The Magisterium is a series about a twelve-year-old boy called Callum Hunt. All his life, his father has warned him about the evil Magisterium, which is a school of magic. Call doesn't know much about it, except that both his parents went there, and now his mother, Sarah, is dead. Call too thinks of it as evil and desperately tries to fail in the Iron Trial, which is a test all the children prone to magic must give. However, he fails at failing and soon finds himself chosen as an apprentice by the renowned Master Rufus. Call has no option but to go to the Magisterium - the underground school that he has been taught to hate his entire life.
Even at the school, Call tries to fail, in the hopes that he will get kicked out and finally be free from the wicked Magisterium. But try as he might, Call soon finds himself loving magic. He had been prone to it as a child and he cannot escape it now. He also discovers that if he fails his first year, or flees the Magisterium, his powers will be bound and he will be unable to use magic. Call soon decides to stay and learn magic willingly, despite his father's warning.
He begins to make friends there - his fellow apprentices Aaron and Tamara, as well as others. Call finds that he is good at magic and starts to enjoy his life in the eerie underground world of the mages.
The series is written by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black. It has five books in total - one for each year Call spends at the Magisterium and follows his journey from ages twelve up to seventeen. The five books in reading order are The Iron Trial, The Copper Gauntlet, The Bronze Key, The Silver Mask, and The Golden Tower.
The main reason this series feels so much like Harry Potter is, of course, the school of magic the young male protagonist attends. The mages sound very similar to the Professors at Hogwarts and this book too has students from different backgrounds. While most of them have been inclined towards magic as kids, and know all about The Magisterium, some are new to the world. The children of the powerful magical families look down upon such new children and form groups of their own. Call is one of the most powerful and special children of his generation. He is assisted by his two friends, a boy and a girl, as he explores and develops his powers.
The villain in this series is an evil guy nicknamed "The Enemy of Death", who had caused the death of hundreds of mages in the Cold Massacre. The Magisterium had constantly been at war with him till his death in the same battle. Sarah had also lost her life in this war, which made Call's father hate The Magisterium and everything to do with magic.
There are a lot more things along the way that give us a sense of deja vu. The "games room" for example is like the common room in the Harry Potter series where all the young magic learners meet and relax. Their school is an old castle with creepy decorations and hidden rooms. The villain is desperate for immortality, and he has a loyal crew complete with spies inside the school. And the reason all this sounds so familiar- Harry Potter.
To be fair, this book does gain its own identity towards the end. The story becomes a lot more original, and there are a few twists that take the plot in a different direction. I enjoyed reading the series overall, and if you liked Harry Potter, there is a good chance you will like this too.
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