The Magicians

An overly angsty urban and high fantasy series that includes characters so exceptionally uninterested in their own stories that I struggle to find why I should be interested as well. There is neat world building and some fun ideas that are constantly interrupted by Quentin whinging about his vague, horny, malaise. He literally has greatness thrust upon him and all he can do is whine.

We are led to believe that Quentin is simultaneously a genius, exceptionally good with his hands, capable of incredible magic when he wants to try, while simultaneously too stupid to know basic geography or chemistry (multiple lines in the book involve Quentin absolutely shocked by basic high school knowledge). He is not unlikable in the sense that he's evil or ignorant. He is unlikable because he is merely an observer in his own life, and bored observer at that.

This review isn't about the poor plot pacing, unnecessary drama found in the last 4th of the book, or the ultimately unsatisfying conclusion of the story. It isn't about the characters who live vibrant lives around Quentin. It is not about the world that raises so many questions, with so many elements of deep, interesting lore implications. No, this review is much like Quentin, uninterested with the interesting parts of the book, and obsessed with the most passive, boring, and terminally ironic centerpiece of the story.

Not worth the read.

I would have liked to like this book more than I did, but the protagonist and his 'friends' are so toxic that the thought of them contaminating not just Fillory but actual Narnia (or any other of a thousand cherished portal-accessible worlds) with the consequences of their narcissism and emotional pollution puts me on edge. Nevertheless, it is competently written and the worldbuilding (especially that of the Neitherlands, which may or may not be C. S. Lewis's Wood between the Worlds paved over) seems better thought out than that of J. K. Rowling's Potterverse, which this is more or less the grownup version of. I do commend Grossman for exploring the question of what kind of people an elite magical academy would turn out in real life, in an adult setting. That said, adult does not have to mean unlikeable, but then again, given the kind of adults that elite mundane academies turn out in real life, maybe this comes uncomfortably close to the truth.

This book starts out as a kind of "cousin" to Harry Potter when Quentin Coldwater gets invited to apply to a college for magic. He has done sleight-of-hand stuff for a few years, but this is a place that teaches real magic, and it turns out Quentin can do it. The first half of the book is about his college years, and the people he befriends there. In the second half it becomes a pastiche of Narnia, which is a bit of a change. But while Harry Potter and Narnia makes it sounds like a book for kids, you should know that sex, drugs, and alcoholism all feature in this book, along with some heavy emotional stuff, so use judgement before giving this to a younger reader. One resemblance is that Quentin's emotional mess is somewhat like Harry Potter's. In both cases I wanted to just shake them and tell them stop being so maudlin. It is probably OK for mid-teens and older. While this is not a perfect book, it made me want to continue the series.

This book was everything I ever wanted in a fantasy story! There were so many things to love.

First off, about the magic. I love that magic is for high level thinkers, people who actually try their best at everything they do. It makes so much sense for its esoteric-ness to be based on that. And the magic system was brilliantly designed. I liked the spells were named after people and that they could be in different languages. It added a realistic multicultural element to the setting. I also liked that Circumstances needed to be taken into account when casting spells, and that different worlds (like Fillory) had different Circumstances that affected magic. And I enjoyed the little details, like how electronics work unpredictably with magic.

The Neitherlands was another awesome feature of this universe I liked, because it's such an elegant solution to a metaphysical problem. I love the bit when Penny says, "The thing is, the more I study it, the more I think it's exactly the opposite--that our world has much less substance than the City, and what we experience as reality is really just a footnote to what goes on there. An epiphenomenon."

There are lots of differences between the SyFy show and this book. Some of them have to do with character. Janet is called Margo in the show. Alice has dark hair in the book, and I like that appearance much better than the blonde Alice they went with for the show. Penny, however, is a pale, "moon-faced," blue-eyed punk in the book, and I prefer Arjun Gupta's portrayal. So I picture Arjun Gupta as a punk while I read and disregard anything that contradicts my mental image. Quentin is more of an insufferable asshole in the book, but given the fact that he's obviously dealing with depression, it makes him still painfully relatable. In fact the driving force behind the plot is the hollow, unhappy feeling Quentin continually runs away from but can't escape, which is downplayed in the show.

Some of the differences have to do with plot. The group graduates from Brakebills before anything with going to Fillory happens. And we don't get to see Julia's descent into obsession from her perspective, so her character arc is much less prominent in the book as opposed to the show. For the majority of the book there's no real outside threat like there is in the show. There's the appearance of the Beast in the classroom, but we don't see him again until the last hundred pages, where he suddenly reappears and causes major damage. The whole book is quite fast-paced, but even that feels like it comes suddenly out of nowhere. The show did a much better job consistently increasing the pressure of the Big External Conflict across the story in that regard.

I never got into Harry Potter (I read two chapters of the first book before giving up on the author's voice), but so many reviews tout this as an adult Harry Potter. Which makes sense. This has all the things I wanted to get from HP but didn't: contemporary setting in the modern world, complete with all the gritty realities like drugs, sex, complicated relationships, and mental illness. It's a fully fleshed universe with a beautifully devised magic system. It's been years since I started a new series but after this amazing start I can't wait to go deeper with the next book.

When I cracked open The Magicians and was introduced to Quentin Coldwater, an extraordinarily privileged white boy who nonetheless felt short shifted and shat upon by the universe because his friend Julia wouldn't sleep with him, I was a little appalled. This was going to be my companion for the next 402 pages? But it was the next book in my Book Club and there was no escaping it. I'd have to read this book if it was the last thing I did.

And I am so glad I did because this might be one of the most satisfying, thoughtful reads of my year. I don't think I've read two books in the past decade where the author invested so much of the plot on such a genuinely flawed character - not romantically flawed, or 'flawed but always stands up as hero in the end' but just a flawed, sometimes unpleasant human who finds themselves at the center of great events.

Lev Grossman's Quentin Coldwater has an incredibly gifted life: well off parents who love him, genius IQ he's never stretched the limits of, friends who care for him, but it is all given to him. His nature isn't self starting and he has no life experience to show him how to get what he wants in those very rare circumstances where it doesn't just fall into his lap. Thus every achievement is accidental and every mistake is someone else's fault/an act of god. He remains adrift, unable to understand why he is happy or sad, and thus unable to understand his role in changing those states.

When drawn into the classic portal fantasy elements of the book, intentionally reminiscent of Narnia and Oz among others, you can't expect the Lucy/Dorothy version. You're getting the Eustace from Voyage of the Dawn Treader version, the Wizard Behind The Curtain version. The point of view of the one who isn't able to unfetter themselves from their issues, who wasn't happy before they came to the magical land and for whom this new world is not a balm but a damaging and painful addiction.

It was really difficult to rate this book. On the one hand, I recognized the reflections of the emotions of the main character, and even of his friends. On the other hand, there was so much intermingling of the concepts introduced in the Harry Potter novels and the Narnia novels, that it was difficult to untangle them and judge this book on its own. The magic in this book was very different than the magic in the Harry Potter, and fortunately, that Christianity mixed with the story was much less a part of this book than of the Narnia books. But I think that the other books handled themselves better for what they were then this book did for what it is. Overall, I vacillated between loving and hating this book – not because of a comparison with any other book, but it being that I am basically a plot driven soul, I considered the plot of this book, and it vacillated between being one with which I could relate and one that I totally hated! In the end, I think it was a good book, but it tried to do too much. Oh, and the whole thing with the white stag only out of place.

At first, I hated this book. Couldn't get into it. The main character is a bore, the plot is soooooo Narnia/Covenant/Harry Potter it was mostly fan-fiction. The writing was uneven, one moment beautiful language, next apparently written by a 9-year-old boy.
As it is YA fiction, it suffered a lót of the 9-year-old writer tone, by the way.
So, I put the book down, wrote it off as "not for me" and went on to better books.

But then I watched the TV series. And while that wasn't particularly great, it piqued my interest. Mainly because of Julia's backstory (which in the books is only told in the second book), which is a lot more interesting than Quintins.
So I decided to give it another try. This time I was able to look beyond the bad/uneven writing, beyond the annoying "Thomas Convenant-ish unlikeable whiney boy" and had an inkling of the full story beyond the Narnia fanboying. Glimpses of potential. The flame caught, I managed to read ánd finish the book. And, to be fair, was very eager to jump right into the second book.

Now, after having read all three books, I have to say that Lev is a terrible writer in the first book, but he really has potential and grows a lót in his writing in the next two books. So hang in there, it gets better. It even reminds me a little bit of Jim Butcher/Dresden. The first books of that series are fairly poorly written as well, but go one to be one powerhouse of a series.
Lev has that potential. No he isn't in the same league as Butcher. Not by far. But when he can get beyond his Narnia-crush, he is quite good at painting interesting fantasy realms and the magic system.

This first book is barely 2 stars, but shows a lot of promise, and is necessary for the way better other two books, so hang in there.