The Magicians: A Novel

I adore this book. It is one of my all time favorites. Reading it again was a treat. I’m already wondering when I’ll have time to read it again, along with the rest of the trilogy. The trilogy itself is an all time favorite, but this book will always have a special place in my heart.I have always shipped Quentin/Eliot and going through the story again it's not all that surprising. Quentin spends a good portion of the book, if not all of it, obsessed with Eliot. He also seems to look up to Eliot. He has a very different relationship with Eliot. We know they've at least kissed, but did something more happen that night? I like to think it did. It makes me unbelievably happy to think that way so I will stick with it.I never did enjoy the Quentin/Alice relationship. It was very self-destructive and it felt like they were going down the same path that Alice’s parents were, which was something Alice didn’t want to do, but neither of them could see it. They were terrible together. However, as much as I don’t ship them and I don’t think they belong together, I love that this relationship is in the book. It felt like an important part of Quentin's journey.Quentin is an a-hole. For the most part, he is a very unlikeable character. He is horribly unhappy and he is always waiting for something more to happen with his life. He is never satisfied with what he has. And when he gets something he thinks is going to make him happy, he tosses it to the side. Honestly it's part of what makes this book so fun. It's from Quentin's POV. He's very blah as a person but he's so wonderfully written. Not that any of the other characters are necessarily people you want to be friends with. But it works here. Their friendships and their personalities? They are real.Eliot is my favorite. I always want more Eliot, and more than that, I always want more interactions between Eliot and Quentin. There is just something about those two. Even if it’s not the sex scenes that I’m dying to see, there’s an undeniable chemistry between Quentin and Eliot.One of my most favorite things about this book is the magic itself. It's a lot of HARD WORK. Magic always seems too easy in books, even when the characters have to work for it. They don't have to work for it like they do in The Magicians. They work their butts off for some of the most simple spells, until it does become easy for them to do.It's like a combination of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia for adults, but it's also not. There's something more to it, and there's definitely something darker to it. There’s also something more real to it. It’s a fantasy, yes, but not only are they dealing with magic in a very real way, but they are also dealing with problems that people deal with on a daily basis. And while other books like Harry Potter might touch on more real life problems, it still doesn’t have that gritty feel like The Magicians does. Harry Potter is definitely fantasy. The Magicians could be happening right now to people that you know.Like I said, one of my favorite books ever. I couldn't even really tell you why. There's just something special about for me. It speaks to me.

It’s hard to know where to start with a book like Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. I have never read a book that has given me such mixed feelings. And by mixed feelings, I don’t mean “meh, it was ok”. I mean parts of it were absolutely brilliant, so brilliant that I find the main character Quentin is still hanging around in my head. And parts of it made me so mad that I wanted to put the book down and never pick it up again.The people and relationships that Grossman describes are probably the most realistic I’ve ever seen in the context of a fantasy novel. The main character, Quentin, is moody, depressed, selfish, and a genius who gets to fulfill the average fantasy reader’s greatest dream: Attending a school for magic in place of a normal college. Make no mistake, this is no harry potter tale, because the twist (which isn’t really a spoiler to anyone who is old enough to have graduated from college) is that even though his most secret and unrealistic dream comes true, Quentin is still depressed moody and selfish thereby exposing the myth that circumstances can dictate long term happiness.Grossman subverts the standard “going to magic school for training” narrative in a way that can only be compared to what Alan Moor to does to the standard super hero narrative in The Watchmen. That is, Grossman flips it on its head a tells it in a way that fulfills a lot of the tropes associated with the narrative but because Quentin is so very opposite of Harry Potter a weird upside down sort of tale forms that in the end feels way more realistic. Quentin finds all the magic he could possibly dream of, and it still he can’t be happy, or not for long, then he finds his way into the secondary fantasy world he has always dreamed of, and after the shine wears off he is still not happy, not fulfilled, feels a lack of purpose. The hero is supposed to live happily ever after, not get everything he/she ever wanted and then be unsatisfied. It is made even worse from the reader’s perspective because you can see the real, meaningful things in his life that Quentin just cannot, or will not, recognize. The unwritten refrain in Quentin’s head through the whole novel is “this is not how the story is supposed to go” so he continues searching, thinking there has to be more somehow, somewhere there must be a place where the world is not screwed up, or where Quentin has not screwed it up himself. But by waiting and hoping for that single non-existent something, everything else slips quietly away from him in a bleary haze of booze, and self-pity.There are a number of brilliant scenes interspersed throughout the novel that show just how deep Quentin’s issues go. These scenes, most times, depict Quentin catching one of his friends or acquaintances in their own moments of quiet despair, wrapped in their own self centric narratives. But Quentin is so inwardly focused that he cannot see it. It would force him to recognize that he is not the center of every story. I think these few scenes carry an extra emotional punch because other than this, they seem to have no purpose in the book whatsoever. And so the reader reacts in the same way Quentin reacts, with a little bit of confusion and a lack of understanding, until of course, unlike Quentin, the reader does eventually understand if they are paying attention.This strikes a number of personal chords with me, and maybe that is why I think this novel is so brilliant. I could almost forgive any writerly sin (and there a few in this book) for the unexpected vitality, and sheer weight and realness of the characters. However, I am not sure I can forgive him for the simple, unsubtle way he has ripped out some major chunks of The Chronicles of Narnia’s world and to a lesser extent the Harry Potter universe and plunked them down in his story barely altered. I won’t go into too much detail here, but basically Brakebills is the same as Hogwarts with less of a sense of wonder about it, and Fillory basically is Narnia. I would say Fillory is Narnia, but darker, however I think the actual Narnia can be pretty dark on its own in places.In speculative fiction, it is an often used practice to pull bits and pieces of setting or world building from The Greats and twist them around a little bit before use by an author in a new story. This is fine because usually you can sense that the authors have treated the source material with reverence, and by doing so treats the fandom with respect as well. This comes off to the average genre reader as a nod of respect and gratitude to “those who have gone before”. I can’t count how many times I have found references to Kurt Vonnegut, or Harlan Ellison, or any of a hundred other men and women who have made genre what it is today, hidden in some new book that I have recently picked up. And I love it when I find those Easter eggs. It gives me sense of belonging in a way.I say all of this I guess because if giving a nod to Harry Potter and Narnia is what Grossman did, I would have been absolutely fine with it. Instead, especially with Narnia, Grossman made a blatant copy of it. Right down to the “in between” place as a stopping point on the way to “Fillory”, and only two girls and two boys from our world can be kings and queens of “Fillory”. Fillory just feels very irreverent to the original Narnia, and for some reason makes me feel very protective of the original. I get what Grossman is doing, at least I think I do: If you went to Narnia, it wouldn’t be at all the way you imagined it would be. However, I feel that he could have shown this just as easily by making up a world that diverged from Narnia in a significant way.Anyway, in summary: It’s easy for me to see why most of the reviews for this book are either five stars or one star. I am on the fence as well, but I think that in the end, Grossman’s skill as a writer wins out.

Ottimo, serie bellissima specie letta in inglese

Ich habe mir die Kindel-Version runtergeladen und bin sehr zufrieden. Das Buch ist super spannend. Ich habe vorher bereits die Serie geschaut. Freue mich jedes Mal aufs Weiterlesen. :)

Comecei a acompanhar a história através da série e decidi comprar os livros, que por sinal, são melhores ainda do que a série!

Sometimes got the feeling I was reading Harry Potter, but it was not disturbing. Looking forward to reading part 2

Let's get on thing clear. This book is not for kids or even teenagers who don't know what they want. No, this book is something special. The characters, the settings, the things that happen are like a fantasy we all have had at some point but fantasy never stays pure. Without spoiling much, I'll just say this. Read the book, watch the first season of the show, watch the rest of the show and then read the other two books. They have different plots altogether.Warning, spoilers follow. Here's my review on it:This book is NOT for the innocent.The opening page or two of the book are bland, but with a dark undertone that kept me reading. Then, the book actually begins and holy shit is it amazing.People have called this book alot of things like Harry Potter for adults, dark fantasy etc but it's none of that.If you're self obsessed, glass half empty Kind of person, then this book is for you. If you're a kid or someone who thinks Harry Potter is the best fantasy series ever written, this is NOT the book for you.The plot is something like this:Quentin Coldwater, our MC, is the smartest person in his school and he's headed to a man for an interview into a prestigious college with his two friends. But when they get there, they find the man murdered and he's left a suspicious package for Quentin containing a never seen before manuscript of his favourite book series. He opens the package and starts to read it but a few pages fly away and he starts to chase them and while chasing them, he stumbles across a college for magic: Brakebills.Here, he learns, he has magical abilities and must hone them to become a Magician.The tone: Well, it's pretty depressing and guess what, I like depressing. There aren't many depressing books put there when compared to the number of books with a good message like Harry Potter.Through the entire book, Quentin feels empty,like he always did back in the real world. The magic he learns at Brakebills seems to fill some of the holes but it's still there. The rest is spoilers so I'll abstain from mentioning them.The pacing: you know, I think Lev Grossman looked at the book and said, "You know what, I'm gonna do this at my own pace." and the book is better for it. Lev takes his time to paint Brakebills in our mind as clearly as he could since well, 3/4ths of the book takes place there. It's a great thing he did it because we often see writers hurry the story along because the readers don't care about the place. They just want a general description of the place and then move on with the story. Books are meant to be savoured and this book proves it. There's not alot of plot in the book that's immediately apparent. Random things happen while he's living there and some more random things happen. There's no clear villain either. Or at least not until the ending chapters of the book.Quentin is fascinated by the magic and starts school there and some days are just accounts of what happened. Some school days are just plain boring. He studies, competes with others because they were the most smartest people in their school as well. Everyone at Brakebills is basically a genius. And thankfully, Grossman understands magic isn't easy. At least, not as easy as some books make it seem. Like in Harry Potter, all you had to do was say a few words and wave a stick. In other books, you did something similar.In the Magicians, magic is not simple. There's over ten complex hand gestures (sometimes over 50 gestures) that need to be utter perfection to be cast or you start all over again. There's weather conditions to be taken into account, the magnetic vibrations of the place you're in, there's over a hundred things to take into account when casting a spell and the gestures change accordingly. I LOVE this magic system. It's not something shallow for the plot to revel in. It IS the plot.The entirety of Brakebills is just filled with competetive people, struggling to be the best at everything.I can't say much without spoiling the book but a lot of epic shit happens when they're in school. The prose isn't flowers and rainbows, it's raw and it's supposed to be. The entire atmosphere is gloomy and there's always the sense that something bad will happen at any moment and it's great. It's like the sense of dread you get when reading Stephen King's books which I do enjoy alot.But that's not all. IN FACT, some scenes of the book were just accounts of Quentin going from class to class, like a mindless drone. But it was written so masterfully that I didn't once think to put it down. I gobbled this masterpiece up in 7 hours the first time I read it. Since then, I've read it 28 times. It's that good. And hopefully, you'll like it too.Anyway, if the book isn't your speed, try the show. Yes, there's a show, that's how I found the book in the first place. The show's got the same basic idea but diverges in a completely different path from episode 2 or so onwards. The show is good in its own right but the book is one of the closest things to my heart, right alongside The Gentleman Bastard Series, the Miss Peregrine Series, IT, The Running man and the beautiful creatures series. It's a great book. So are all these. Check them out if you get the time.The Characters: Nobody in the book was made to be likable. They were made to be relatively relatable.Quentin: He's selfish, shy, a know it all, a brat, self obsessed, horny all the time and naturally adept.Alice: Extremely smart (much more so than Quentin), amazingly ahead in magic than half her class and has been through the death of her brother.I'd tell you about the rest of the characters but that'll ruin the book.So go, read the book.