REVIEW: The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Publishing Information: 2009 (first publishing) 2010 (current edition)

Publisher: Plume (Penguin), Trade Paperback, 402 pgs

ISBN-13: 978-0-452-29629-9

Series: Standalone (sequel recently released)

Reviewer: Andy

Copy: Out of Pocket



Synopsis: (from back cover): Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he's secretly fascinated with a series of children's fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret, college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams may have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever would have imagined…. The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.





           One of the most significant characteristics of much of contemporary narrative art (including both fiction and film) is the self-awareness of the storytellers and the readers. Since we've all grown up reading genre fiction, we understand the conventions of genre and as authors we can play with these expectations in hopes of avoiding the tiresome and cliche paths worn by earlier writers. Some authors and filmmakers take it so far as to be self-referential, making the very characters in their books knowledgeable about the the kind of stories in which they themselves exist. The most familiar examples are in cinema/ In Wes Craven's Scream the characters identify a set of rules to follow if they find themselves victims in a slasher film and the killers are trying to reenact the horror films that they were raised on. In Gary Ross' Pleasantville, the idealized 1950's nuclear family sitcom life, such as Leave it to Beaver are infected with the technicolor realism of the modern world. In HBO's the Sopranos, the strip-club owner and gangster Sylvio is always trying to mimic Pacino characters, usually leading to very poor results.

           Lev Grossman's The Magicians, is an attempt to create a postmodern, self-aware, self-referential story about fantasy. The "hero" Quentin is a dreaming escapist, still fantasizing late into his teens about falling into a rabbit-hole like the children in the Fillory books, a direct reference and imitation of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. Instead he finds himself in a Hogwarts-style school for the magically gifted - leading to serious disappointment. Quentin finds that studying magic isn't that much different than studying much of any other discipline and there are no evil wizards to vanquish or epic quests to embark on. This school for magic is given of a heavy dose of realism - fights between jealous students, casual sex, and partying creates a more realist University type atmosphere than the family-friendly adolescence of Hogwarts. Fantastic elements like ridiculously childish anthropomorphic characters are juxtaposed against a jarringly harsh pessimistic realism to often hilarious results. I don't want to give away specifics here, but a giant bunny chasing after a character with knives was a wonderfully absurd moment.

           The story itself is not always as shallow as its privileged rich-kid characters - much of it revolves around how long we should follow childhood fancies, as they often come at the expense of loved ones - and how even the fantasy worlds in which we wish to escape can disappoint us with their own particular realism. This is a fantasy for people who grew up reading fantasy and now are cynical about fantasy. Reliance on magic is even sometimes symbolic of addiction - just another way Grossman brilliantly thwarts our escapist daydreams. The concept here is brilliant - my only gripe is with some of the execution. The post-grad second-half of the book, which should be the more interesting half feels rushed and shallow, as if Grossman himself doesn't want to spend time in the world he has created. Fantasy fans should tread carefully - this isn't as much of a nostalgic tribute to your childhood favorites as it is a quasi-satire. This might explain why popular magazine-critics tend to favor it more than hardcore fantasy fans. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and if you don't take the genre too seriously, it certainly shouldn't be avoided.







Plot……….8.0/10



Characters………8.5/10



Style……….8.0/10







Overall……….8.0/10