The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult; 1 edition (August 11, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-0670020553
Back-of-the-book blurb: 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.
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.
She is Too Fond of Books’ review: I was looking forward to reading The Magicians, which our online book group chose for its November selection. I had heard the book billed by other readers as similar to Harry Potter, but with more mature themes. Although I’m not an aficionado of fantasy, I did enjoy the Harry Potter books, and figured this would be a good way to expose myself to a wider range of the genre.
I was, perhaps, not the best audience for the book; it’s not for the novice fantasy reader to cut her teeth on. There were several overt references to the world of Harry Potter, making me think that perhaps Grossman intended The Magicians to lampoon the genre. Maybe there were similar obvious nods to the Narnia books, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and even The Phantom Tollbooth, and I just didn’t “get it” because I’m not well versed in these writings. Take a look at this bit of dialogue (p. 129) between players of a game of welters (an intercollegiate sport) at Brakesbills College for Magical Pedagogy (emphasis is mine):
“Awesome.” Josh stood up. He saluted smartly. “Send me an owl.”
…
“Hang on,” he said. “Gotta get my quidditch costume. I mean uniform. I mean welters.”
The descriptions of Brakesbills College, the various places the students travelled, and many of the scenes were interesting and had great potential. However, as often as not, I felt that a storyline was introduced and dropped. I read through to the end (which I may not have done once I realized The Magicians wasn’t a good “fit” for me, but I wanted to be able to discuss it with my book group), but was still left with “teasers” that dead-ended.
The students drank like lushes, and were drunk almost every afternoon. Honestly, if you’re a magician, why bother drinking and dealing with a hangover … why not just incant a magical high? There was a lot of gratuitous cursing, sex – an upperclassman lording over the younger students for sex, several orgies, infidelity, and a scene where a student attacked another with the roughness of an animal … makes sense, since they were both temporarily inhabiting the bodies of Arctic foxes at the time.
All is not lost on me, though. Even without a solid background in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, I was able to pick out words of wisdom like:
Glory has its price … Did you not know that, before you sought it? (p. 325)
and
… for just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there’s nothing else. It’s here,and you’d better decide to enjoy it or you’re going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever. (p 333)
And I did smile at this description of a room at Brakesbills; there was something familiar about it, and I thought Grossman might have been looking in my window when he wrote (p. 100):
Books overflowed the bookcases and stood in wobbly stacks in the corners and even on the mantelpiece.”
About the author: Lev Grossman is a senior writer and the book critic for Time magazine. He is author of two previous novels, including the international bestseller Codex. I’d love to hear the author speak about The Magicians (I’m hoping for that “aha!” moment), and will be looking for interviews or author events in my area.
FTC disclosure: review copy provided by the publisher.
Yikes! If this indeed is what Grossman was after (a wink and a nod at fantasy books coming before him), I think it is dangerous to assume we would all get it. I get very irritated at wannabes, and whether he intended to fall into this category makes very little difference to me. I’ve not read anything as of yet that would compel me to pick up the book and read it…
I do think that was what he intended – if he didn’t, it’s quite a blatant rip-off of plenty of childhood fantasy classics. Even having read all of them, and picked up on plenty of the allusions, I still did not really click with this book. I’m not sure more experience with fantasy would have helped you!
I liked the book in the end (sucker for fantasy, what can I say) but it felt like he was trying to write what he thought would be a better Harry Potter. I don’t think he got there and the mean-spirited way he did it sometimes made me want to put the book down.
O dear. I tend to not like books that pull too much from other sources- but I’ve been looking forward to this one, from other reviews. Nice to be warned.
I agree with Meghan, I did get most of the references to the other fantasy books but the spoof or irony was lost on me. I would have been okay with a book about books, except that I would then want the characters or the frame plot to offer me more — there was not enough new here for me.
I feel exactly the same way! Can I copy and paste your review?
Sandy – there was a lot of very creative writing in the book, it simply didn’t knit itself into a compelling narrative (to me!)
Meghan – well, I was willing to concede that it was a deficit on my part; maybe that’s not the case (thanks for the reassurance)
Amy – what do you mean by “mean spirited”? all the drinking and orgies that didn’t add anything? or was there something else I was missing (sigh!)
Jeane – I’ve read some very positive reviews, too, but this one didn’t work for me.
Beth F – I like a book that’s original OR with an obvious reference to another framework (like all the Austenesque books that are out there now, many authors take Austen’s themes and make them their own, with new characters and plotlines, not just intensifying a very similar storyline.
Bermuda Onion – haha! Control-C, Control-V
I agree with Amy about it being mean-spirited. Not overtly, but I was left with the impression that the edgier Brakebills was “better” than Hogwarts. I didn’t catch that with the Narnia references, though.
I still wish he had created his own world…I think it would have been a much stronger book without the similarities to Hogwarts and Narnia.
I am with you with this book being rather disappointing. My husband and I read this aloud to one another a couple of months ago, and we were both pretty disgusted with it by the end. For a book called The Magicians, it felt pretty unmagical. I hardly think Grossman is in the position to skewer the sci-fi/fantasy genre, as it’s clear that while he’s done his research into some of the big-name titles, he doesn’t really get what makes those books successful. I felt like his books was just a blatant hodgepodge ripoff of all the things he thought were cool about those books, but he never told a compelling and coherent story that was his own.
Apparently this is going to be a series, but I definitely won’t be reading any more of it!
Well, this is on my wish list, but after reading your review it did temper some of my enthusiasm! Great review.
I had such high hopes for this book when it first came out, but since then I have read several not so wonderful reviews of it and have changed my mind about reading it. I’m sorry it wasn’t a great read for you, it sounds like it would put me off as well.
Hmmmmm…Beth Fish Reads didn’t care for this one either. And now with some of your examples, I’m starting to dislike it outright — even never having read it!
I think his writing was good and I would be interested to read something else. I think too that this book would definitely have benefitted from being shorter. I wanted the story to move much faster than it did.
I had high hopes when this book came out but I was greatly dissappointed. He ripped off so many other great fantasy books and didn’t take it anywhere interesting. Plus one of the most depressing books ever! Big thumbs down from Mama Reads!
This is not the type of book I would normally read, but I did enjoy it–well done.
Bermudaonion said something similar about not being for the average reader of fantasy. I’m not sure this is a book I would enjoy. I may need more fantasy under my belt. I haven’t even read harry potter.
It really bugs me when an author throws stuff in like that and just assumes that the reader will pick-up on the reference. Contrary to popular belief, there are people out there that have not read HP. This would bug me too.
The Narnia parallels were even more overt than the Harry Potter ones – for instance, in The Magician’s Nephew (the 6th Narnia book), you reach Narnia by putting on a magic ring, which whisks you away to the wood between the worlds, where you jump into a pond to get to the magical other world. Sound familiar?
So, yeah, I’m a big fantasy fan, and I didn’t much care for this one at all – I felt like, as in the third quote you listed, that he was taking a knock at people who do enjoy fantasy novels as a bit of escapism… so he alienates the non-fantasy readers by having so much fantasy allusions and background, and he alienates the fantasy fans by pointing up the inadequacies of the genre they enjoy.
softdrink – I don’t remember your review, heading back to look for it now ….
Steph – you state your assessment so eloquently – I wish I had written it! (I didn’t know a series was planned!)
Stacy – you might leaf thru it at a bookstore or library to see if it might work for you … I haven’t found many strong defenders, though.
zibilee – there were some very positive reviews when it first came out, but that first round has definitely tapered off.
Jenners – I don’t think I would have finished it, if it weren’t our book group pick.
Nicole – I agree about the pacing! There were many scenes that didn’t add anything to the overall story (but were creative!)
Ramona – definitely depressing.
diane – I’ll look for your review to see what interested you — always nice to know other opinions.
Serena – Harry Potter dulled for me after the first few books, but I felt they were more cohesive, in any case.
Ti – I’m now convinced (by other readers), that he was expecting too much of us, that the satire wasn’t obvious or well-written.
Fyrefly – wow! That whole ring/button, pond/fountain line …. was there any original material?
Great review! I enjoyed this book more than you did, I think, but you pointed out some great flaws.
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