Remember when you were a kid and you became entangled in the school of Hogwarts, the land of Narnia, and even the tree house that spun through time. It’s cute and adorable to be obsessed with it as a child, less as a college student. In the novel ‘The Magicians’ written by Lev Grossman, our protagonist (and I use that term loosely) Quentin Coldwater is a depressed genius on his way into the world of college.
Obsessed with the books he read as a child, Fillory and Further, Quentin is amazed when he finds out that magic is real. Not only that but to be picked out of the billions of kids to come and study at a magic university. Is this the happiness he is searching for, or will not even magic have the power to present him that.
‘The Magician’ is written in a very fast paced manner, some chapter have months pass with the start of a new paragraph. Some may believe it to be too fast, but for me the pace was welcomed. It felt more real to me, that all of the important events that happened in the book didn’t happen all in one year. This is a story that tells you of Quentin’s life, not just his schooling.
The characters are full of life and seem rather different in their ways of going about certain aspects of life. I enjoyed the dialogue because it felt real to me, instead of feeling like cardboard. Every character interaction felt like it was necessary rather than pointless, that you had to hear that part to understand them in the future.
The way that magic was explained and shown through the chapters in a quickly progressive fashion was enjoyable. It also had it’s mature parts to it as well, some a little weird in ways, but in a world of magic anything can happen.
Though this book did have some certain downfalls, the quick progressive change in Quentin’s emotions were annoying in some ways. The way he solved problems was at times despicable. Also in a book of magic you want the main character to be amazing, and as much as I was rooting for Quentin to do something amazing (which he does do eventually) you mostly had the other side character there to step up to the plate.
Still even through that I enjoyed reading this book and am excited to continue on in the second installment ‘The Magicians King’.
8/10 – The Magician is worth a look at if you are interested in fantasy novels, now some people I know say it reminds them of Harry Potter. Now even though that may be true, don’t expect the main character Quentin to be as loving and charming as Harry. This is a world of vicious magic.
NearlyWes 