The Magicians Review

There I am, reading on my iPad. That is how I read most books these days. Having a light at night to read a paper book happens to bother my wife (in my mind) so there you go. A device to read is brilliant. Recently, I loaded up that iPad mini with The Magicians, Lev Grossman's first novel in his Magicians trilogy from Viking Press. (By the way, it is still discounted in e-Book form if you want to check it out).

I was interested in picking up the book because I had heard reviews that liked it very much and also that a TV series was going to be made by SyFy. I don't know if it is better to read the source material before watching a TV show, but it has worked for Game of Thrones, so there you go. Very primitively, you could say this was an urban fantasy about a collegiate Hogwarts and the students who go there. That would only be scratching the surface. Below is my non-spoilery review.

The main character of the books is Quentin Coldwater, a Brooklyn teen who is brilliant but self-centered and doubting. Quentin is going out for interviews with college recruiters when he is whisked away to a very special exam for entrance to Brakebills, a college of magic on the Hudson river. What follows is Quentin's immersion into the hidden world right outside our normal sight, of magicians.

Obviously there are other students we meet and characters from Quentin's pre-Brakebills life that are interspersed within the story. In the background of the narrative is Quentin's love for the fictional series of children's books about a magical land called Fillory (similar to Narnia). The Fillory books are an obsession for Quentin and thus he is well primed to jump deep into his new Brakebills life.

The best parts of The Magicians involve the reader's discovery of this magical world along with Quentin. All of the best parts of Harry Potter series with a more modern take and geeky references to games and books that any fan of fantasy will notice. There are several make you smile moments there. What I found disappointing is that Brakebills and the years that Quentin spends there is only a portion of the book. The last third of the novel deals with Quentin's life after completing his studies at Brakebills and is a little poorer for feeling rushed and like it could have justified its own book by itself.

Be warned, you will get a lot of teenage/early twenties angst and petty behavior here as well. I can't say that the behavior didn't fit the story, though, it just makes you want to smack the backs of some character's heads. The other two books in the series are already available and I have read The Magician King the sequel to The Magicians, which is also good. Lev Grossman has a deeply thought-out world for the series and takes what readers who grew up on Harry Potter loved and made it fresh, more grounded in the world the reader is familiar with and added more modern sensibilities in the character interactions. If you are looking for a fantasy set in the modern world, give The Magicians a try, it gets 4 Mick Happies.