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The Magician King (The Magicians #2)

by Lev Grossman (Goodreads Author)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 16,956 ratings · 2,353 reviews

Return to Fillory in the riveting sequel to The New York Times bestseller and literary phenomenon of 2009--The Magicians.

The Magicians was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature. Now Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challen...more

Paperback, 400 pages

Published August 9th 2011 by William Heinemann

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Feb 05, 2012 mark monday rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastickal, secret-histories

The Continuing Adventures of a Smug Magical Asshole, as written by An Asshole. and now featuring The New Adventures of a Completely Self-Absorbed Bitch.

i suppose i understand the acclaim that has been heaped on Grossman. he is playing with tropes as his characters play with magic. he has a puckish sensibility that makes reading his series a tart and spikey experience. his tone is breezily casual and entirely unsentimental. and since Snark is the New Law of the New Millenium, the snark that is de...more The Continuing Adventures of a Smug Magical Asshole, as written by An Asshole. and now featuring The New Adventures of a Completely Self-Absorbed Bitch.

i suppose i understand the acclaim that has been heaped on Grossman. he is playing with tropes as his characters play with magic. he has a puckish sensibility that makes reading his series a tart and spikey experience. his tone is breezily casual and entirely unsentimental. and since Snark is the New Law of the New Millenium, the snark that is delivered in spades throughout his novels probably lets many readers off the hook of reading genre fiction... everything is delivered neatly wrapped up within a knowing, eye-rolling, jaded wrapping paper. this gift can be unwrapped at sophisticated dinner parties and the reader won't have to suffer any kind of embarrassment over reading and talking about Fantasy.

but i just had to do a lot of eye-rolling of my own. it's not as if The Magician King is just about a shallow little prick who views everything - and i mean Everything - around him with disdain. i probably would have less of an issue with this book if it were simply about an unsympathetic protagonist. but nope, the author himself makes it clear that he is officially on the side of cynical, snarky assholery. it is all in the writing itself, and not just in the voice of our tedious hero. i can start with the ending, where banality has been substituted for actual meaning and resonance. but the problem is endemic to the entire narrative. people and places are described in the same shallow, smirky, insulting manner, as if the book was actually written by our tedious hero. a bit of the jokiness scores; most of it just falls flat, with a thud. like the irritating, oh-so-clever commentary of some overly-intellectual prick at a party, going on and on about how pedestrian tv is, how terrible music is these days, how pop culture is for idiots, how he's been there, done that, and there were so many tourists and it was all so predictable and banal and now he's rolling his eyes and arching his eyebrows and i just want to smack the bullshit right out of him. in short, this novel lacks SINCERITY.

okay, enough of the complaints. there is still a lot to enjoy. first off, new co-protagonist The Completely Self-Absorbed Bitch is actually pretty interesting and her parallel flashback adventures are often enthralling. the way that the parallel narratives of our heroine's past and our hero's present eventually dovetail into one narrative is clever and quite elegantly structured. an island battle is genuinely thrilling. the novel's major set-piece, where a bunch of brilliant but mentally ill magicians conjure up an actual god is pretty awesome - and very upsetting. the story of young Benedict is also quite well-done... there is genuine tragedy and sadness there, in a way that really stands out from the rest of the narrative. and extra points for portraying rape without even the slightest bit of offensive sexiness.

i was happy to see my favorite characters from the prior novel, Penny and that novel's superb villain Martin Chatwin, both return in a couple excellent cameos. and many of the ideas are wonderful - in particular the Neitherlands, dragons, Venice, the return of the old gods, magical halfway houses, a magical ship, magicians who have somehow transitioned into higher beings, the seven golden keys, a sloth, the Customs Agent and especially her daughter... and i'm probably missing a few equally choice nuggets. The Magician King is deeply flawed and its juvenile tone may be instantly dismissable; it is also practically brimming over with a host of smart, fun, and intriguing moments. much like a creative, outsider-type teenager - full of unearned cynicism and irritating snarkiness, but also full of vibrant energy, a host of ideas, and a fresh, sometimes even brilliant way of looking at things.

so, when all is said and done, i'd actually recommend this book as an interesting and often enjoyable experience. but i'd have to give a big disclaimer before recommending it - a disclaimer delivered with a little snark and a lot of eye-rolling.(less)

80 likes · like · see review

Aug 24, 2011 Kemper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, favorites, fantasy, magic, alt-universes

If Quentin Coldwater stumbled on a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, he’d constantly complain about how heavy it was and how the coins didn’t fit in any vending machines and why couldn‘t they have just put the money into a nice cashier‘s check that he could have fit neatly in his wallet and then deposited in the bank?

In the first book, Quentin was a brilliant but disillusioned teenager who found life a boring slog and desperately wished that things were more like his favorite fantasy series...more If Quentin Coldwater stumbled on a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, he’d constantly complain about how heavy it was and how the coins didn’t fit in any vending machines and why couldn‘t they have just put the money into a nice cashier‘s check that he could have fit neatly in his wallet and then deposited in the bank?

In the first book, Quentin was a brilliant but disillusioned teenager who found life a boring slog and desperately wished that things were more like his favorite fantasy series set in a magical land called Fillory. (Think Narnia.) Quentin seemingly hit the fantasy geek jackpot when he learned that magic was real, and he was admitted to an exclusive school called Brakebills that trained magicians. Yet he constantly found himself disappointed that he never achieved his idea of true happiness even after graduating. When a classmate discovered that Fillory was real and a path to it, Quentin seized on the notion that going to Fillory was the only way he’d ever finally be complete. Unfortunately, Quentin learned the hard way that there‘s a big difference between reading about adventures and actually finding yourself in magical battle where various beasties are trying to kill you.

The Magician King picks up several years after that. Quentin is now one of the kings of Fillory and lives a life of ease and luxury with his friends. Of course, Quentin is never satisfied with a bird in the hand even when he’s relatively content, and he volunteers to go on a diplomatic mission to an island so he can seek the two birds he just knows are out there in the bush. His desire for a ’real’ adventure leads to him returning to Earth and finding that his wish for a high stakes quest have just come true. It’s much more than he bargained for and the consequences are enormous.

I loved The Magicians with it’s unique twist of what it’d be like if there were magic in the real world, but it seemed like a love-it or hate-it book with my friends here on Goodreads. And I totally understood why some readers could not stand Quentin at all. Here’s a guy who catches the biggest break in nerd history and yet he’s never satisfied and grateful for the opportunity he has.

In all honesty, I was starting to hate him pretty good through the first half of this book myself. It seemed like Quentin had forgotten everything he’d suffered and learned in the first book, and he was once again an obsessed nerd who is convinced that he’d be happy if he could live like he’s in a fantasy novel. However, that changes about halfway through with several big plot developments that I won’t spoil, but by the end of this one, I completely dropped my earlier reservations.

It also helped that Grossman is obviously writing Quentin to be an obsessed pain in the ass early on, and that he has several characters call him out on it. There’s a particularly nice bit where Quentin has traveled to Europe on Earth, and he has a moment of clarity where he realizes that he wrote off the real world when he’d seen almost none of it.

One of the things I also loved about this one in is the backstory of Julia, a former high school classmate’s of Quentin’s who had failed the Brakebills entrance exam, but went on to find another way to learn magic. If they were musicians, it’d be like Quentin went to study at Juilliard, but Julia learned in garage bands and punk clubs.

I can’t mention the stuff that occurs towards the end that made this book so cool to me and left me stunned by it’s conclusion. If you didn’t like The Magicians, this probably won’t change your mind. However, if you did like the first one, you’ll probably enjoy this book, especially it’s moving and incredibly dark third act.(less)

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Jan 10, 2012 Stefan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, www-tor-com-review, www-fantasyliterature-com-review

(This review contains spoilers for The Magicians (book 1 in this series), but no significant spoilers for The Magician King. It was originally published on www.tor.com on 8/8/2011 and on www.fantasyliterature.com on 8/16/2011.)

At the end of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Brakebills graduate Quentin Coldwater abandoned a cushy but dead-end insecure job to become co-ruler of the magical land of Fillory with his former classmates Eliot and Janet and his erstwhile flame Julia. I absolutely loved the...more

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Aug 14, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Quentin and friends are the kings and queens of Fillory and everything is marvelous. Or it is, until it becomes apparent that something is wrong. King Quentin takes it upon himself to fix things. With Julia in tow, he sails to the ends of Fillory to fix the world. Can he succeed in the quest of a lifetime and save Fillory?

If The Magicians was Lev Grossman's Harry Potter with a healthy slice of Narnia, The Magician King is Lev Grossman's Lord of the Rings. Grossman takes all the quest story stapl...more Quentin and friends are the kings and queens of Fillory and everything is marvelous. Or it is, until it becomes apparent that something is wrong. King Quentin takes it upon himself to fix things. With Julia in tow, he sails to the ends of Fillory to fix the world. Can he succeed in the quest of a lifetime and save Fillory?

If The Magicians was Lev Grossman's Harry Potter with a healthy slice of Narnia, The Magician King is Lev Grossman's Lord of the Rings. Grossman takes all the quest story staples and focuses them through his lens. Not only does Grossman tell the story of Quentin rising to the occasion and stopping his rampant douche-baggery, he also tells the harrowing tale of Julia's own rise to magical prowess after her failure during the Brakebills exam. Where the first book is essentially a coming of age story, this one is a pair of quest stories.

I have to admit that I wasn't completely sold at first. Neither thread of the story seemed to be moving very fast and Julia's tale wasn't really grabbing me. Then it all clicked and I was hooked, devouring the book in two extended sittings.

Quentin rises above his roots in The Magician King, finally becoming someone we actually like reading about. As for Julia's parallel tale, I'll save that for my spoilers section. Grossman explores the various quest story tropes and simultaneously crafts a grand quest story of his own. More on that in the spoilers section.

Grossman did a ton of world-building in The Magician King. The Neitherlands were explained, Fillory was fleshed out, and lots of things lurking just out of sight were hinted at. All of it was well integrated with the rest of the story and I didn't feel like I was being slapped in the face with it.

Poppy was by far my favorite of the new characters. I liked how she called Quentin to the carpet over ignoring the real world in favor of Fillory. I also liked that she and Quentin didn't immediately stumble and fall into each other's genitals.

Julia's tale was a poignant tale of loss and sacrifice. While I wasn't too keen on it at first, it became my favorite part of the story after a while. Her new friends were an interesting bunch. Too bad about what happened to them. See the spoiler section for details.

One thing I continue to love is Grossman's magic system. It's grown a bit from its Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell roots. The notion that magic is the leftover tools from when the gods created the world is repeated and expanded upon.

The spoiler section:
(view spoiler)

In conclusion, if you dug the first book and don't like your sequels to be "Second verse, same as the first," you'll probably enjoy The Magician King. Go out and get it right now!(less)

39 likes · like · see review

Aug 07, 2011 Phoebe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, literary, young-adult, loved-it

If you're a fan of young adult literature, you've probably seen Sady Doyle's In Praise of Joanne Rowling's Hermione Granger series. Lovingly detailed, this feminist critique cut Harry Potter down to size a little. In Doyle's reimagining, he's nothing more than a privileged jock—though certainly even in our own universe charges of privilege could be leveled against him. Harry is the chosen one, special as much for reasons of birth as effort, while hardworking Hermione toils away to earn her rathe...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Sarah Pi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

When I finished The Magicians I found myself confused. Was Grossman satirizing the genre or contributing to it? I decided that he had set out to do the former, and wound up doing the latter. He somehow fell into that enviable position where his fantasy work was considered literary by the mainstream community that often scorns genre work.

A sequel, it would seem to me, is more of a declaration. Satires don't have sequels. So called literary fiction doesn't often have sequels. Grossman goes all in....more When I finished The Magicians I found myself confused. Was Grossman satirizing the genre or contributing to it? I decided that he had set out to do the former, and wound up doing the latter. He somehow fell into that enviable position where his fantasy work was considered literary by the mainstream community that often scorns genre work.

A sequel, it would seem to me, is more of a declaration. Satires don't have sequels. So called literary fiction doesn't often have sequels. Grossman goes all in.

So, it's a fantasy sequel about some disaffected twentysomethings, last seen as disaffected teens. It tells two interlaced stories, one present and one in the recent past. It continues to show the darker side of the somewhat bloodless battles and magics one sees in YA fantasy. But here's the thing: they're adults now. And violence in ADULT fantasy is nothing new. The result is an odd mix: moody and petulant child-adults drifting through a children's fantasy world trying to figure out the rules and mostly falling onto the next step by pure dumb luck.

I liked the main characters better than I did in the first book. I still got frustrated with Quentin's ennui, but it helped that he himself was willing to address his disaffection this time. It was interesting to see Julia's side of the story, largely untold in the first book, though I got frustrated with elements of her journey as well.

I'm wavering between three and four stars. Four because I found it hard to put the book down, and it did have some neat settings and situations. Three because many of the secondary characters fell a bit flat to me, and several threads dropped off without being regathered. Characters appeared out of convenience and then disappeared again.
Four because Quentin had a better arc than in the first book. Three because (view spoiler) I'm going to go with the four, but know that it is a star with an asterisk. I enjoyed the book as I was reading it, but it is souring a little as I write about it. No, I'm going to go with the three. I liked it. I liked it as much as the first one, which I gave a four. Now I'm thoroughly confused.

(less)

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Jun 12, 2012 David Katzman rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of urban fantasy/adult fantasy (not YA)

Not a masterpiece like the first book but a solid outing in many ways. And a huge disappointment in one way.

First to the good. The Magician King was nearly as engrossing as The Magicians. Not as hard to put down, but I always looked forward to picking it back up. I did thoroughly enjoy reading it. Grossman does a nice job conjuring a magic system and a believable main character. Quentin is awkward and sometimes irritating and doesn’t act quite as smart as he’s supposed to be, but he feels like a...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Vanessa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

I had some complaints with style and pacing, but basically I really enjoyed the predecessor to this book, The Magicians. This one had a good storyline when it comes right down to it but it took at least 100 pages too many to tell it.

When last we saw Quentin Coldwater and his friends (fellow magic school grads Eliot and Janet plus his high school crush Julia who acquired her magic through mysterious means-trust me, we'll delve into that in excruciating detail), they were off to the Narnia-ish Fi...more I had some complaints with style and pacing, but basically I really enjoyed the predecessor to this book, The Magicians. This one had a good storyline when it comes right down to it but it took at least 100 pages too many to tell it.

When last we saw Quentin Coldwater and his friends (fellow magic school grads Eliot and Janet plus his high school crush Julia who acquired her magic through mysterious means-trust me, we'll delve into that in excruciating detail), they were off to the Narnia-ish Fillory to be joint rulers. In book two, they are bored. Again. Yep, the book starts out on the same ground that killed the momentum in the middle of book one. Quentin and his pals have everything they've ever wanted and the ennui of the easy life is killing them. Soonish enough they stumble upon a mysterious omen and Quentin is off on a quest with Julia that includes an unexpected trip back to Earth.

First of all, Grossman can write well when he chooses to but at other times, he's wincingly informal:

I'm sorry, where did you think you were, motherfucker? Connecticut? There was a considerable Venn diagram overlap between people who lived in Bed-Stuy and people who had motherfucking guns. Fool. Welcome to New Dork City.

This isn't even dialogue. This-THIS-is what frequently passes for exposition.

And speaking of exposition, there is far, far too much of it. The story takes way too much time going somewhere and keeps running aground on trivial details. Quentin and company aren't a very compelling bunch to travel with either. And can I just say, the resolution of the Julia story made me want to hate vomit all over the page.

Despite some interesting developments near the end, this started to feel like a quest that I would never complete. I'm giving it three begrudging stars because I think the story and concept are good-it just falls to shit in the execution. I expect this series will continue but I'm not sure if I'll be there for it. Looking at other reviews though, I seem to be in the minority.

Edit: I'm tormented by how I rated this book as time passes. Does this happen to anyone else or am I patient zero for a new form of internet scrivener OCD? I digress. Three stars=I like. I did not like. So, I'm knocking this down to a more appropriate level. (less)

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Aug 22, 2011 Blair rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, read-on-kindle

Let me begin this review by saying that I really enjoyed Lev Grossman's The Magicians. I didn't think it was perfect, by any means - I wasn't keen on Quentin, and the saga of his relationship with Alice and how he behaved about it really pissed me off - but altogether I found it to be an original, enjoyable, and gloriously escapist read. I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of all-out fantasy, but I liked the fact that The Magicians couched its fantastical elements in a recognisable versio...more Let me begin this review by saying that I really enjoyed Lev Grossman's The Magicians. I didn't think it was perfect, by any means - I wasn't keen on Quentin, and the saga of his relationship with Alice and how he behaved about it really pissed me off - but altogether I found it to be an original, enjoyable, and gloriously escapist read. I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of all-out fantasy, but I liked the fact that The Magicians couched its fantastical elements in a recognisable version of the 'real world', which tends to be a difficult thing to pull off. Altogether, I'd been looking forward to this follow-up since it was first announced, and have had it on my wishlist since the title was confirmed. Therefore, it was a big disappointment, and a bit of a surprise, that I really didn't like it much at all.

The Magician King picks up some time after the end of the first book. Quentin and friends are still in Fillory, the Narnia-like magical alternate world, where they now reign as kings and queens. But typically, Quentin is restless and not particularly happy; he thinks there must be something more to achieve, and he sets off on a mission to recover taxes from a remote island, taking the increasingly aloof - and powerful - Julia with him. The story unfolds as a disjointed kind of quest that never really seems to go anywhere. There are moments of excitement, but what ends up happening is repeatedly anticlimatic. It's hard to tell whether this is intentional - obviously, the whole point of the Magicians books is to subvert the cosy stereotypes usually found in this type of tale. Either way, it feels very unsatisfying. Some chapters branch off into Julia's history, which I wanted to be interested in, but the book never quite shakes off the feeling that she's secondary to Quentin, plus she's just not very likeable - not to mention the fact that her story goes beyond ridiculous in the end.

And then there's the way it's all written, which I could talk about forever. There are knowing references to Harry Potter, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, etc everywhere - to the point, for example, of Brakebills (this world's school of magic) actually being referred to as Hogwarts. It's like being constantly nudged and winked at, like the book is continually making sure you're 'in on the joke'. In the same vein, there's far too much swearing. I couldn't care less about swearing in books, it certainly doesn't offend me, but it's shoved into the narrative so often that it just becomes exhausting. The repeated lazy usage of 'shit' to mean stuff/things particularly grates. I presume this is all to hammer home that these characters are adults, that this world is far from whimsical despite the presence of talking animals and magical islands. It's so unnecessary, though.

Part-way through reading the book, I highlighted this passage to demonstrate a perfect example of the style:

Of course Iris had every right. That's how the system worked. She was doing Julia a fucking favor. Babysitting the noob was evidently not considered a premium assignment at Murs, and she wasn't going to pretend to enjoy it. Which whatever, but this did not oblige Julia to pretend to be grateful either. Really she ought to dog it a few times, she thought, just to piss Iris off. Show her that Julia had nothing to prove. See how long it took her to lose her shit.

I mean, 'noob'? 'Which whatever'? Fuck, piss and shit in one short paragraph for no real reason? Not long afterwards the word 'nomming' was seriously used, at which point I almost threw my Kindle at the wall. I get that the narrative is partly meant to represent the internal voice of Quentin/Julia, but god, it's irritating. And THE WHOLE BOOK is written like this. Afterwards, I had to find my copy of The Magicians to refresh my memory about the style - and yes, it had its fair share of profanity and slang, but The Magician King makes it look like a nominee for the Nobel prize for literature.

Perhaps this book will be more popular with readers more accustomed to and/or comfortable with fantasy fiction. Most of the events in Fillory, along with the climax of Julia's backstory, went too far into territory I found ludicrous and bizarre (in a bad way). I didn't like any of the characters, the interaction between Quentin and Poppy was sloppily done and unbelievable, I hated that Quentin was STILL hung up on the now-dead Alice having slept with Penny AFTER THEY SPLIT. Admittedly, I did at least feel compelled to keep reading right to the end; there's a few good bits, if you look for them. But it was a hard slog to finish the book and I doubt I'm going to be reading any further installments. Overall: a mess. 1.5 stars (narrowly missing out on a one-star review because it just isn't QUITE as bad as the other books I've given one star).(less)

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Aug 20, 2011 Leave My rated it 2 of 5 stars

Book two is fulled with even more sexism then the first one, which is almost hard to imagine, but Lev Grossman manages to pull it off by writing like some kind of horny per-pubescent teenager looking for any flimsy excuse whatsoever to get his female characters topless so he can describe their breasts in feverish, obsessive, totally unnecessary and excruciating detail.

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Sep 09, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites

I avoided finishing this for as long as I could because I didn't want it to end. It gave me so much joy - even moreso than the first book - in all the ways that Grossman reflected stories and times and adventures that have been so special to me. I imagine that similar things were special to him growing up as well, given our nerdy leanings. The journey into the unknown. The years of toil for a glimpse of the divine. The long and dark road to power. The transition from childhood to adulthood and t...more

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Oct 16, 2011 David Nickle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Quentin Coldwater is the kid that Harry Potter never was. In The Magicians, the first book in this series, Quentin is spirited off to Brakebills, a magical school on the banks of the Hudson where wizards-in-training to learn how to cast spells and hold their liquor. Quentin is a gifted student and learns to be a powerful wizard, but unlike young Harry, he is hurting for a destiny. The closest thing he's got is a yearning for the fictional world of Fillory, a magical land described in a Narnia-li...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Kristin (MyBookishWays Reviews) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2011/08/...

The Magician King picks up 5 years after the events of The Magicians,and Quentin is finally a King of Fillory. Well,one of them. Along with Eliot (the High King),Janet,and Julia,he rules Fillory and its inhabitants. The days are full of pleasure and peace,yet Quentin is still a bit restless. Truth is,he’s rather bored. Fillory is filled with wonder and magic,but it isn’t particularly filled with strife,and its inhabitants...more You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2011/08/...

The Magician King picks up 5 years after the events of The Magicians,and Quentin is finally a King of Fillory. Well,one of them. Along with Eliot (the High King),Janet,and Julia,he rules Fillory and its inhabitants. The days are full of pleasure and peace,yet Quentin is still a bit restless. Truth is,he’s rather bored. Fillory is filled with wonder and magic,but it isn’t particularly filled with strife,and its inhabitants have most everything they need. This peace is shattered,however,when their hunting guide is killed during a hunt for the Seeing Hare. The discussion over his death prompts the Brakebills to discuss their lack of usefulness,and desperate for something to do,Quentin offers to sail to the Outer Islands to inquire about a tax matter. Yep,a tax matter. Seems trivial,yes? To Quentin,however,it’s a way to feel useful,an adventure,and hopefully,a way to bring the brooding,moody Julia out of her shell. A charming but relatively event free trip ensues,until he is told about a golden key,and its possible location on an island with the unlikely name of After. Quentin decides to set off for After to find the golden key,and that’s where Quentin gets a little more than he bargained for. Namely,a trip right back to Brooklyn and no easy way back to Fillory. He’ll also discover that there’s a magical underground completely separate from Brakebills,and it’s also where Julia cut her teeth on magic. As Julia and Quentin desperately try to find their way back to Fillory,we get some insight into what Julia went through after failing the entrance exam to Brakebills. Julia is a little “off”,to say the least,and her quest to practice magic has completely consumed her. Paired with a genius IQ and OCD tendencies,this makes for a rather volatile combo,and a condition that Quentin is increasingly doubtful he can get through.

Quentin and Julia’s journey will take them through portals all over the world,to Italy,where they meet an old friend (and a dragon),and eventually,to the Chatwin house,in Cornwall,where the Chatwin children first discovered Fillory,and where they hope to find a doorway back to the world that they now call home. The Magician King is just as much Julia’s story as it is Quentin’s,and it’s not a pretty one,but it’s hers,and you’ll certainly gain a new found appreciation as to why Julia is determined to hold on to Fillory so fiercely. I loved The Magician King as much as The Magicians,and found myself thinking (and dreaming) about it,long after I finished the last page.(less)

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Aug 28, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

So okay, I generally enjoyed it.

The first book was all about Quentin and his friends at the fabulous magical college of Brakebills and them generally floundering around afterward to find some sort of purpose. But now Quentin has it all -- he's King of Fillory, his wonderful magical Narnia-like world. He lives in a big castle with his friends. And he's bored. He wants Adventure. He decides to build a ship and sail off to the furthest Eastern reach of his Kingdom to, of all things, go collect taxe...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lately, I've felt like we're living in a golden age for SFF.

Maybe this is just because I can't keep up with my "to read" list. I still haven't gotten to Scott Lynch or Joe Abercrombie at all, though I've heard both are great. I haven't read new books from George RR Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, even though I've heard good things. I manage to keep up with China Mieville, but I'm way behind on my Neal Stephenson, Robert Charles Wilson, and ... the list just keeps going.

However, I still made time to...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011december

Although I LOVED loved The Magicians, apparently it didn't stick with me. And I didn't realize how little until I picked up The Magician King that I could remember nary a plot point (OK, maybe the big ones) from its predecessor.

But did that stop me? Send me back to the library to reread the original first? Nope. Possibly it should've.

Because the sequel just didn't click with me in the same way. (And I did reread my review. See, I loved it.)

Maybe it was that the characters are whittled down. Mayb...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Felina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, audiobook, favorites, own-audiobook, star-5, 1own-dead-tree

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

So there is this type cast wizard character that usually appears in most fantasy novels. Dumbledore, Gandalf, Fizban...so on. These amazing wizards are usually older, typically 'good' and just understood to have unimaginable powers though, except for a few fights, you don't really see it. You take it on the authors word.

Then there is this book. Young and head strong wizards. Kicking ass and taking names. (view spoiler)...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Sheila rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I am so annoyed by this book, and not for the reasons I thought I'd be. The two things that irritated me about the first book weren't as bad here--specifically, Quentin was less whiny (I couldn't stand him in the first book; he was more bearable here), and the sexism that ran through the first book was really toned down. (I could never tell if the sexism was supposed to be Quentin's voice, or if it was latent from the author. I suspect the latter.)

At first, I thought Julia was going to be a man...more

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Wastrel Not sure I follow the argument. What's the evil symbolism you're suggesting? [And at a basic level, I think it's hard to deny that for some women the...more
Feb 27, 2012 09:43am

Angie Lisle I agree about with you about the sexism - i thought he'd weeded that out of this book, until the end. No, he just puts it on hold so he can "surprise"...more
Jul 05, 2012 03:20am

Sam Williams How is it misogynistic to have a female character get raped? Grossman certainly doesn't present it as a good thing. Sure, in the end she ultimately fi...more
Nov 24, 2012 06:33am

Jan 22, 2013 Rose rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-book, fantasy

Two words keep popping up in my mind constantly during this read: disdain and snarky. These describe Quentin perfectly and because of this, I seriously have a difficult time warming up to this series. Another two words, cold and bitch is how I feel about Julia. With no one to love, I'm left stranded between liking and disliking this book. There are some things that seem fun and interesting but the attitudes sort of get in my way. Although I guess I like it enough to give the nextA installment a...more

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Nov 13, 2011 Jenny rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2011, sci-fi-fantasy

50 page test. Ugh, nope, I just can't do it. The structure so far has been:
1. Mention of tiny plot point
2. Immediate reminder by author that this tiny plot point is hilarious because Quentin is a kid! A normal kid! See how funny that just was?!?

I know some people really enjoy the meta nature of these books, but it isn't done in a way that still allows for a satisfying story. Not for me. If I want Narnia or Harry Potter I'll just reread those.

I wish I could buy a print of the cover art, just the...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Jenny rated it 2 of 5 stars

Throughout my reading of this book and its predecessor The Magicians, I alternated between sincere enjoyment and outright annoyance. It had a Doctor Who reference, and who doesn't love that?! But i was annoyed by attitudes and actions of the main characters...sure, college aged kids can be disaffected and prickly, but the whining and dickish behavior left me not caring about the characters very much. Even so, I was okay enough with the roller coaster to at least finish reading the series, until...more

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Feb 18, 2013 Emma added it

This review will contain spoilers for the first book in the series, The Magicians.

Quentin has finally got what he’s always wanted: he is King of Fillory and rules with his friends at his side. But royal life is unchallenging and dull, and once again Quentin finds himself yearning for something more. A quest to a far away island to collect taxes for something to do leads Quentin back to the last place he wants to be: earth. With Julia at his side, Quentin has to depend on her and her magic to fi...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Constance rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have to get this out of the way: On learning that the book at least started in Fillory, I wasn't especially interested in it, mainly because I was under the impression that Quentin was finally satisfied and I wasn't sure how Grossman could drag a conflict into that. But Eliot Waugh is one of my favorite characters in published literature, so I figured the book would hold my attention. Which it did, but I don't plan on reading it again. Also, because I was reading for Eliot, Quentin and Julia b...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Laura Lemay rated it 3 of 5 stars

I should like this book, this one and the Magicians, the first. I REALLY should like these books a lot, because they have everything I like: they are fantasy novels with terrific writing, snarky characters with lots of flaws, and a smart pop-culty meta self-awareness of traditional fantasy novel tropes (Narnia, especially).

But I've ended up profoundly disappointed with both these books because the plotting, and the motivation of the characters to drive that plot, just feel confused and wrong to...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Tony Mac rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another terrifically entertaining read by Grossman. You can quibble about his occasionally clumsy plotting and the abruptness of the ending that seems to lever in a cliffhanger for no particular reason, but this author's trump card will always be the sheer quality and exuberance of his writing. I've been reading novels for over 50 years and I've seldom come across a writer so consistently witty, imaginative, irreverent and effortlessly literate. He seems incapable of writing a dull sentence - a...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Jen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Magician King is the best adventure story I've ever read.

Unsurprisingly, it follows Joseph Campbell's model of the hero's journey more closely than any story I've ever read. But unlike other classic hero stories (and Grossman's first novel, The Magicians), this book has two heroes: Quentin initiates the quest, but his story is entwined with that of his childhood friend and fellow monarch, Julia. In The Magicians, Quentin's pride kept him from helping Julia learn magic.

Consequently, she look...more The Magician King is the best adventure story I've ever read.

Unsurprisingly, it follows Joseph Campbell's model of the hero's journey more closely than any story I've ever read. But unlike other classic hero stories (and Grossman's first novel, The Magicians), this book has two heroes: Quentin initiates the quest, but his story is entwined with that of his childhood friend and fellow monarch, Julia. In The Magicians, Quentin's pride kept him from helping Julia learn magic.

Consequently, she looked for it on her own and ended up alone in a series of dark and dangerous supernatural situations. Welcome to the seamy magical underworld, reader! The Magician King is the story of Quentin's atonement and Julia's recovery. It's a soberer and more mature book than the first. If The Magicians is about looking for something worth loving, then The Magician King is about protecting that which you love. The hero doesn't go on adventures; the hero makes the sacrifice.

Again, this book perfectly follows Joseph Campbell's outline of the hero's journey: Quentin feels the call to adventure, chooses supernatural helpers and guides (in a few forms, some of which are quite unexpected), ventures into an unknown world (oops!), undergoes a series of trials, meets The Ultimate Power, finds mastery through ultimate sacrifice, and ultimately, witnesses deification and undergoes redemption. Did Grossman write with a Redbull in one hand and Joseph Campbell Cliff Notes in the other? I think so, and that's a good thing.

The journey is epic, but Grossman keeps it real with natural language and realistically flawed characters. The dialogue is peppered with pop-culture references that keep the story grounded and believable. Fantasy and sci-fi fans will laugh out loud at quips like this: While disembarking to explore an uncharted island, the characters joke that they don't have enough red-shirts in the group. And Quentin, Julia, and their friends aren't perfectly virtuous heroes. They're jealous, lazy, snobbish, and foul-mouthed, and their familiarity with fine wine annoys me. Still, their bravery, self-sacrifice, and wit make up for these less admirable qualities. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to give anything away. Just read The Magicians and The Magician King, and then let's talk!(less)

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Jan 26, 2013 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

I loved The Magicians and was eager to gobble up the sequel. I tried to like it, and did at the beginning. True to a writer who theoretically understands form, the first chapter opened up a great story with a mysterious death and a quest taken out of extreme boredom. The plot quickly derails as they go island hopping, Quentin and Julia get stuck back on Earth and you learn about Julia’s both obvious and absurd back story. This booked suffered from the lack of a tight plot, keen as well as sarcas...more I loved The Magicians and was eager to gobble up the sequel. I tried to like it, and did at the beginning. True to a writer who theoretically understands form, the first chapter opened up a great story with a mysterious death and a quest taken out of extreme boredom. The plot quickly derails as they go island hopping, Quentin and Julia get stuck back on Earth and you learn about Julia’s both obvious and absurd back story. This booked suffered from the lack of a tight plot, keen as well as sarcastic world building, and the character development that made it worth the trip to Breakbills/Fillory the first time around. The Magician King is more of the same hyper snarkiness without the cohesive adventure. The ‘tude was amusing the first time around, now it’s tiresome.

SPOILERS: Julia’s back story is the true reeking turd of literary disgrace in the whole fantasy genre. Here’s the gist so you don’t have to suffer through it if you don’t want to. As boring as Quentin was in this book, Julia was horrible. With Julia you get a first class ticket into the world of the genius IQ, manic depressive stereotype. The Harvard bound, privileged super nerd gets told no once when she fails her test to get into Breakbills and it’s a steady descent into madness from there. She writes off her family and breaks their hearts, not once but twice, in the pursuit of magical power purely because she doesn’t have it yet. She throws away her future at an Ivy League school and then ignores them completely. Then she sleeps and hands jobs her way around the underground magical community to learn all the magic she can, jumping the hoops and “leveling up” because that’s all Julia the super academic knows.

When she finds a group of depressive, “misunderstood” super geniuses like herself she decides they are good enough for her and this was the family she was looking for all along. Too bad they’re as greedy and self-entitled as she is, because all they seem to care about is achieving more power. This comes in the form of combing the world’s religions for high-end ceremonial magic, and it’s presented as if you need a genius IQ to come to that conclusion. Between her worthy friends and a loving goddess figure Julia’s discovered, she’s actually happy and realizes maybe she didn’t need power after all, but surprise! The goddess they try to summon is actually a trickster god who kills everyone because nothing in this world can be truly happy and fulfilling, and if it looks like it is, it’s because it’s a lie. Isn’t Lev so dark and edgy??? Unlearning her revelation from before, Julia then begs the god to give her power, who injects her with super powered magical semen-yeah, that’s right- during a rape and steals her soul. Turns out the only way to redemption is to go to Fillory, travel to the Underworld (an epic journey that takes all of five pages, maybe), realize no one there can see you so you must have no soul (no denying it now), and become a Dryad, serving the Goddess in Fillory. Yes, the only way to be happy is to deny your humanity. Get help, Lev.

The entire basis of Julia seems to be to make her as much of a dysfunctional Hermione as possible. Her hard work, determination and genius IQ, instead of giving her some perspective and actual brilliance, make her the super slut of the magical underworld, because to Lev that’s just the sort of world we live in: all women get what they want by giving hand jobs. From Julia’s story we learn that your true family isn’t actually your real, loving family, all real-world Goddess religions are a lie perpetuated by dark gods (Christian brainwashed much?), and the only way to true happiness is to go to a magical other dimension and ascend into a higher spiritual being completely away from reality. Well, if nothing else, at least I feel smarter than these “genius IQ” straw men characters.

Two stars because Lev can paint a vivid picture, just not a very cogent one this time around.
(less)

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Jan 23, 2013 Bah Humpug rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fiction-literature

Of course as soon as I read The Magician I had to start reading the sequel, The Magician King (thank goodness I didn't start reading these books until this year). For some reason I have a hard time getting into both of these books but once I reach 1/4 of the way in I can't stop. I thought The Magician King was a fantastic follow-up to The Magicians. I think it suffers from some of the same flaws as the first book, but it improved a lot in other ways and again this book was entertaining and surpr...more Of course as soon as I read The Magician I had to start reading the sequel, The Magician King (thank goodness I didn't start reading these books until this year). For some reason I have a hard time getting into both of these books but once I reach 1/4 of the way in I can't stop. I thought The Magician King was a fantastic follow-up to The Magicians. I think it suffers from some of the same flaws as the first book, but it improved a lot in other ways and again this book was entertaining and surprising. I was sad to end it! And there better be a third book to follow this one!

The Magician King picks up a little bit after where The Magician left off and soon we find ourselves in the middle of a good old-fashioned quest story. Quentin is forever restless and unsatisfied and I found my old irritation at Quentin starting to bubble up in the beginning of the book. However, that soon went away as I got further into the book and by the end I liked Quentin a lot more in this book than the first one. He was way less annoying here and dare I say he even matured a bit here? The quest itself definitely ripped off a bit of the Narnia book, Voyage of The Dawn Treader, but it was still interesting to read. But seriously couldn't Grossman do a little less ripping off of the Narnia books? Although I guess that's part of the theme of these books and Fillory. Again, Grossman's writing style was fine for the most part, but some of his attempts at more modern dialogue just fell flat with me.

I was surprised to find that my favorite part of this book is the parallel story of what happened with Julia, Quentin's old high school friend/crush who got a glimpse of magic only to be kicked back to the real world. Julia and the others keep hinting at the things she had to go through to get magic, and finally they're going to tell it to us! Only in pieces, every other chapter. I found myself ripping through the questing chapters to find out what happened to Julia (how did she get called to the Brakebills exam?, what happened to her afterwards?, how did she master magic on her own?, why are her powers and spellcasting so different from the Brakebills-educated people?) Unlike Quentin who had this magical world served to him on a silver platter, Julia had to fall as low as she could go and then struggle tooth and nail to learn everything she could get her hands on. While there are two stories that run parallel in this book I thought Grossman did a nice job of switching back and forth between them and tying them together in the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Magician King, probably more so than even The Magicians, and loved the ending even though it also frustrated me. I'll be keeping an eye out for more Grossman books, especially if he writes a follow-up to The Magician King! (less)

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Jan 21, 2013 Jeremy Preacher rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I did not like The Magicians and I did not expect to like this one, and I was mostly not wrong. I found it less tedious, for sure - the adventures moved along briskly and were varied enough that Quentin's unquenchable twittishness never grew totally unbearable, but he's still an unbearable twit and I don't like him. The complicated interwoven plot resolved, in the end, to... nothing. Nullity. I didn't care about any of it at all, and I'm just glad it's over.

Julia's whole plotline was just as inf...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow, again.

Starting off with the things I didn't like.
First off, the story goes back and forth between the past and present. The past, for the most part, is much more boring than the present. Just when you're getting into the present, it may cut to the past and leave you hanging. It's not terrible, but I did sigh a few times realizing I'd have to wait for more story progression. The farther the story progresses, the more interesting the backstory is, so it ends up being alright. I do wish there...more Wow, again.

Starting off with the things I didn't like.
First off, the story goes back and forth between the past and present. The past, for the most part, is much more boring than the present. Just when you're getting into the present, it may cut to the past and leave you hanging. It's not terrible, but I did sigh a few times realizing I'd have to wait for more story progression. The farther the story progresses, the more interesting the backstory is, so it ends up being alright. I do wish there were fewer chapters overall in the past, though.
Sometimes, characters said or did truly dumb things. I am thinking of two things specifically, but both are spoilers.
Quentin is overall an improved person. Less illogically unhappy, and ever so slightly more mature. To make up for this, we get Julia. She's great sometimes, but obnoxious early on in her back-story, or at least I thought so. I am sure not everyone feels that way. Her issues were relatable, especially if you've ever gone through depression or something like that, but I never liked my own thoughts while depressed, and I didn't really like reading hers any more. She ultimately grew on me, but it was a struggle to get there.
The main plot. The deepest core of it. What...? One of the concepts was way too convenient. (view spoiler)
Not that I have many respectful things to say about Christianity, but this story is unfair to it. The characters are willing to check other religions for bits of truth, but Christianity was the 'meh' one. Because, you know, not like any of the rest are equally block-headed. /sarcasm Also, Julia originally had no proof for magic, then found out that was true, so it was extremely closed-minded of her to freak out over the suggestion of religion.

Everything else; the things I did love.
The writing style may not appeal to everyone. It lacks sentimentality, it doesn't draw out drama, and it's brutally honest. It says what it means, and what it means is the harsh, physical, truth. It can be emotional, but it's not a sappy, sensitive thing. If and when the story gets to you, it's because, 'Gee, I really didn't want that to happen.' The story feels real, the characters feel real. You get to experience it with your own opinions. Quentin's opinions are quite obvious, but even if the story follows him, the narration is honest. You enter the story in a way that lets you choose your own opinions on things.
Some characters hardly get any time in the story, but their personality still shines through. They can be deep and defined without giving them some dark back-story or moral dilemma that shows their souls to us. So many stories don't have developed characters until something happens. So many stories need personality-caricatures and stereotypes to keep characters defined. In this, a character walks on 'screen', talks, and uses body language. Voila! A character more defined and real than so many others from so many other novels. If you've read the first book, it's the same way.
The dry, disrespectful, sometimes immature humor is completely intact. I even bookmarked some pages with quotes I liked. Jokes happen naturally. They happen in 'serious' moments, but not when the character making them is serious, keeping the humor from ruining the story.

Rating R
Brief but intense violence, strong language, and rape. An anti-religious slant and a gay character if that bothers you, ~~which it really shouldn't.~~(less)

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About Lev Grossman

My novel The Magicians was a New York Times bestseller. So was the sequel, The Magician King. You can read the first three chapters of The Magicians online at Viking's website. There's yet more information about me and my books on my website.

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“That was the thing about the world: it wasn't that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn't expect.” — 86 people liked it

“Though the funny thing about never being asked for anything is that after a while you start to feel like maybe you don’t have anything worth giving.” — 40 people liked it

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