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The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

Title: The Magician's Land (Magicians #3)

Author: Lev Grossman

Publisher: Penguin 2015

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 416

Rating:  5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Read My Own Damn Books; Finishing the Series; 52 Books - W25

Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.

Finally Finally Finally dove into this one. J read it awhile back and warned me that I should reread the first two before tackling the conclusion. I'm glad I did. There were lots of little things that I forgot about that come back int he third book. But overall, so brilliant! This volume has a much better pace than the first two books. Plus we get some great twists and turns that I totally didn't see coming. And we encounter all the old characters as well as a few new ones. I loved the switching between Quentin's story and Eliot and Janet. It was nice to return to Fillory and see how the storyline ultimately played out. I would have finished the book in 4 days, but the toddler kept stealing my iPad to play games and would subsequently run the battery down. So It took me more like a week and a half.

tags: 5 stars, 52 books in 52 weeks, fantasy, Finishing the Series, lev grossman, Read My Own Damn Books
categories: Book Reviews
Tuesday 06.21.16
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Title: The Magician King (Magician #2)

Author: Lev Grossman

Publisher: Viking 2012

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 416

Rating:  5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Fantasy; Mount TBR; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: I own it!

Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring.

Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they'd hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia's illicitly-learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.

I am completely in awe of this book right now.  I finished it over an hour ago and am still waiting to decompress.  My first thought was "Wow that was harsh"  but in a good way.  This series reminds me a lot of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.  It has some wonderful fantasy elements, but also great discussions on philosophy and religion and life.  And they both take a turn for the dark at some point.  Yet, the dark made the stories more real, more grounded, even as they are set in very fantastical realms.

With the first book, I got a bit annoyed at Quentin and his whole "I am destined for something greater" attitude.  It was a bit too teenage angsty.  By the end of the first book, I was starting to get over it, but I still was a little annoyed.  In this volume, Quentin grew into his own.  He started to truly understand his place in the world (or worlds as the case may be) and I really grew to like him.  Plus we meet up with some old friends (and not so much friends) along the journey.  I loved seeing the characters deal with new and challenging obstacles.  I even started to like Poppy by the end of the book.

My only issue with the book has to do with the format.  The abrupt jumps between the present and Julia's past were a bit jarring.  They definitely took some getting used to.  I had to keep reorienting myself to time and place.  It was messing with my reading brain.  Even though it bugged me a bit, I still loved being able to see what happened to Julia while Quentin was at Brakebills and beyond.  Her story really brought everything together in the end.  An excellent read.

The Magicians:

  1. The Magicians
  2. The Magician King
tags: 5 stars, fantasy, lev grossman
categories: Book Reviews
Wednesday 12.19.12
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Title: The Magicians

Author: Lev Grossman

Publisher: Viking 2009

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 416

Rating:   5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Mixing It Up - Fantasy; RYN - G; Mount TBR; Random Reads - January

How I Got It: I own it!

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. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin's fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

Holy crap! I am just blown away by this novel.  Such twists and turns.  Such surprises.  I am just baffled by this whole book.  The characters are so complex and surprising.  Each one was fleshed out, real, complete with faults and insecurities.  I just loved these characters.   They weren't the most likable people, but for some reason you root for them.  You want them to become better people, to find some bit of happiness, to become valuable members of the human race.  My only issue with the novel: pacing.  The first half of the book seemed much too slow compared to the second half.  Plus, the first half has these gaps in time, weeks, months, years, that just seem awkward.  J says that the second book fixes these issues and that Grossman's writing style evolves...  I will definitely be reading the sequel soon.  I feel like I need a bit of a palate cleanser, time to digest the book first.  But I will definitely be getting to it soon.

The Magicians:

  1. The Magicians
  2. The Magician King
tags: 5 stars, fantasy, lev grossman
categories: Book Reviews
Saturday 01.21.12
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
Comments: 3
 

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