The magicians - BookWyrm

402 pages

English language

Published Oct. 16, 2015 by A Plume Book.

ISBN:: 978-0-399-57664-5
OCLC Number:: 921865004

(2 reviews)

"Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a very different path to any he'd ever imagined. The envelope, and the mysterious manuscript it contains, leads to a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power and, for a while, it's a world that seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last - and when it's finally shattered, Quentin is drawn into something darker and far more dangerous than anything he could ever have expected."--Publisher description.

14 editions

matthewmincher@bookwyrm.social reviewed The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Mundane Magic

3 stars

I enjoyed this, but for as much as it's about magic, has magic in the title, and takes copious notes from Narnia and Harry Potter, it didn't have that spark of magic. Don't pick this series up just because of that comparison.

The main character is patently, intentionally, unlikable. It reminded me in a way of the Thomas Covenant books.

I think this book is somehow oddly trapped between a love letter to those series and a parody of them. There were also some questionable scenes that I'm not sure really added much apart from edge.

Some cool ideas though, and the writing was decent enough.

It did take a turn for the better to the end of the book (annoyingly, as I'll probably have to read the next now...)

Remy Rose reviewed The magicians by Lev Grossman (Book one of the Magicians trilogy)

or, "The Incels of Narnia"

1 star

I am determined to finish at least the first book, even though I hate it. Actually, maybe it's because I hate it. I don't like to rate or review books I haven't finished, but I feel compelled to talk about how terrible this book is. The author is a frequent offender on r/menwritingwomen, and for good reason. He claims all the misogyny (among other things) is intentional, because the story is "filtered through the mind & eyes of a 17 year old boy". That's a pretty dubious claim on its face, and it doesn't really explain why all the other characters do and say what they do. Maybe I'll flesh this out more when I finish it.

On the other hand, generally the writing itself is decent enough, even if it gets a little purple prose at times. Just watch the show, it's 1000% better than the source material.

EDIT: …

I am determined to finish at least the first book, even though I hate it. Actually, maybe it's because I hate it. I don't like to rate or review books I haven't finished, but I feel compelled to talk about how terrible this book is. The author is a frequent offender on r/menwritingwomen, and for good reason. He claims all the misogyny (among other things) is intentional, because the story is "filtered through the mind & eyes of a 17 year old boy". That's a pretty dubious claim on its face, and it doesn't really explain why all the other characters do and say what they do. Maybe I'll flesh this out more when I finish it.

On the other hand, generally the writing itself is decent enough, even if it gets a little purple prose at times. Just watch the show, it's 1000% better than the source material.

EDIT: I finally finished it, which was not really worth doing. I think I would mostly describe this book as "Dresden Files but longer for no reason", except at least Harry is poor in that series. Q is equally as misogynistic and then incredibly wealthy to boot. Oh, and the author's justification turns out to fall extra flat because by the end of the book, he is very much not 17 anymore, but still very much an incel.

Subjects

College students
Fiction
College graduates
Magic