The Magicians (The Magicians, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 02, 2015 alana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, teachers-and-pupils, urban-fantasy, fantasy, series-in-progress, reread

I re-read this audiobook in anticipation of finally finishing the series. Once again, I'm reminded how much I love love loved the bits about being in magic school and did not so much care for the whole after school adventuring...which I'm assuming will be the rest of the series...Even now, having read it twice and quite recently at that, I can't remember what happens have they finish school. Oh, wait. Just remembered. Yah, I guess I am ready for The Magician King. ...more

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Nov 25, 2016 Tony rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, fantasy, teen

I picked this up not realizing it was the first in a trilogy, so be forewarned -- that said, it is self-contained enough to read on its own and not be left with a ridiculous cliffhanger to suck you into the rest of the series. The basic idea is that the author has kind of mashed up the Chronicles of Narnia with Harry Potter, and filtered it all through a realist lens. So you get a story about modern teenagers who are invited to take a mysterious test, the results of which may put a few of them i I picked this up not realizing it was the first in a trilogy, so be forewarned -- that said, it is self-contained enough to read on its own and not be left with a ridiculous cliffhanger to suck you into the rest of the series. The basic idea is that the author has kind of mashed up the Chronicles of Narnia with Harry Potter, and filtered it all through a realist lens. So you get a story about modern teenagers who are invited to take a mysterious test, the results of which may put a few of them in a secret magical college (a la Hogwarts, but college-level) in the Hudson River Valley.

The first third of the book is a pretty engrossing introduction to the rules and regulations of this magical overlay on our present-day world. The twist is that the teens here are not squeaky clean, but just as interested in sex, drugs, and alcohol as their non-magical peers. Having forsworn family and friends, they dive headfirst into their new magical lives. The protagonist in all this is Quentin, a perpetually unsatisfied teen, who's hoping to finally find some meaningful connection to life in this new world. However, like many teenagers, he's prone to be annoying and making bad decisions.

The second third of the book fleshes out Quentin's progression at school, and especially the relationships he forms with a small group of fellow students -- most of whom are equally grating. After they graduate and move to New York to futz around and figure out what to do with their powers, the Narnia part kicks in, as they find their way to another realm and are called upon to fix some problems there. Here again, the author's realist approach makes this a much more scary and traumatizing prospect than one would ever get from any classic fantasy.

There's a bit of an odd tension within the book because while on the one hand it's more interesting because there is the very real potential that characters will die or get scarred (physically and emotionally), almost none of the characters are ones I cared about. By the end, the book felt somewhat like a pitch that sounded like a good idea but was somewhat lacking in the actual execution. Having now realized that it's the first in a trilogy, it's 50/50 as to whether or not I'll seek out the other two books to find out what happens -- I'm kind of hard-pressed to care. ...more

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Jan 16, 2014 Becca rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

I think the biggest problem I had with this book is that I couldn't stand the characters, particularly Quentin. ...more

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Dec 08, 2009 Anie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sff, fiction, 2012, male-protagonist, male-author, borrowed

This was quite an enjoyable read. The magical world Grossman creates is certainly interesting, and it has nice intersections with other such worlds (HP is the obvious comparison). The main characters are fairly sympathetic, although be prepared for whinyrichsmartkidtimes. The writing is relatively fluid, although both (a) very casual at times, in a way that I found rather jarring, and (b) full of pop-culture references (iPods and Harry Potter both make it in there). Although neither of these las ...more

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Dec 26, 2015 Jen rated it really liked it

I loved it. It had many shades of Harry Pitter and Narnia and more nerdom but the story was rich and enjoyable.

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Dec 24, 2010 Madeleine rated it it was ok

Shelves: books-for-hipsters, dire-reading-circumstances, speculative-fiction, series

This started out in such an endearing way. Silly smart kids wandering around Brooklyn singing a silly song.

Unfortunately, it eventually devolved into Harry Potter (potential good thing) written by an unhappy hipster with a Chronicles of Narnia obsession (very bad thing).

It was a decent airplane book though, I guess.

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