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The Magicians A Novel Magicians Trilogy Lev Grossman 9780670020553 Books

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The Magicians A Novel Magicians Trilogy Lev Grossman 9780670020553 Books

I have thought long and hard about what to say about this book. I began it after watching a some of the episodes of the TV show, and I'm sad to report this is one case where the show is far, far better than the book ever managed to be.

Objectively, there is little wrong with the book itself. The writing is, for the most part, decent, even if the author has the infuriating tendency to tell, not show. Yes, the pacing manages to be laborious, even when skipping months at a time, but other books have that problem and still manage to be decent.

The fundamental problem of this book is that nothing happens. At all. There's something to be said for a book exploring the life of the everyman, to whom nothing of import happens, instead of a mythic hero, but that's not what's going on here. Many things - wonderful things - happen to the main character, Q. He learns magic, travels to other worlds, falls in love but, throughout it all, he rejects them. Nothing is good enough for him. His magic isn't magical enough. His lover is boring. And so he continues to tell himself he's meant for something better, all he while failing to live up to what minor expectations are put on him at all.

There is no character growth. Q remains the whiny, entitled, depressed child he was at the beginning of the book, only with a whole host of new, wonderful things to go on about, at the end. He lauds himself for making such good choices and goes off and does the opposite for no adequately explored reason. He tells himself he's better than everyone and fails to see he's the least of them, even after encountering gods and genuinely decent people. If anything, he revels in the depression this causes him, almost to the point of glorifying untreated mental illness.

The characters with the most potential are hardly explored at all, with most appearing to be written out by the end of the book.

The "villain" - indeed, the overarching "plot" itself - seems like an afterthought, as if the author wrote a book about your average wizard and realized he needed an actual reason for someone to read it. Indeed, the author uses the "villain"'s appearance at the end of the novel as a chance to be preachy, going on about how getting what you want is awful because it always ends up badly, and how having emotions is terrible because you might get hurt, tacked on as if an afterthought.

None of this even begins to touch the magical worlds the author has built. Rather than being a "Hogwarts for adults", as advertised, we are given a magical college that somehow manages to be more dull than any real college ever attended, and people who are, to varying degrees, obsessed with a slightly less Christian allegory version of Narnia. Neither are flushed out to anything close to the degree Hogwarts (or Middle Earth or Narnia) was, so that instead of a "magical world that feels real" that could have possibly redeemed the rest of the book, we get a suggestion of a magical world as seen through fogged glasses from a distance.

In short, I have never encountered anything that was such a waste of time. I can't even bring myself to properly hate the book because there is nothing, fundamentally, to hate. It just is. And for that reason alone it becomes the new #1 on my "Books Never To Read Again And Keep The Rest Of The World From Reading At All Costs" list, above books I've outright loathed, because there is nothing to enjoy and even less to hate.


Tags : The Magicians: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy) [Lev Grossman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In a secret world of forbidden knowledge, power comes at a terrible price...Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a very different path to any he'd ever imagined. The envelope,Lev Grossman,The Magicians: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy),Viking,0670020559,Psychological,Bildungsromans,College graduates,College graduates;Fiction.,College students,College students;Fiction.,Fantasy fiction,Magic,Magic;Fiction.,Psychological fiction,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,FICTION Fantasy Contemporary,FICTION Fantasy Epic,FICTION Fantasy General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Psychological,Fantasy - General,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction-Psychological,GENERAL,General Adult,New York,United States,Syfy; fillory; academia; adult; adventure; american; bildungsroman; boarding school; college; college students; fiction; wizards; urban fantasy; coming of age; magicians; magic; new york; speculative fiction; contemporary; friendship; depression; new york city; dark fantasy; ennui; drinking; lev grossman; literary fiction; growing up; literature; magical realism; romance; satire; supernatural; the magicians; science fiction and fantasy; fantasy books for adults; fiction books; science fiction and fantasy books; time travel; mystery,books about friendship;magicians trilogy;books like harry potter;The Magicians by Lev Grossman;Lev Grossman;the magicians;Syfy;fillory;adventure;american;boarding school;college;college students;fiction;wizards;urban fantasy;coming of age;magicians;magic;speculative fiction;contemporary;friendship;depression;dark fantasy;literary fiction;growing up;literature;magical realism;romance;satire;supernatural;epic fantasy;epic fantasy books;fantasy novels;novels;fiction books;books fiction,FICTION Fantasy Contemporary,FICTION Fantasy Epic,FICTION Fantasy General,FICTION Literary,FICTION Psychological,Fantasy - General,Fiction - Fantasy,American Contemporary Fiction - Individual Authors +,Fiction

The Magicians A Novel Magicians Trilogy Lev Grossman 9780670020553 Books Reviews

This is not exactly an unknown gem, having been adapted as a popular show on SyFy. It's often summarized as Adult Harry Potter meets Narnia. There are certainly some notes of both that give rise to the quick explanation, but it's not exactly accurate. Although the cast is largely late-high school to college age, I would advise you not to fall into the trap of thinking this is a "New Adult" book (whatever that's supposed to be). The prose is excellent an the characters are all too realistic.

There was a lot packed into this book - to me it could easily have been broken up and expanded into at least two books, if not a full trilogy itself. We start with meeting our protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, an extremely smart high school student in New York. He's not rich and he doesn't have the girl he wants and he's not happy. Unfortunately, the last part of that sentence - he's not happy - will practically be the theme of the book. No matter what twists and turns come up, no matter what Quentin accomplishes, who he is with, how he seeks happiness - he never quite seems to grasp it.

There is a magic school for the gifted - it's not Hogwarts. This magic school is called Brakebills and it's hidden away in upstate New York. There's a game only played at the magic schools (only a few in the world) - called welters (it's not quidditch). I will give the author credit - the comparisons are pretty unavoidable, so the author embraced that by giving a few sideways winks to Harry Potter in the text. The first chunk of the book really revolves around the magic school and training to be a magician.

The second part of the book sees Quentin and his friends traveling through portal and the place they end up seems to be a fictional world called Fillory that Quentin and his friends all read about and loved as kids (somewhat Narnia-esque). Getting to and from Fillory, and finding why they are in Fillory does not go so smoothly.

Quentin is a very realistically drawn character. He's unfulfilled, he's angsty, he's never happy with what he has, he's not particularly heroic or physically gifted. He's smart but not the smartest person out there, not even within his circle of (also mentally gifted) friends. There's addiction issues among Quentin and his friends, not to mention a lot of emotional abuse and sexual promiscuity that ends up causing emotional issues. Although Quentin is an eminently believable character, he's not someone that leaves you feeling inspired or with a warm and fuzzy feeling. He's so wrapped up in his own unhappiness it makes it hard to connect with him.
I have thought long and hard about what to say about this book. I began it after watching a some of the episodes of the TV show, and I'm sad to report this is one case where the show is far, far better than the book ever managed to be.

Objectively, there is little wrong with the book itself. The writing is, for the most part, decent, even if the author has the infuriating tendency to tell, not show. Yes, the pacing manages to be laborious, even when skipping months at a time, but other books have that problem and still manage to be decent.

The fundamental problem of this book is that nothing happens. At all. There's something to be said for a book exploring the life of the everyman, to whom nothing of import happens, instead of a mythic hero, but that's not what's going on here. Many things - wonderful things - happen to the main character, Q. He learns magic, travels to other worlds, falls in love but, throughout it all, he rejects them. Nothing is good enough for him. His magic isn't magical enough. His lover is boring. And so he continues to tell himself he's meant for something better, all he while failing to live up to what minor expectations are put on him at all.

There is no character growth. Q remains the whiny, entitled, depressed child he was at the beginning of the book, only with a whole host of new, wonderful things to go on about, at the end. He lauds himself for making such good choices and goes off and does the opposite for no adequately explored reason. He tells himself he's better than everyone and fails to see he's the least of them, even after encountering gods and genuinely decent people. If anything, he revels in the depression this causes him, almost to the point of glorifying untreated mental illness.

The characters with the most potential are hardly explored at all, with most appearing to be written out by the end of the book.

The "villain" - indeed, the overarching "plot" itself - seems like an afterthought, as if the author wrote a book about your average wizard and realized he needed an actual reason for someone to read it. Indeed, the author uses the "villain"'s appearance at the end of the novel as a chance to be preachy, going on about how getting what you want is awful because it always ends up badly, and how having emotions is terrible because you might get hurt, tacked on as if an afterthought.

None of this even begins to touch the magical worlds the author has built. Rather than being a "Hogwarts for adults", as advertised, we are given a magical college that somehow manages to be more dull than any real college ever attended, and people who are, to varying degrees, obsessed with a slightly less Christian allegory version of Narnia. Neither are flushed out to anything close to the degree Hogwarts (or Middle Earth or Narnia) was, so that instead of a "magical world that feels real" that could have possibly redeemed the rest of the book, we get a suggestion of a magical world as seen through fogged glasses from a distance.

In short, I have never encountered anything that was such a waste of time. I can't even bring myself to properly hate the book because there is nothing, fundamentally, to hate. It just is. And for that reason alone it becomes the new #1 on my "Books Never To Read Again And Keep The Rest Of The World From Reading At All Costs" list, above books I've outright loathed, because there is nothing to enjoy and even less to hate.