The Magicians

A Novel

By: Lev Grossman

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world.

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he's still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn't bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin's fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren't black and white, love and sex aren't simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

©2009 Lev Grossman (P)2009 Penguin

Critic reviews

"This is a book for grown-up fans of children's fantasy and would appeal to those who loved Donna Tartt's The Secret History. Highly recommended." ( Library Journal)
"Provocative, unput-downable....one of the best fantasies I've read in ages." ( Fantasy & Science Fiction)
" The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea." (George R.R. Martin)

Not your ordinary book

The Magicians isn't about friendship Harry Potter thrives on, or the beauty of another world that Narnia is about. But it is commonly falsely compared the two. The Magicians is not for those looking for the two, it borrows some ideas from the two, but is nothing like either.

The Magicians is in the best way I can describe a book that understands what it is straight from the beginning. Though not a happy uplifting book, its a great view of how magic would be used in the real world.

The only way I can tell someone if they would like this book or not is if they understand this is about a group of unhappy smart people who discover they can use magic and that the main character is someone who is self destructive and would do anything in his search for happiness.

The Magicians is Beautiful, not flawless. It's not for everyone and it won't be a story that I would recommend to most people, but to those who are looking for a great story and aren't afraid of imperfect characters and concepts that aren't completely original then The Magicians is territory that must be explored.

Disappointing

Lev Grossman creates a fantastic world of magic. However, it does not live up to expectations. The main character becomes distasteful and depressing. Many parts of the book seemed rushed while other parts were drawn out with boring talk. I would have liked to see more adventure, discovery and have a hero emerge or at least find some redeeming qualities in the characters. I give it 3 stars for its potential. I hope Lev grows as a writer through this book and produces a better sequel.

Not high fantasy, and that's what makes it so good

First I'll say that I absolutely love the idea behind this book. Kinda like an adult Harry Potter finds a dark Narnia. The narration is pretty solid and I enjoy the writing style. It's setting in modern day New York and a works jumping mechanism so similar to Narnia makes a lot of it very easy to assimilate and understand. No world building necessary. There is a magic system, but it isn't serious a focus on it by any means and I love that it's not. Magic is there, it does cool stuff, nuff said. The people and their relationships with each other, themselves, and the worlds around them is the single largest driving factor here.

Secondly, you'll see a lot of people disparaging this book and it seems to me that nearly all of them came in expecting something specific, my advice is not to do that. This isn't Robert Jordan, or Raymond E Feist, Tolkien or even CS Lewis. Grossman takes elements from the real world and blends them into aspects from fantasy you're already familiar with. People go on about the characters being unlikable, and it bothers me that they don't seem to understand that there is serious realism in that. Most people are NOT likeable in their late teens and early twenties with such an overhead view of them. But this series is about their growth, Quentin begins his magical studies as a mediocre magician, and he ends it three books later still far from the best, but he is leagues beyond where he started. You meet him and his friends at a very selfish point in their lives where they can barely see past themselves, as is true for most people, but you'll say goodbye to a man that fully understands his place in life and appreciates the people he has above all else with hints of melancholy but not regret towards the things he's sacrificed to keep them safe. He'll become someone worthy of your attention and you'll feel all the more invested having remembered where he started.

As I've said this is a book about people not magic, though you'll find ample amounts of the latter in it. One caveat is that I didn't listen to these novels until after is watched all four seasons of The Magicians on Syfy. The show gave me a much deeper understanding of these characters and also allowed me to envision their faces and mannerisms as I listened. And for anyone that thinks the show has better more likeable characters you should probably go back and rewatch the series, they aren't much different in their motivations from the books if at all.

The Book That Never Ends

The author strikes me as being the type of writer that doesn't use a formal outline. I say this because there's a natural breaking point where the book should've ended and a new one begun, but it doesn't. It just keeps going and going and going. Toward the end the main character becomes fatigued with his personal story, and I found myself in complete agreement.

The story meanders all over the place in a remarkable setting where very little remarkable happens. The main character is a boring whiney drama queen that ends up doing nothing heroic. I know that having a main character that's actually heroic is a bit of a trope, but without it you end up with a character that's difficult to root for. Here's hoping that he'll actually end up doing something interesting in the next book. I never thought that I was an optimist, but I guess I must be.

The setting is far more interesting than the characters, and therefore the story doesn't quite live up to its potential. I gave this book 3 stars because it's an unremarkable score for an unremarkable story.

I felt like this one was a slog

Total disclaimer: I came to read the book because I loved the TV series, and had heard the next season would largely be based on the third book. Anyways, I found this book to be such a tedious slog. Quentin is an insufferable a-hole, completely unlikeable, so to have all the drama told from his viewpoint was pretty rough. I found the showrunners have been able to make Q completely adorable. Also, there are some really lazy writing traits, like instead of writing about big moments, like when the Beast shows up, these are all done in recaps, so we don't really get to "see" them occur in real time, which really takes the bite (literally in this case) out of the scenes. I found as well that he does not write compelling female characters, at all.

The narrator is wonderful however, with the exception of how he pronounces "sloth" like "sloath", otherwise he is really great.

Loved it

First off I agree, this is definitely not for kids. Other than that, I truly loved this book. I loved everything about it. I could hardly put it down. I would highly recommend it.

A big risk...

I give Lev props for introducing a school that teaches magic with the Harry Potter phenomenon coming to its sad end, but I think the point could have been delivered in about half the time.

This book is 17 hours long, and because of that, there are large portions of the reading where you want to skip ahead and say "get to the point."

The book altogether is alright, however I don't know that I would recommend it to someone that has a passion for the Harry Potter and Narnia universes.

Narration was decent

-T

Lame story

Too many references to Narnia but no original excitement of it. too long and slow

interesting...

kinda of a harry potter meets the chronicles of Narnia with a little wizard of oz sprinkled in (the book, not the movie)-- rated R versions. overall, it's entertaining.

TV show is much better

The narration is too long and the show is much better. Do not waste your valuable time.