyvara and Anyi who in my opinion get way too much attention.

The Tyvara/Lorkin romance appears to be attempting to parallel the Sonea/Akkarin "young love" relationship of the previous series, but the Sonea/Akkarin relationship developed slowly over the course of nearly two entire books and was not without its trials it was more "real" and though it managed to be simultaneously creepy and touching, was more believable. You saw it built slowly, the Lorkin/Tyvara one however seems shallow and superficial. Even those who haven't read the previous trilogy can pick up on this.

Sonea does NOTHING! And for the awesome, strong-willed heroine of the last trilogy to be so crippled and to see her cowed and dominated by the whims of others is painful, especially when her substitute is supposedly the sub-par Lorkin/Lilia POV's.

We are supposed to want to root for the traitors and hope they win against the tyrannical noble class that currently exists. Whilst the current aristocracy is obviously perverse and cruel the Traitors aren't much better, I hate to say this but the "evil" Sachakans got better and more in-depth characterization; we find that they aren't all irrevocably "Bad", like any normal population they run the
gamut from genuinely good human beings reluctantly trying to do right by their home and country to almost cartoonishly evil, whilst unfortunately the Traitors come across as straw feminists, although its frequently pointed out that their society isn't the gender-equal utopia it first appears to be and men are in fact second-class citizens, the implications that women in positions of power would indeed treat men like this or for women to be strong, confident and kick ass in their own right means they have to belittle men have a lot of unfortunate implications

Also the whole Skellin plot was pointless, less said about that the better.

It ultimately ends feeling unfinished and like a middle-book rather than the final in the trilogy, Canavan in the epilogue actually, (hopefully accidently) introduced THE most interesting aspect of the entire traitor spy series by offhandedly having some of the magicians mention the threat of the anti-magic warriors of Igra and their supposedly magician-killing weapons (sounding suspiciously like guns to me)now THAT would be fascinating, so far we have the magicians who are people of mass destruction and are only threatened by other magicians. To level the playing field would introduce interesting ordinary folk who might be able to do more than hide in holes and run to the big powerful magicians for help, it would also bring up a fascinating magic vs technology aspect...Here's hoping Canavan explores that avenue

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm. This was extremley hard to rate. This is the final book in a series I have been reading on and off since school. I am very sentimental about these books and even now, over a decade after reading the first novel, I feel a strong sense of loyalty and fondness for these characters.

Unfortunately the four stars I gave to this novel are more of a representation of this loyalty than a reflection of the quality of the book.

The novel continued its predecessor's habit of focusing on the new batch of characters rather than our old favourites. Rothen for example doesn't appear in any meaningful capacity until the final quarter of the novel. My favourite character Dannyl is heavily featured but just like in the last book, he contributes very little value. We spend a lot of time focusing on Lorkin and Lila's relationships but I found it very hard to care about either character ( especially Lorkin who has no real personality).

The plot is meandering which is fine for me, as I enjoy spending time with these characters, but I imagine many other readers would be bored.

Over 6 books Trudi Canavan has crafted a very intriguing world, but I sadly feel she could do more with it. I would happily read another 6 books in this world with these characters, but I would urge Canavan to lower the scale. Separating her characters geographically for the entire trilogy negatively impacted the novels Give us more Rothen/ Sonea/ Dannyl interactions. Sonea didn't meet with Cery once in this whole book which felt like a betrayal to both characters. These characters are why the original novels are so popular and I would recommend she leans on them more in future.

This is probably the most ranty 4 star review I will ever write!

[Ferdy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoilers

I wasn't impressed with this. It was slow paced, the majority of the characters were bland and I wasn't interested in the central plot. The conflict/war between Sachaka and the Traitors made for tedious reading. Sonea, Cery, Anyi, Tayend and Regin were the only decent characters. The others were all boring, especially Lorkin, Tyvara, Dannyl and Lillia.
The arc I most enjoyed was Sonea's, probably because she was the only character I really cared about. Her interactions with Regin were interesting to read about. I never would have expected them to have a romance, since 20 years earlier in the Black Magician trilogy, Regin bullied Sonea. Usually I would hate for a heroine to end up with a bully but their relationship actually worked, since 1. Regin was a teenager when he bullied Sonea 2. Sonea never let Regin get away with his treatment of her 3. Regin showed significant character growth. 4. Regin made up for his behaviour and was genuinely remorseful and 5. For 20 years Regin showed nothing but respect and admiration towards Sonea. I loved Sonea and Akkarin's romance in the first trilogy and even though Regin is no Akkarin, he was still a good love interest and the romance he shared with Sonea was very sweet. Unfortunately, Sonea and Regin's relationship was the only endearing and engrossing aspect of the book.
What let the book down the most was the positively boring main POV character, Lorkin. After three books, Lorkin still hadn't developed a personality. I thought he would gain some depth and complexity after he was imprisoned and tortured but sadly, it didn't add anything to his plank like personality.
Cery was a likeable character but he wasn't given the opportunity to shine, all he did was moan about how old he was and hide from Skellin. Also, after three books of build up between Skellin and him, Cery didn't even get a dramatic confrontation and showdown with him and instead died of a heart attack. It was disappointing.
Dannyl was just as boring as he was in the previous book, he did nothing apart from hem and haw about his love life, moan about his book and generally be useless. It's just sad that he went from one of my most favourite characters to one of my most hated.
Lillia was more tolerable this time around, she wasn't quite as stupid. Her loyalty to Cery and Anyi was the best thing about her, I also liked how she dealt with her bullying. After Regin and Sonea's arc, the bullying story line was probably the most interesting but that was most likely down to the fact that it reminded me of young Sonea and when she was bullied. I still thought Lillia was dull but there were parts of her arc that were somewhat engaging.
All in all, I wasn't pleased with this but I did enjoy reading about Sonea and her life after Akkarin.

[Sianin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read this one but it this book can not compare to the "High Lord" as an end book of a trilogy. I almost feel a bit disappointed but that has to do with my maybe unrealistically high expectations. It keeps the same level as the previous 2 books but it feels a bit flat( like the other two). The feeling of "questing" and "Learning" from the black magician trilogy never occurs.

We get to see gemstones in action but in my opinion it felt kinda boring. We do not get to "explore" or learn more about them really. I did not find any plots that did not get addressed in some small manner but some of them felt really unfinished and this has made the entire book and even the trilogy feel like a "middle book", some examples are small historical "ah experiences " by the characters that should lead forward or at least get to Dannyls attention but they just die down.

This book and trilogy suffers in my point of view from trying to achieve a "generation change" within the story were neither the new generation or the old get to really play out in a satisfying way. The main example for me is Sonea who in my opinion was not time to "retire" in the way she was done in this book. I was looking forward for some action from her part in the conflict or even some great discovery's but I got nada, and no other character really steps up. My personal opinion is that this trilogy had been better if the Skellin part had been left out entirely and that the story had focused only on Sachaka, the guilds involvement there with the different fractions and that there had been more "bringing home" knowledge, Sonea, Lorkin and Dannyl would have been my main characters for this. The lack of the Duna peoples in this book is feeling a bit odd and the reason given for them not beeing in the story feels "not good enough".

I'm starting to have a problem with the "lack" of intelligent people and mainly in the guild. There is to much we cant trust anyone scenarios.

Over all the book and Trilogy is a good read and it gives some more insight to the world that Trudi Have created. Even tho the knowledge from Black Magician trilogy and Magicians Apprentice is mainly just managed with a few additions.

[Max Masters · Rating 2 out of 5]

** Spoilers and opinions follow.

Not good. I can stomach an anti-drug campaign in a book, but only if it isn't pointlessly thrown in like it is here. The drug 'Roet' had a distinct subplot, but it never amounted to anything or affected the main plot, I was expecting some kind of twist, or meaning. Nor did the addition of Lilia, and her relationship to Anyi and Cery. The whole book could have happened without them, and should have, considering they were completely undeveloped characters (Even Cery, who I loved in the original books, had been watered down) and the only enjoyable event was Cery's death, which was laughable and had absolutely no consequences, except Sonea feeling a bit sad.
The action was pathetic, as there wasn't much. There was no sense of danger because our protagonists were on the conquering, winning side. And the only time I could have felt something for Dannyl, when his lover died, was ruined by Dannyl launching into one of the many poorly placed internal monologues. Why not SHOW me his anger, and his pain, by describing it? I shouldn't have to be told that someone is feeling a certain way. This is a recurring element in all of the characters, who unrealistically have full discussions with themselves at every moment, even when there is magic being flung at them, it also didn't help that everybody spoke in the same, emotionless way. Sonea and Regin's love story felt forced, and went against everything that made the 2nd book in the original story my favorite. Regin and Sonea's rivalry, as well as Dannyl and Tayend's mysterious, controversial (in the world) love story kept me up at night on college days, and ate away my time. This book I severely contemplated throwing out the window at the half way point, just like the 2nd book in this new trilogy. Honestly it was a waste of my time, and it sullied my good opinions of the original trilogy.
I'm rarely frustrated enough to write a review, because I'm sure everything I've just said has been written here before. But the needlessness of this book has motivated me to fuel my irritation into words. Lovely, lovely words.

[Jael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the Black Magician Trilogy but as much as I try to, I can't bring myself to like Traitor Spy. I can't emphasise how annoyed I was with Lorkin. He seems very much like a male-version of Bella who falls for a girl at first sight and all of a sudden, it's I'will-do-anything-for-her. Okay, that's a little over-exaggerating because Lorkin is slightly more sensible but I was seriously annoyed with how stupid he was.

Also, I don't get how we were supposed to root for the Traitors and hate the Sachakans despite knowing full well that the Traitors aren't perfect and the Sachakans aren't all bad. I only lasted until this last book because I held hopes that Canavan would pull off some mind-blowing ending like in the Age of Five. Nothing like that happened. Instead, we get the dull good-guys-win-bad-guys-lose ending.

The rants can go on. I still love TBM, but Traitor Spy is seriously not my cup of tea. Nothing worked, be it the plot, the character building or the romance.

[Choco Con Churros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pues esta me acabó gustando más que la saga original, con traidores en ambos bandos y puntos de fricción en todos los frentes, sin que se dispersara el argumento, sino reforzándolo. Muy bien.
La trama amorosa desatada al final, como suele suceder con esta autora, no engancha mucho (aunque fue muy sorprendente. No lo ví venir).
Aborda el tema con una frialdad que se traslada a los supuestos enamorados, restando fuerza a cualquier clase de química que pudiera surgir. Esto era más notorio en la saga original. En esta, no sé si es que ya me acostrumbré a esa ausencia de química o que aquí andan algo más tibios, pero no me llamó tanto la atención.
Pero bueno, no me molesta que una trama amorosa esté algo tiesa, cuando lo importante de estas historias está en otra parte. Me parece curioso, pero no un defecto.
Pues me da penuca que se termine. Lo estaba pasando bien. GL (Autor: Trudi Canavan)

[Emilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nie jestem w stanie nawet wyrazić jak bardzo mnie ta seria zawiodła.

Pierwszy tom - nawet git.
Drugi tom - mogłoby go nie być, nic się tam nie działo i pomimo, iż czytałam go dwa tygodnie temu to już mało co pamiętam.
Tom trzeci - z nikim się nie zżyłam i mało kogo polubiłam na tyle, żeby być zaangażowana w jego losy. Ktoś umiera? Ok, whatever. Finał był taki, jakby go nie było. Żenada.

Wątki romantyczne, które nagle zawładnęły tą seria były złe. Te stare dziady miały większe dylematy sercowe, niż 15latki w młodzieżówkach. Jeśli naprawdę mężczyźni tak przeżywają wszystko, jak ci w tej książce, to ja im bardzo współczuję.

Ja chcę mojego Akkarina BACK!!!!

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really glad I persevered through to the end of this trilogy. The first two books set up the world as it has been for centuries, which was a bit tedious because we'd already had that history lesson in a much more compelling way. But finally in this book, things change. I'm not sure it needed a whole trilogy to tell this story, but I am satisfied with how it ended both plot-wise and character-wise.

The conflicts in Sachaka come to a head, and the Guild is forced to adapt beyond their narrow-mindedness. Finally! Cool magic stuff and fighting actually happen, even though I do wish the action was more immediate instead of mostly being observed from a distance. The focus was more on the emotional state of the observers than on what was actually happening, and although I found myself caught up in those emotions, I still wished to be down on the ground.

Most importantly, I like the future that is in store for most of the characters. I feel like Sonea is in a good place - she is finally able to move on from the pain of the past and to build a new life. It's a life that I can accept, and that's about all I really needed out of this continuation of her story. I ultimately still miss the brilliance of the original Black Magician Trilogy, but this gave me a measure of closure that I needed, and I actually ended up enjoying it enough that I'm sad it's over again.

[Nuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

4'5/5 estrellas
Me ha gustado mucho. Tenía mogollón de ganas de leer el final de esta trilogía y me a encantado. Si le tengo que poner alguna pena es que no me ha gustado el final y el final de un personaje en concreto tampoco, pero el resultado de la trama principal si que me gustó y del resto de personajes también.
En conclusión me ha gustado mucho esta trilogía. Muy recomendable.

[Crazyjamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So here we are. After years of patience the Traitor Spy trilogy has come to a close. Was it everything that I hoped it would be? Well, mostly. Like other books in the series, the strong dialogue and character development continues, as does a reduction in the level of action scenes that one would normally expect from a fantasy novel. In other words, it is a trademark Trudi Canavan novel, and one that I did enjoy.

There is one problem, though, and it is a problem that I suspect has resulted in the average rating for this book on Goodreads being below 4 at the time of writing. Whilst we are all used to Trudi Canavan's novels being light on the action side of things, with the Traitor Queen I felt like this happened to such a degree that the final third of the book lacked the sort of tension and drama that one would expect from the end of a trilogy.

You see, when you look back at the other series that Trudi Canavan has written, they do all end strongly and with some sort of epic confrontation. The Ichani Invasion in the Magician's Guild trilogy was superbly tense and well written, and whilst not as dramatic the ending of the Age of Five trilogy did manage a significant sense of scale.

Whilst we do have a somewhat inevitable encounter at the end of the Traitor Queen, I just couldn't help but feel that it was very vanilla and lacked tension and drama. It's a shame, because the rest of the book is classic Trudi Canavan and very enjoyable, but even hardened fans will struggle to claim that this book ended well, and sadly it does undermine the whole trilogy to a degree.

As a result the Traitor Spy trilogy is certainly the weakest of the three trilogies, which is a shame, but there we go. Fortunately it won't stop me (or I suspect anyone else) from looking forward to what Trudi Canavan produces next.

[Melaszka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, it's true, it doesn't live up to the Black Magician trilogy or The Age of Five, and, let's be honest, the big, Akkarin-shaped hole was never going to be filled, but there's no point going on about it - one just has to take this trilogy for what it is.

It did feel a bit unplanned (far too many ideas started or hinted at, but then not explored), a bit unstructured and a bit directionless. The duller characters, like Lorkin and Lilia, hogged most of the attention, while (to me) more intriguing characters, like Achati, Kallen, Lorandra, Skellin and Regin were more briefly sketched and remained underwritten enigmas. The big villain at the end frustratingly came from nowhere. And there were too many inconsistencies and Mary-Sueish implausibility (e.g. Lilia coming up with an idea so simple a five-year-old could have thought of it, but the Guild are stunned into reverence by the alleged innovativeness of it).

But I was still hooked - for me, the big hooks, as with her other work, are the detail Canavan puts into her world (I almost feel like I really live there) and the nuance with which she creates conflicting civilisations (there are never any simplistic good guys or bad guys) and both of those were still here in bucketloads. The plotting, the action, the prose style, even the characterisation have never been her strongest points, even in the BMT, so I wasn't particularly disappointed that they were a bit lacking here.

[I'mogén · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buddy read with Deborah from Hills of Books.

I was so excited about finishing up this series, but also worried because I didn't realise how much I'd fall in love with the characters and the world.
I feel like each book, with the first trilogy and then this trilogy, has added a lot of depth to the landscaping and character arcs and I've felt fully immersed for the whole journey.

I love how much Sonea is respected in this book and how much she doesn't realise it. Its like she's stuck in this headspace of how she used to be perceived (as a novice of low standing, that broke the Guild laws), but she's grown so much since then and the people around her have changed their views. It's sad that she doesn't see her worth though. I feel like it's an internalised trauma after all she had endured.

Although I enjoyed this, I feel like we needed some action earlier on, as up until half way through there was not a lot of major conflict.
To completely oppose that, chapter 20 seemed to randomly jump from a normal gossipy chat about possible relationships (which I'm happy I saw brewing early on), to a sudden brewing battle of full on civil war!! I flipped back to see if I missed an obvious turning point, but came up short. The section just felt so jarring and sudden. It felt like a bit of bad editing in the way that the transition of different scenes were not smooth and seamless at all and just left me feeling like I missed a major connection to the jump.

There was one loss that hit me! I was really upset and shocked as its a character that, I feel, has had a significant role since very early on, but then I look back and I am a little disappointed that this was the only truly climactic twist to happen so far in to the story. Even the finale battle didn't have me as hooked as others in this series and the Age of Five trilogy. It just seems to have lost some of its focus.

I've got to say, this was a little underwhelming for a finale of a rather epic set of trilogies, but I think it just feels that way because it is then end and the books have had me hooked and ramping up a little to this point. I would have enjoyed it more, had it not been the last book, perhaps, as building up to the climax, particularly in regards to the conflict/battle scenes, it left me feeling disappointed as it felt lacking. Despite that being said, this was still very enjoyable and I will miss spending time with these characters and being in this wonderfully crafted world.

Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<
Gén

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

**SPOILER ALERT**

I did enjoy reading this book, though possibly not as much as it's predecessor, 'The Rogue'. It was typical Canavan - fast-paced, full of action and a nice splash of romance thrown in, plus a good dollop of tragedy that made me cry, as per usual. Once again, the Black Magician Trilogy will always be my true love out of all of Canavan's work, but I have enjoyed the Traitor Spy Trilogy and liked catching up with the characters. And seeing how like his father Lorkin is :)

But I can tell you exactly why I have knocked those two stars off. Here goes:
I knocked one star off for Dannyl and Tayend. They were perfect together (even if I resented it at the time because, yes, I'm still in love with Dannyl)and Dannyl's affair with Achati just didn't seem right to me. I did feel sorry for him when Achati died, but I didn't cry over his death - all I could think was 'Yay, now you can get back with Tayend!'. It just seemed wrong that they were ever separated in the first place, and for Dannyl to find a replacement just seemed...well, more wrong.

I knocked the second star off for the thing that made me feel physically ill and also want to scream - Sonea and Regin!!!! SONEA AND REGIN!!!! Now, I'm a fan of hate to love relationships as much as the next person - my favourite Shakespeare play is Much Ado About Nothing, and love to hate is pretty much the entire plot of said play - but seriously?Regin??? The way Sonea loved Akkarin was so powerful that I don't think she ever would be able to move on, not really, though having thankfully never experienced something like that myself I cannot be sure how it would work out. That's my first problem with this relationship. The second problem -REGIN!!!! I still can't bring myself to like him, although I did pity him a bit. He's so completely different to Akkarin - why would she be attracted to him?? It seems so unlikely! And she hated him for TWENTY YEARS. I mean, yeah, she hated Akkarin for a while, but that was because she misunderstood him. Regin was just an evil brat. I don't understand it. If she had moved on with Dorrien, I might have got it, or even with Cery *sob. Why couldn't he have seen Anyi and Savara just one more time before he died!!!*. But anyone else just seems unthinkable. And that's that.

Final verdict? Really good book, just made me extremely aggressive and angry with the world. But a must for any fan of BMT. Though it did have an annoying ending. In case you hadn't guessed from my fury rambling.

[Nico · Rating 2 out of 5]

German review on GosuReviews

Mediocre finish to the Traitor Spy Trilogy and (finally) an end to the Black Magician universe. I just felt the series dragged on for too long. The storyline was flat and nothing really new in the worldbulding. The new characters introduced in the series didn't work for me. They felt very one dimensional and I had a hard time cheering for them.
Fans of the series should read it, even if it's just to get closure. Hopefully this was the last time we heard of Sonea.
I know Trudi Canavan is an amazing writer and I am looking forward to her next book Thief's Magic.

[jadzia_dax29 Daniela · Rating 2 out of 5]

FANTASY ⭐️⭐️1/2⭐️
.
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SONEA - Die Königin ist der letzte Teil der Trilogie und ich habe nach dem ziemlich schwachen zweiten Teil auf ein fulminantes Finale gehofft - eine Hoffnung die leider enttäuscht wurde

Je weiter ich im Buch vorwärts kam desto klarer wurde dass da nicht spannendes und überraschendes mehr kommen wird und deshalb sank die Motivation die letzten 150 Seiten zu lesen fast gegen null 🥺

Ich hätte es sooo gerne geliebt aber leider war es die erste große Enttäuschung 2022

Leider wurde extrem viel Potential verschenkt wirklich interessante Geschichten rund um Kyralia zu erzählen und es wurde eine seicht dahinplätschernde Rosamunde Pilcher Story angesiedelt im Fantasy Bereich 😢

[Becky (Blogs of a Bookaholic) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally published on Blogs of a Bookaholic.

FEELS. SO MANY FEELS. AHHHHHHH! Finished this at 2am last night and couldn't stop smiling.
As with all of Canavan’s novels, her writing really impressed me. It is so detailed and specific that it feels as if Kyralia could be a real place, that it may exist just over the next horizon. I love her word choices and sentence structures although some may call her style a little meandering, to which I would agree. She’s not a fast paced writer but she is thorough and thoughtful without going over the top. I never feel like she is pushing too hard to be insightful or dramatic, her style feels very natural and that is one of the many things I love about it. I especially like the way Canavan crafts romances between characters which was particularly apparent in this book.

The plot of The Traitor Queen was so much better than the previous books, mostly because STUFF ACTUALLY HAPPENED. My biggest complaint about this series so far has been its slow pacing. Both The Ambassador’s Mission and The Rogue spent far too much time switching back and forth between characters’ story lines with not a whole lot happening. While I still enjoyed the stories enough I did get frustrated. Thank goodness, I didn’t have this problem with The Traitor Queen, I’m not sure my poor Trudi Canavan loving heart could have taken it! This book hits the ground running with a brilliant first chapter that thrusts you straight into the middle of the action. I still found the point of view changes a bit frustrating at times but in this book it was for a good reason. I would get so invested in the story line I was reading but then Canavan would make me switch to another one. Then just as I was immersed in that she would switch it again! It was like a clever form of literary torture, dragging the tension out for as long as possible until the reader is ready to burst with the desperation of wanting to see how it all ends. I did feel that some of the story lines were rounded off better than others, for instance the culmination of hunt for the rogue magician Skellin was a little anti-climactic for me, but in contrast the storyline with the Traitors had me glued to the pages with an intense stare. As for the last couple of chapters, I would have yelled at anyone who dared to interrupt me! The end of this novel turned me into an emotional mess, it had me grinning uncontrollably, giggling (and I NEVER giggle) and also brought a tear to my eye.

As for the characters, I warmed to Lorkin even more in this novel. I wasn’t that bothered by him when he was first introduced and he has been a bit of a slow burner for me. While I still feel he is less rounded than many of the other characters (which is a little worrying considering I would say he is the main character in this series) he gained some more personality in The Traitor Queen. He is forced to mature and make a lot of difficult decisions which made me respect and admire him more as a character. He is certainly not the overconfident naive man he used to be and I have enjoyed following his epic adventure from start to finish. Lila also surprised me in this book, I found her frustrating in The Rogue but she seemed to gain more common sense in this novel. I loved her sense of loyalty and the way she embraced her new role within the Guild with a level of pride. Anyi has fast become a favourite of mine, I love her spunk; she doesn’t let others intimidate her and she has an ability to project confidence even in the most awkward situations.
As always, I was happy to be reunited with many of the original characters from The Black Magician Trilogy who feel like old friends to me now. I will forever love Lord Rothen with his fatherly wisdom, Cery the slum thief whose morals somehow stay intact, Regin, Sonea’s childhood bully who I remarkably ended up liking as a character a lot and of course, Dannyl, the lovable scholar who gets along with everyone. Special mention has to go out to Sonea, who will probably always be Canavan’s best character. I love her strength, her wit and how cool she is in tough situations. She’s just so damn awesome! I have followed her journey for six books now and it has been fascinating to see her grow and change.

While The Traitor Spy Trilogy is not as strong and takes a while to gain momentum it is a still a must for any fan of The Black Magician Trilogy who will love being reunited with some of their favourite characters and will enjoy the further resolve to their stories. Laughter was had, tears were shed and I was reunited with so many of my old, wonderful friends. Hopefully this will not be the last I see of them! The author has expressed an interest in returning to this world again some day in the future if the whim takes her, and I’m sure all her fans including me will be eagerly anticipating that day!

You can check out my full, unabridged review and others like it Blogs of a Bookaholic. :)

[Irina Villacis · Rating 4 out of 5]

me faltó el final , me debes TRUDI. el romance Regin y Sonea me ha encantado mucho mas que su amor AKKARIN. no me ha parecido forzado para nada. aunque aun esty resentida porque le hacia bullying hace 20 años . bueno ... 20 años y varias guerras puede hacer a la gente cambiar.

[zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.

[proxyfish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed on my blog - Books by Proxy

3.5 Stars

If you’re a reader of my Top Ten Tuesday posts, then you might have noticed that Trudi Canavan’s The Traitor Queen has been appearing on rather a regular basis. This is one of those books that I intended to read as soon as I bought it but managed to neglect until oh… you know, several years later! The Traitor Queen is the closing chapter in the Traitor Spy Trilogy, and while it doesn’t reach the exciting, dizzying heights of The Black Magician Trilogy, it is still a rather entertaining read.

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This book has, probably quite rightly, received very mixed reviews and despite the criticisms, I still found this to be an enjoyable read. It might not be heart-thumpingly-awesome, it might not have those breathtaking qualities that some of Canavan’s other work possess but it is entertaining and the overall storyline is well thought out. The Traitor Queen manages to expand upon and add detail to the world so beautifully drawn out in The Black Magician Trilogy and brings about a satisfying, if a little lacklustre, close to the trilogy.

Canavan writes in an accessible and gratifying way, giving insight into the thoughts and feelings of the characters whilst providing careful doses of description throughout. Everything that should have happened did happen – that’s not where the problems lie; they lie with how each of these events unfolded. All the action is packed into the latter half of this novel and when it does occur it is somewhat rushed; we’re left with a final battle where not a lot happens and pivotal scenes where I was left wondering if I’d missed something. I would rather this book had been twice the length and had given more play time to these elements than have rushed through them in 500 pages.

And though there is much to enjoy in this novel, the one thing which The Traitor Queen is seriously lacking is tension. Tension, tension, tension! And then some. The action needed more tension – more do or die moments, more close shaves and descriptive destruction; the romances needed more sexual tension – less of the predictable, the safe and the ‘nice’; the politics needed more political tension – more danger, more intrigue and more terrible consequences. The Traitor Queen had the potential for all these things, the stage was already set! It just failed to give them enough page space or execute them in a satisfying way.

While all the main and supporting characters are essentially likeable and have a lot to offer, I would have enjoyed more growth and development throughout the novel. It was a shame that Sonea, our fantastic protagonist in The Black Magician Trilogy, had such a small and insignificant role in this book and though I enjoyed the development in Regin’s character, his role was too small to really make much of an impact. Lorkin doesn’t quite manage to live up to the expectations of a protagonist in a Canavan novel, nor does Tyvara succeed as well in her role as the main love interest. Having said that, I didn’t dislike any of the characters, nor did I dislike the novel – The Traitor Queen merely suffers the fate of not living up to the expectations created when you write something truly awesome.

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The Traitor Queen is a tale of conflicting loyalties, of trust and of power which develops and adds insight into the world Trudi Canavan has created. This is a quick and easy read which, despite some issues, has a lot going for it. While this might not be the breathtaking read that The Black Magician Trilogy was, The Traitor Queen is still enjoyable and will probably receive far too much criticism for having such a brilliant predecessor. If you’re new to Canavan, I seriously urge you to read The Black Magician Trilogy or The Age of Five. If not, you could do much worse than pick up a copy of this trilogy!

[Jonathon Dunstan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trudi Canavan is one of my favourite authors. She creates worlds that are so well thought out, but logical in their own way. They have a set of rules about how things work, and never breaks your belief in that world. However this novel and as a result, the trilogy felt flat. There were so many threads that looked to lead somewhere and Canavan does a masterful job of making sure all these threads are tied up. However, there seems to be a bit of a tiny ending, instead of the epic ones penned in the original Black Magician Trilogy, or even the prequel.

I feel that the story could have done with more compartmentalising the stories. If the second novel had handled the story of Cery and the rogue magician completely, I feel that greater weight could have been given to the villains of each case. As it stands, Skellin is never felt to be a significant threat to the guild. Beyond the fact that he manages to find Cery, wherever he is hiding, we never see him as villainous, nor did I feel him as a significant threat to the guild. I now wish that he had gained knowledge of Black Magic, and the mad scramble of of the guild scrambling to meet this immediate threat.

With the story of the Skellin handled in the first novel, the third novel would be free to expend more energy on showing us more of the evils of Sachakan society, as more than just slave owners. With the threat of Black Magic once again made to the guild. Lorkin's plan to obtain gem-stone knowledge would have much more significance.

Sometimes I feel like the magicians guild is full of idiots. With knowledge that black magicians can take their magic from magically infused stone, or the battle ground shield. Why is there this huge shock that they can create a store stone? What is it other than something that can hold more magic in smaller space?

In the first novel, we are asked to ponder Sonea's decisions on what she would do? Turns out that the answer was not much. It would have been much more satisfying to have Sonea meet up with Dannyl and Tayend at the embassy, and having to fend off a couple of higher magicians with her saved up energy.

Despite all these shortcomings, which while gripes, do not impact the story much. It did not stop my enjoyment of the novels at the time of my reading them. It does however taint my love of the storyline once you have the complete picture. There are no highs and lows that are experienced like in the first series. There is but one truly epic magical battle, and it is not even a struggle. It completely one sided and lacking in excitement. The one true threat, one of betrayal, has a change of heart and chooses not to do anything. Leaving this more like a historical story based on true events than any sort of adventure.

[Carina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trudi Canavan is one of my favourite authors and for good reason. The worlds she makes are compelling and different from the vast majority of fantasy out there.

This book is the third and final book in the Traitor Spy series which picks up about 20 years or so after the events of the Black Magician Trilogy. When I first found out that there was a continuation of that series I was worried it would be a bit of a money grabber, but this series and the prequel are each well written and really add to the story that was already known.

It has been almost a year since I read the previous entry in the series and I will admit I remembered very little of the events - Canavan has a knack in this book at reminding you of the events of previous books without recapping them and does so to great effect.

As to the events of this book I am glad with how they all turned out with the exception of Cerys death . Yes there were hints throughout that something was wrong but for him to die like that it felt so... wrong. When you recall how this person acted in the original trilogy it seems like such a waste. Lorkin has definitely grown up from the youth we were first introduced to, Dannyl is, to be honest, as naive as ever but that's part of the reason why I like him! I also quite liked the growth in the relationship between Sonea and Regin. He has a clear character arc over the six books and is a great example of how you can go from really disliking someone to actually wanting to hear more about them. There were some cliché moments here and there like how all the traitors could see that Sonea and Regin liked one another and thought that they were lovers before it was acknowledged or even really noticed by Sonea .

Was this the best end to the series... well, no - I found the events at the end of the original trilogy to be much better (after all who can forget the shock at Akkarins death??), but it worked. There were also some hints there as to a possible continuation (I swear the ballshooter referred to in the last pages is a gun - and how interesting would it be to see the Guild learn about and adapt to guns??), if that is the case I look forward to reading more about this world.

[Saskia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ganz ehrlich: dieses Finale ist viel, viel besser als seine Vorgänger! Schade, dass man sich zuerst mehr oder weniger durch zwei Bände quälen muss, bevor die Geschichte anfängt richtig unterhalsam zu werden. Die Handlungen laufen endlich zusammen und man gewinnt einen tollen Überblick über die gesamte Situation. Das Finale hat eine interessante, abwechslungsreiche Perspektive, indem man nicht direkt involviert ist.
Einzig das Ende bringt einen faden Beigeschmack. Natürlich finde ich es schön, wie auch der Vorgänger Der Gilde der Schwarzen Magier mit einbezogen wird und es eine Erklärung zu dem Ödland gibt. Trotzdem mag ich es nicht, wie angedeutet wird, dass eine weitere Geschichte folgen könnte. Sollte dies der Fall sein, so hoffe ich, dass es komplett neue Charaktere geben wird. Denn so schwelgt man mehr in den Erinnerungen und kann sich kaum auf die aktuelle Handlung einlassen.
Einzig unklar ist mir, was die Handlung rund um Cery soll. Für mich wirkt das total an den Haaren herbei gezogen um 1. Cery wieder dabei zu haben und 2. eine weitere homosexuelle Beziehung einzuführen. Dieses mal sind diese weitaus deutlicher als noch in Die Gilde der Schwarzen Magier. Aber ebenso wie damals sind mir die Liebesgeschichten total egal, ich lese diese Bücher, weil ich Magie möchte!
Es sind keine guten vier Sterne, denn das Ende und die daraus resultierenden Befürchtungen dominieren in meinem Kopf. Trotzdem ist es ein toller Abschluss. Nur wegen dem allein sollte man sich die Reihe nicht antun. Lest lieber die ursprüngliche Trilogie erneut.

[[ J o ] · Rating 2 out of 5]

The final instalment of the Traitor Spy trilogy was vaguely mediocre. It was a fantasy story that held no surprises, though it carried the weight of the generic fantasy novel very well. I enjoy reading generic fantasy in between chunkier reads, or when I don't wish to read something that is defying genres and making the fantasy genre look a bit wobbly. It was much as the first two were: unmemorable except in parts (I had purchased the second book on my Kindle, not remembering that I had read it previously), with a run-of-the-mill style that was welcome at this stage. Reading Far-Fetched-Fiction with a surrealist grasp can make one crave something ordinary.


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[Matti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do I care even a little bit about Lilia and the Guild stuff when there's so much awesome and crazy shit going down with Lorkin, Dannyl, and Sonea? No. Do I care so much about Regin that this becomes a 5-star read anyway? Yes.

Here's what it is. It's the only book in this series to make me cry every time I read it (yes, I remain dry-eyed through all of The High Lord, sue me), and the Regin whiplash never fails to entertain me. No other character in the history of all the fiction I've ever consumed goes from zero to hero this hard. Can't wait to hate him some more on my next reread and do this all over again 😘

[Caia_In_Wonderland · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a great to read about Trudi's magic world again. I recommend for those who loved the previous series. Albeit, not being up to par, it still answers a lot of questions left behind on the anterior series and closes some chapters while leaving others open to new ones. I was quite happy to see how some characters evolved from one series to the other, especially Regin, obviously ;)
Read it!

[Darren Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately I was a little disappointed by this finale. I may have hyped it up too much after the original trilogy, but I feel some characters were served an injustice. Regardless I still did enjoy the read, but it wasn't the masterpiece I was expecting.

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well maybe it's a 3.5 as well, but the series in total is good, very good, though , for me, it doesn't reach the level of the black magicians trilogy.

[Anders Larsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect ending to the trilogy. And it was just vague enough to allow another book/series to follow years later.
Damn, now I want more from this world!
Definitely 4.5 stars.

[Karon Grace bsc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gutted there's no more adventures in the Allied Lands and Sachaka. These were my first Trudi Canavan books and look forward to reading more.