The Magician King

mostly audiobook, but I was able to finish a book again. It felt good.

I gave this my best shot. I even made it 3/4 of the way through before finally getting too disgusted by the overall silliness of the characters. I got so tired of hearing Quentin whine about how his happiness was guaranteed in Fillory. His naivete was beyond believable. I hardly ever read this much of a book before giving up, so I will probably pick it up again someday in the future. But for the most part I found the whole thing to be one big, messy pile of juvenile silliness. I kept waiting for the characters to mature, and I'm still waiting. I liked the concept, and it didn't really bother me that Grossman borrowed so many ideas from other authors; after all, what makes something truly "original" these days, anyway? Had it been better written, I really could have liked it. This was incredibly disappointing.