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Sep 24, 2011
Tom Merritt
added it
Fantastic. Such a wonderful critique and send up of fantasy classics like C.S. Lewis, T.H. White and obviously newer fare like J.K. Rowling. It seems to answer the question of what people today would do if they were confronted with classical magical worlds. This is a modern book by far but e love of lore shows through in every curse word and every disdainful ennui filled sigh of its very modern characters.
It makes me sad that all the reviews of this novel refer to it as "Harry Potter for maturer audiences."
Yes, there are magicians, and yes, they are trained at a magical school. But what saves this from Harry Potter's shadow is a) that it is set in a modern world where the Harry Potter books exist, and the author and the characters are aware of Harry Potter's existence ("Drawn by thestrals." "Where are the broomsticks?"), and b) that this book is far more concerned with a pseudo-Narnia book serie ...more
Yes, there are magicians, and yes, they are trained at a magical school. But what saves this from Harry Potter's shadow is a) that it is set in a modern world where the Harry Potter books exist, and the author and the characters are aware of Harry Potter's existence ("Drawn by thestrals." "Where are the broomsticks?"), and b) that this book is far more concerned with a pseudo-Narnia book serie ...more
Not to be confused with The Magician, the story of the magic twins.
I like the idea of wizard college, and though the protagonist is a self-absorbed twit, his sarcasm is quite humorous at times and this was a good, fast read. One thing I did find annoying was the number of times Quentin "suddenly realized" what he had to do. You can only use that exciting plot twist so many times before it starts to get old. ...more
I like the idea of wizard college, and though the protagonist is a self-absorbed twit, his sarcasm is quite humorous at times and this was a good, fast read. One thing I did find annoying was the number of times Quentin "suddenly realized" what he had to do. You can only use that exciting plot twist so many times before it starts to get old. ...more
finished 9/12/14
Most reviews of this book tend to compare it to Harry Potter but other than the fact that the characters go to a school for magic, there's not much Harry Potter-like to this story. It's a lot more Narnia, (especially the Fillory stuff) than Hogwarts. That said, I expected Fillory to come up much earlier in the book than it did. The audiobook is 17+ hours long and Fillory doesn't come into play until nearly 5 hours to the end of the book.
I liked the book but wasn't as bowled over ...more
Most reviews of this book tend to compare it to Harry Potter but other than the fact that the characters go to a school for magic, there's not much Harry Potter-like to this story. It's a lot more Narnia, (especially the Fillory stuff) than Hogwarts. That said, I expected Fillory to come up much earlier in the book than it did. The audiobook is 17+ hours long and Fillory doesn't come into play until nearly 5 hours to the end of the book.
I liked the book but wasn't as bowled over ...more
Jun 03, 2011
Eko Prasetyo
marked it as to-read
Mar 05, 2012
Elizabeth
added it
Apr 03, 2012
Kristi
marked it as to-read
