The Magicians
A Novel
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4.0 • 81 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Lev Grossman’s new novel THE BRIGHT SWORD is out now!
The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY
“The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.”
—George R.R. Martin
“Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.”
—Joe Hill
“A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.”
—John Green
“The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.”
—Cory Doctorow
“This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.”
—The New Yorker
“The best urban fantasy in years.”
—A.V. Club
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . .
The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Readers who’ve aged out of Harry Potter are psyched to encounter Quentin Coldwater: a Holden Caulfield-like teenager with budding magical powers. In Lev Grossman’s bewitching The Magicians, Quentin is plucked out of his Brooklyn adolescence to attend a secret and exclusive school named Brakebills. Unlike Hogwarts, Brakebills comes across as a posh boarding school, where alcohol, sarcasm, and raging hormones coexist with spells and wonderment. Grossman also teleports us to the realm of Fillory—think Narnia with more blood and guts and less Turkish Delight—where we’re launched on a clever, unpredictable, and dusky-dark adventure and coming-of-age fantasy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harry Potter discovers Narnia is real in this derivative fantasy thriller from Time book critic Grossman (Codex). Quentin Coldwater, a Brooklyn high school student devoted to a children's series set in the Narnia-like world of Fillory, is leading an aimless existence until he's tapped to enter a mysterious portal that leads to Brakebills College, an exclusive academy where he's taught magic. Coldwater, whose special gifts enable him to skip grades, finds his family's world "mundane and domestic" when he returns home for vacation. He loses his innocence after a prank unintentionally allows a powerful evil force known only as the Beast to enter the college and wreak havoc. Eventually, Coldwater's powers are put to the test when he learns that Fillory is a real place and how he can journey there. Genre fans will easily pick up the many nods to J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, not to mention J.R.R. Tolkien in the climactic battle between the bad guy and a magician. 5-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
Descent into Absurdity
Though deftly written, The Magicians wants to be so many things and only succeeds at being occasionally funny. It starts as a more serious character study that cleverly subverts expectations about a Hogwarts-style magic school but quickly descends into video-game-like mayhem and silliness. Too many characters get dragged along for the final rushed adventure and the fantasy world feels more like a half-baked middle finger to Narnia than a real place.
A Classic Fantasy
Not only is this book beautifully written full of unforgettable images it is also a terrific antidote to Harry Potter. It is fantasy for adults, i.e. adults who like to read. It is definitely not childish with its irony, self awareness and references to other works a fantasy, old and new. My highest praise for any work of art is to say that 'it touched me'. This book wonderfully did just that.
Ugh
It's basically a Harry Potter/Narnia knock off.