The Magicians
(Book 1)
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4.0 • 94 Ratings
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. Obsessed with the fantasy novels he read as a child, he finds the real world just doesn't compare.
Then one day it happens: he stumbles unexpectedly into a hidden world and is invited to join a very exclusive college, where he will learn the secrets of magic.
But something is still missing.
And now Quentin will do anything to find what he's always been looking for.
Praise for The Magicians Trilogy
'The best fantasy trilogy of the decade.' Charles Stross
'The most entertaining and compelling fantasy I've read in a long time.' The Times
'Lev Grossman has conjured a rare creature: a trilogy that simply gets better and better as it goes along... Literary perfection.' Erin Morgenstern
'May just be the most subversive, gripping, and enchanting fantasy novel I've read this century.' Cory Doctorow
'Dark and dangerous and full of twists. Hogwarts was never like this.' George R. R. Martin
'Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.' Joe Hill
'A darkly cunning story about the power of imagination itself.' The New Yorker
'The Magicians ought to be required reading... a terrific, at times almost painfully perceptive novel of the fantastic.' Kelly Link
'Brilliantly explores the hidden underbelly of fantasy and easy magic, taking what's simple on the surface and turning it over to show us the complicated writhing mess beneath.' Naomi Novik
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
Editors: The first word in this book is a typo.
Editing aside, good book.
Great Magic Realism Book!!
I love magic realism and really enjoyed this book. I've always been a big fan of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia so this was a great combination for the older years. The characters weren't particularly likeable...especially Quentin, however Grossman made it easy to understand and relate to him. I'm just about to buy the next one :)
Derivative misogynist pap
The derivative premise aside, it was an intriguing concept.
However I found the Quentin Coldwater shallow and uninspiring.
I found the thinly sketched characters difficult to read, and when I realised how disposable the female love interests were in the pursuit of Quentin's "next-thing, next-thing..." for lack of a better word "plot-arc" were I did not read the next book.