
The Magicians
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Mark Bramhall
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By:
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Lev Grossman
About this listen
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 PenguinListeners also enjoyed...
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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
Critic reviews
"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.
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Story
Twentysomething Hollis Kessler languishes in a hopelessly magician-less world (with the exception of a fleet-footed nymph named Xanthe) not too far from where he graduated college. His friends do, too. They sleep late, read too much, drink too much, talk too much, and work and earn and do way too little. But Hollis does have an obsession: There's another world going on in his head, a world of excitement and danger and starships and romance, and it's telling him that it's time to stop dreaming and get serious.
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Don't waste your money!
- By Scott on 09-26-16
By: Lev Grossman
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Fireborne
- The Aurelian Cycle, Book 1
- By: Rosaria Munda
- Narrated by: Christian Coulson, Candice Moll, Steve West
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Annie and Lee were just children when a brutal revolution changed their world, giving everyone—even the lowborn—a chance to test into the governing class of dragonriders. Now, they are both rising stars in the new regime, despite backgrounds that couldn't be more different. Annie's lowborn family was executed by dragonfire, while Lee's aristocratic family was murdered by revolutionaries. Growing up in the same orphanage forged their friendship, and seven years of training have made them rivals for the top position in the dragonriding fleet.
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Look up what Dystopian means
- By Kindle Customer on 12-11-23
By: Rosaria Munda
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A Dawn of Onyx
- The Sacred Stones, Book 1
- By: Kate Golden
- Narrated by: Ruby Cherise, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Arwen Valondale never expected to be the brave one, offering her life to save her brother’s. Now she’s been taken prisoner by the most dangerous kingdom on the continent, and made to use her rare magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the vicious Onyx King. Arwen knows better than to face the ancient, wicked woods that surround the castle on her own, which means working with a fellow prisoner might be her only path to freedom. Unfortunately, he’s as infuriating as he is cunning—and seems to take twisted pleasure in playing on Arwen’s deepest fears.
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Amazing start
- By 📚Erin 📚 on 09-24-24
By: Kate Golden
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The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
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Enchanting Debut Novel - Delicious!
- By Tango on 04-26-13
By: Helene Wecker
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A Deadly Education
- A Novel (The Scholomance, Book 1)
- By: Naomi Novik
- Narrated by: Anisha Dadia
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life. Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans. I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts; I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, making myself the dark queen of the world.
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Intersting concept, way too much self pity
- By Rune on 10-13-20
By: Naomi Novik
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A Wizard of Earthsea
- The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Rob Inglis
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Sparrowhawk casts a spell that saves his village from destruction at the hands of the invading Kargs, Ogion, the Mage of Re Albi, encourages the boy to apprentice himself in the art of wizardry. So, at the age of 13, the boy receives his true name - Ged - and gives himself over to the gentle tutelage of the Master Ogion. But impatient with the slowness of his studies and infatuated with glory, Ged embarks for the Island of Roke, where the highest arts of wizardry are taught.
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A little gem, excellently narrated.
- By Marjorie on 05-14-12
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Demon in the Wood
- A Shadow and Bone Graphic Novel
- By: Leigh Bardugo
- Narrated by: Ben Barnes, Benjamin Valic, Cassandra Morris, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Before he led Ravka’s Second Army, before he created the Fold, and long before he became the Darkling, he was just a lonely boy burdened by an extraordinary power. Eryk and his mother, Lena, have spent their lives on the run. But they will never find a safe haven. They are not only Grisha—they are the deadliest and rarest of their kind.
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Too short
- By Julie D on 12-12-22
By: Leigh Bardugo
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The Night Circus
- A Novel
- By: Erin Morgenstern
- Narrated by: Jim Dale
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.
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Dreamlike Experience to Savor
- By Suzn F on 09-18-11
By: Erin Morgenstern
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Kingdom of the Wicked
- By: Kerri Maniscalco
- Narrated by: Marisa Calin
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe - witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost - even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden. Then, Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child.
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Best Voice Actress for the Book!
- By ABarnes on 12-03-20
By: Kerri Maniscalco
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The Tower of Fools
- By: Andrzej Sapkowski, David French - Translator
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 19 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Reinmar of Bielawa, sometimes known as Reynevan, is a healer, a magician, and according to some, a charlatan. When a thoughtless indiscretion forces him to flee his home, he finds himself pursued not only by brothers bent on vengeance but by the Holy Inquisition.
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Just half way through...
- By Kindle Customer on 10-30-20
By: Andrzej Sapkowski, and others
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Babel
- Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
- By: R. F. Kuang
- Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
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The novel language lovers have been waiting for
- By LisaLee on 09-06-22
By: R. F. Kuang
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The Blade Itself
- By: Joe Abercrombie
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 22 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he's on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian - leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.
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Characters drive the story. The Narrator rocks!
- By Brian Alsobrook on 11-01-16
By: Joe Abercrombie
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His Dark Materials: Once upon a Time in the North
- By: Philip Pullman
- Narrated by: David Harewood
- Length: 2 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In this prequel episode from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials universe, Lee Scoresby—Texan aeronaut and future friend to Lyra Belacqua—is just 24 years old, and he's recently won his hot-air balloon in a poker game. He finds himself floating North to the windswept Arctic island of Novy Odense, where he and his hare daemon Hester are quickly tangled in a deadly plot involving an oil magnate, a corrupt mayoral candidate, and Lee's longtime nemesis from the Dakota Country, a hired killer with at least twenty murders to his name.
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Great story
- By Wendy Strgar, sagebrushbooks on 10-04-24
By: Philip Pullman
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Rhapsodic
- The Bargainer Series, Book 1
- By: Laura Thalassa
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Callypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. Only then will the beads disappear. Everyone knows that if you need a favor, you go to the Bargainer. He’s a man who can get you anything you want … at a price. And everyone knows that sooner or later he always collects. But for one client, he’s never asked for repayment. Not until now.
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Not a fan
- By emily on 10-16-23
By: Laura Thalassa
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The Amulet of Samarkand: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Jonathan Stroud
- Narrated by: Simon Jones
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Nathaniel is eleven-years-old and a magician's apprentice, learning the traditional art of magic. All is well until he has a life-changing encounter with Simon Lovelace, a magician of unrivaled ruthlessness and ambition. When Lovelace brutally humiliates Nathaniel in public, Nathaniel decides to speed up his education, teaching himself spells far beyond his years. With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a five-thousand-year-old djinni, to assist him.
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A real treat
- By Eric Shields on 02-08-08
By: Jonathan Stroud
What listeners say about The Magicians
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- paul
- 05-31-14
Not your ordinary book
The Magicians isn't about friendship Harry Potter thrives on, or the beauty of another world that Narnia is about. But it is commonly falsely compared the two. The Magicians is not for those looking for the two, it borrows some ideas from the two, but is nothing like either.
The Magicians is in the best way I can describe a book that understands what it is straight from the beginning. Though not a happy uplifting book, its a great view of how magic would be used in the real world.
The only way I can tell someone if they would like this book or not is if they understand this is about a group of unhappy smart people who discover they can use magic and that the main character is someone who is self destructive and would do anything in his search for happiness.
The Magicians is Beautiful, not flawless. It's not for everyone and it won't be a story that I would recommend to most people, but to those who are looking for a great story and aren't afraid of imperfect characters and concepts that aren't completely original then The Magicians is territory that must be explored.
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16 people found this helpful
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- breckoz
- 04-24-11
Disappointing
Lev Grossman creates a fantastic world of magic. However, it does not live up to expectations. The main character becomes distasteful and depressing. Many parts of the book seemed rushed while other parts were drawn out with boring talk. I would have liked to see more adventure, discovery and have a hero emerge or at least find some redeeming qualities in the characters. I give it 3 stars for its potential. I hope Lev grows as a writer through this book and produces a better sequel.
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6 people found this helpful
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- william greenawalt
- 01-14-20
Not high fantasy, and that's what makes it so good
First I'll say that I absolutely love the idea behind this book. Kinda like an adult Harry Potter finds a dark Narnia. The narration is pretty solid and I enjoy the writing style. It's setting in modern day New York and a works jumping mechanism so similar to Narnia makes a lot of it very easy to assimilate and understand. No world building necessary. There is a magic system, but it isn't serious a focus on it by any means and I love that it's not. Magic is there, it does cool stuff, nuff said. The people and their relationships with each other, themselves, and the worlds around them is the single largest driving factor here.
Secondly, you'll see a lot of people disparaging this book and it seems to me that nearly all of them came in expecting something specific, my advice is not to do that. This isn't Robert Jordan, or Raymond E Feist, Tolkien or even CS Lewis. Grossman takes elements from the real world and blends them into aspects from fantasy you're already familiar with. People go on about the characters being unlikable, and it bothers me that they don't seem to understand that there is serious realism in that. Most people are NOT likeable in their late teens and early twenties with such an overhead view of them. But this series is about their growth, Quentin begins his magical studies as a mediocre magician, and he ends it three books later still far from the best, but he is leagues beyond where he started. You meet him and his friends at a very selfish point in their lives where they can barely see past themselves, as is true for most people, but you'll say goodbye to a man that fully understands his place in life and appreciates the people he has above all else with hints of melancholy but not regret towards the things he's sacrificed to keep them safe. He'll become someone worthy of your attention and you'll feel all the more invested having remembered where he started.
As I've said this is a book about people not magic, though you'll find ample amounts of the latter in it. One caveat is that I didn't listen to these novels until after is watched all four seasons of The Magicians on Syfy. The show gave me a much deeper understanding of these characters and also allowed me to envision their faces and mannerisms as I listened. And for anyone that thinks the show has better more likeable characters you should probably go back and rewatch the series, they aren't much different in their motivations from the books if at all.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Cabe
- 02-01-17
The Book That Never Ends
The author strikes me as being the type of writer that doesn't use a formal outline. I say this because there's a natural breaking point where the book should've ended and a new one begun, but it doesn't. It just keeps going and going and going. Toward the end the main character becomes fatigued with his personal story, and I found myself in complete agreement.
The story meanders all over the place in a remarkable setting where very little remarkable happens. The main character is a boring whiney drama queen that ends up doing nothing heroic. I know that having a main character that's actually heroic is a bit of a trope, but without it you end up with a character that's difficult to root for. Here's hoping that he'll actually end up doing something interesting in the next book. I never thought that I was an optimist, but I guess I must be.
The setting is far more interesting than the characters, and therefore the story doesn't quite live up to its potential. I gave this book 3 stars because it's an unremarkable score for an unremarkable story.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Ginny
- 07-13-18
I felt like this one was a slog
Total disclaimer: I came to read the book because I loved the TV series, and had heard the next season would largely be based on the third book. Anyways, I found this book to be such a tedious slog. Quentin is an insufferable a-hole, completely unlikeable, so to have all the drama told from his viewpoint was pretty rough. I found the showrunners have been able to make Q completely adorable. Also, there are some really lazy writing traits, like instead of writing about big moments, like when the Beast shows up, these are all done in recaps, so we don't really get to "see" them occur in real time, which really takes the bite (literally in this case) out of the scenes. I found as well that he does not write compelling female characters, at all.
The narrator is wonderful however, with the exception of how he pronounces "sloth" like "sloath", otherwise he is really great.
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3 people found this helpful
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- jonmino
- 09-30-09
Loved it
First off I agree, this is definitely not for kids. Other than that, I truly loved this book. I loved everything about it. I could hardly put it down. I would highly recommend it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Shay
- 04-06-10
A big risk...
I give Lev props for introducing a school that teaches magic with the Harry Potter phenomenon coming to its sad end, but I think the point could have been delivered in about half the time.
This book is 17 hours long, and because of that, there are large portions of the reading where you want to skip ahead and say "get to the point."
The book altogether is alright, however I don't know that I would recommend it to someone that has a passion for the Harry Potter and Narnia universes.
Narration was decent
-T
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-14-17
Lame story
Too many references to Narnia but no original excitement of it. too long and slow
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- Olivia E.
- 02-27-17
interesting...
kinda of a harry potter meets the chronicles of Narnia with a little wizard of oz sprinkled in (the book, not the movie)-- rated R versions. overall, it's entertaining.
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- Seantae seantae
- 03-02-17
TV show is much better
The narration is too long and the show is much better. Do not waste your valuable time.
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1 person found this helpful