In my recent reading roundup I mentioned that I felt The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black is a poor man’s Harry Potter. I stand by that opinion. It is almost impossible to read The Iron Trial without comparing it to Rowling’s masterpiece. Let us review; a young infant born towards the end of a magical war is the sole survivor of a massacre which leaves him motherless and with a physical mark of the attack. There may or may not be some shenanigans involving souls. This massacre is the prelude to a decade of truce. Eleven or twelve years later, the young boy starts to attend magic school where he becomes best friends with a boy and girl, and makes an enemy of another rich and arrogant student. He is taught by a kindly if eccentric Master and they have lots of adventures. The one with the power to defeat the enemy has been revealed to the wizarding world. There is a confrontation at the end, and it seems the enemy may not be as dormant as he seemed. Heck, the story even closes with the protagonist in the infirmary having a heart to heart with said…