• The Magicians

  • A Novel
  • By: Lev Grossman
  • Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
  • Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (20,923 ratings)

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The Magicians  By  cover art

The Magicians

By: Lev Grossman
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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Editorial reviews

Intellectually gifted but emotionally unfulfilled, Quentin Coldwater is as much at sea as any high school senior. He still takes refuge in the fantasy novel series he read as a kid, waiting for happiness to fall in his lap. Surprisingly, it does indeed seem to when an elite and secret college of magic recruits him. Mark Brahmall wonderfully inflects the gaggle of fallible little geniuses Quentin grows up with there: Elliott the flaming drunkard, Janet the flashy attention hog, Alice the wallflower, Josh the bumbling frat boy, and Penny the punk rocker. This is not the nice and polite world of Hogwarts. These 17-year-olds spend five years drinking, screwing, cursing, and occasionally buckling down to work with spells that sound more like chemistry labs than fantastic miracles.

Magic is hard, and growing up proves even harder. Brahmall ages this group of would-be adventurers, gradually inserting the pessimistic uncertainty that creeps in as their graduation approaches, and then the slovenly vulgarity that accompanies their post-grad malaise in New York. But their voices find fresh purpose and energy when Penny discovers that Fillory, the magical land of those books from their youth, is real. Fraught with the tensions sprouting between them, each member of Quentin's posse has reasons to escape into Fillory. Brahmall gives voice to everything from a birch tree to an ancient ram, as the group's quest for a brighter future turns ever more ugly and alarming. Quentin's once idyllic dream now corrupted, he struggles to regain a sense of self and return to the more banal hostilities of the real world.

This is a story narrated with all the wonderment and gravitas inherent in the great tradition of magical coming-of-age tales, to be sure, but it rests firmly on the rocky foundations of a realistic human volatility and longing that may want to keep the characters snatching defeat from the jaws of victory to their bitter end. This world is nothing like Narnia or Middle Earth, and listeners with knowledge of those places will find plenty of insider references here to keep them laughing through the disasters. Grossman has captured a shamefully universal set of psychological quandaries, and Brahmall has expressed them in tones that are terrifyingly recognizable. Megan Volpert

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)

Featured Article: The top 100 fantasy listens of all time


When compiling our list of the best fantasy listening out there, we immediately came up against the age-old question: Is this fantasy or science fiction? The distinction is not as clear as you may think. Dragons, elves, and wizards are definitely fantasy, but what about wizards that also fly space ships? (Looking at you, Star Wars.) For the sake of fantasy purity, the top 100 fantasy listens include the best audio works in all manner of fantasy subgenres.

What listeners say about The Magicians

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Entertaining but bro-y

Would’ve been perfect if not for the bro-y fetishizing crap about how horny the author was for his own female characters

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Harry Potter for Adults

This is definitely earned a spot as one of my favorites . It’s like if the Harry Potter world consisted of foul language, sex and alcohol diction

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible narrating

The narrator can't pronounce half the words in this book. He also has awful accents & is much too old to be reading a younger adult book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The Adult Harry Potter

If you thought Harry Potter was childish, or there wasn't proper cause/effect for the magic being used, then the Magician's might be for you.

I found myself mad at the main character, and annoyed at his selfish decisions.

At the end of the day it makes the world full of magic feel real; including all the FAQs from reality that goes with that.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • CD
  • 03-23-16

Storyline was good but the narrator...

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed the audiobook to an extent. The narrator didn't do voices as good as others. It's really hard to tell different characters apart because they almost sounds the same. The story was somewhat confusing and didn't really explain many things. I wish it would have at least expanded on storylines.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Amazing

Awesome story! I wanted more as soon as i realized the story had ended. Can't wait to start the next.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Mixed Feelings

Grossman’s main character is a nerdier Harry Potter who is obsessed with an anti-Christian Narnia, is super horny, swears a lot and eventually falls in love with recreational drugs. He mocks most religions, fantasy conventions and modernity in general. I am still giving this book four stars because if anything I think (and hope) he was trying too hard to be different, not that it is a bad story. I may pick up the second book, hoping that he has settled into the story a little more.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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wow

Loved and was disgruntled by the story. it was interesting and entertaining but complex in a way I'd not expect. Loved it!

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Terrific!

This was a great book! I can't wait to read the next in the series.

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a very good book

loved the book. its my first audiobook and really enjpyed the entire experience. the narration was also good

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