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)

this book was a struggle

I wanted to describe this book as rich and descriptive prose but at time there was so much description it overwhelmed the point being made. I rarely put a book down before I finish it but I just couldn't develop a relationship with these characters. I finally came to the conclusion that despite all the verbal effort they lacked depth. Oh yeah I've got they were boring!

Adult magical realm

If you enjoy the thought a a world filled with magic...this is an adult version well worth the time.

Not very magical

This story always felt it was going somewhere but ran out of time because anything was actually done. A lot of pontificating and very little action. Not very magical at all. The reader however was excellent. Good clear solid voice.

Good

It was a decent story. But not a re read... hopefully the next one will up the ante

fun

Fun read, the book never seemed to go where I thought it would. I like surprises.

Loved it!

Absolutely love this book. I didn't want it to end. I wish there was a g-rated version that my son could read.

This title is supposed to be optional

Slightly hard to get into compared to similar books. Delightful all the same once you get past that.
Not sure I'm satisfied with the epilogue portion.

In the end I didn't like most of the characters

I tend to buy audiobook in groups at Audible.com. They often have sales where you buy two and get one free, or buy four and get $10 off a future purchase.

In April it was a buy 4 and get $10 off a future purchase sale. So I purchased, Shadows in Flight, And Both Were Young, Ready Player One and The Magicians. Unusually for me, in less than two weeks, I have finished three and started the fourth.

In general, I don’t like to read much about fiction books before I buy them. I want to know if they are mostly well reviewed and if people that I know liked them. I have heard a lot of good press about The Magicians. It is often compared to Harry Potter. (Probably unfairly to both books.) But other than that I did not know anything about it.

Quentin, like in Harry Potter, is offered the opportunity to attend a school of magic. Quentin is 17 and ready to go to college. He is a very bright student but has always been fascinated by magic. He does not have a lot of friends, and so has spent a lot of time working on magical sleight of hand.

What he discovers at a real school of magic is that it is an awful lot of work. But Quentin is used to hard academic work. After a few years he has formed a close group of friends, eventually a girl friend and a deep understanding of magic. But he is not satisfied.

In general I liked the parts of the book at school. It is full of alcoholic (or near alcoholic) college students that sleep around, work hard, but are really unsure of what the purpose of their lives are. Once they graduate, it gets worse. (Some slight spoilers are ahead.)

They are magicians. They can get anything they want. They have near unlimited access to money, power, sexual partners, alcohol, etc. Up until now, nothing has really given their lives purpose or meaning.

Quentin has always been fascinated with the world of Fillory (blatant homage to Narnia). Fairly late in the book, Quentin finds that Fillory is real. Suddenly, his dreams are again possible and he might be able to fix the many parts of his life that he has screwed up.

But in this book, the boy who has had every dream come true realizes that none of it matters. In the end, everything he thought he wanted did not give him meaning. He is the boy (he never really feels like he has grown up to be a man, although he does many adult activities) that rejects all the toys and experiences that life can bring and instead chooses to sulk when that one more thing does not bring him happiness.

This is a hard book to like. The characters are mostly unlikable (but well written and pretty fleshed out). The story is depressing. I was not impressed by the alcohol, drugs and sexed up Harry Potter. I do understand why people like it, it is well written, but I feel worse off for having read it.

But still in the end, I am tempted to read the second book. I am pretty sure it will be about the same, so I will probably talk myself out of it. There is something here, but I just am not sure most people really want to slug through the book to try and figure it out.

Fabulous!! Absolutely Fabulous!

I loved this book! The narrator was amazing!! The story is like Harry Potter meets Narnia with a blast of humor and the f word! Lol!!

slow opening with amazing gains by the end.

the first two acts of the story are very slow but worth it for the final act!