Reviews

Magician of Hoad by Margaret Mahy

roshk99's review against another edition

2.0

The classic ending with the main character`s best friend is revealed to be a girl, not impressive or original.

jasmyn9's review against another edition

3.0

The Magician of Hoad is the story of a boy, Heriot, a boy that is discontent with his place in the world, has always seemed to not fit in. Then one day he finds out that he is actually so much more than he expected. He is a magician, but not just any magician. He is to become the official Magician of Hoad.

But the boy, realizes quickly that he does not want his destiny to be determined by his new title. He wants to be the man he decides he wants to be. He realizes that his powers can be a dangerous thing and that some people would stop at nothing to control them, and if they can't, they would destroy them.

Ultimately this seems to be a coming of age story. Heriot spends his life trying to find out who he really is and what he is really supposed to do. He realizes that neither of these have answers that anyone can give him but himself.

3/5

madhamster's review

3.0

Wish I could say more - and good things - about this, but it's a struggle.

blynecessity's review against another edition

2.0

Sort of... Mehh. Had potential, but it was only partly achieved.

pussreboots's review

2.0

It started off so strong and then it lost its thread.

jennayra's review against another edition

emotional

3.5

amdame1's review

1.0

Heriot Tarbas runs away from his home and family instead of going with the member of the King's Court who has appeared to take Heriot away. Unfortunately, he runs into some difficulties and inadvertently ends up with the Court after all. There it is decided that the headaches and visions he has suffered from all his life actually are signs of his true ability and he is made the Court Magician. As the years pass, Heriot becomes more troubled and unhappy with life in the Kingdom - but he is not the only one anxious for change. The King's son and the Hero also want life in the kingdom to be different and they take matters into their own hands.

This book is long, drawn-out and boring. Phrasing is awkward. There is a plot, but it is predictable and takes too long to come to any conclusion.

coffeeandink's review

2.0

Margaret Mahy's The Tricksters is one of my very favorite books in the entire world, so it is with great sadness that I report that The Magician of Hoad has some wonderful bits and some very good bits and some really not at all wonderful bits that all add up to, well, not adding up in the end. It has one of those endings where a character has to explain everything that just happened to the audience, which is almost always a bad sign, and where large chunks of the plot happen because a mysterious past or future self or prophecy says they have to happen that way even though that is not a sensible way to happen, which also is almost always a bad sign, and when you put the two of these things together, it is addition rather than multiplication, which is to say that rather than the two negatives canceling each other out and creating a postive, you just get a bigger negative number, or, in the case of books rather than equations, a bigger plotting problem. Full review.

singinglight's review

4.0

I read some fairly negative reviews of this on Goodreads, which surprised me. Okay, I know Goodreads is often not a reliable source for reviews, but I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, and the setting, which is important to me in general. I wasn’t overly confused by it, and in places I was reminded of the Dalemark Quartet. It’s not The Changeover at all, but I don’t think it needs to be. [March 2011]