This one is an urban fantasy; everyone compares it to Harry Potter and Narnia. That's because it uses most of the same plot devices: an unhappy young man (Quentin Coldwater) gets into a school for magic, and he is fascinated with this Narnia-like fantasy world called Fillory. People complain about how Grossman kind of lazily combined the plots of Harry Potter and Narnia instead of coming up with his own original storyline. But I don't mind familiar plot devices as long as the author does something interesting with them, and I guess I can say that Grossman achieves this. It's certainly interesting enough. This doesn't mean that the plot doesn't have its flaws.
It takes strange, unexpected turns, so that it's impossible to even make a guess at where the story is going. This can be exciting, or frustrating, depending on the reader. I think I would have appreciated a little more foreshadowing, so that things had more of a sense of coming together in the end. Like, I could look back and realize that the story was heading toward this point all along. Whatever.
The high point of this novel for me was definitely the writing. The prose is beautiful, but also full of relatable descriptions that amazed me. Grossman describes the little details of life in a way that made me perfectly understand them. For example, the becene where Quentin is taking an exam with other students: Grossman describes the tension, the sounds, everything perfectly; I was reminded of details of my own experience in this kind of situation that I would never think to write down, but that worked perfectly to make the scene real. Really, the descriptions were amazing.
The characters and theme were not, though. Quentin is moody and negative, which kind of pervades the entire book. There is no uplifting moment of redemption at the end. I guess Grossman is trying to convey the all-too-familiar feeling of being in your twenties and feeling lost and purposeless in this world, and he does that. But that's all. Like I said, there's no real resolution. He ends the book still feeling lost and even more miserable than before, even though he's an awesome magician and everything. I get it; external things can't make you happy or give you purpose. That has to come from within. Very nice, and even true. But, I don't know, the whole thing was too depressing for me, and there was no clear character arc that gave me a sense of completion. That's why I didn't bother reading the other two books in the trilogy. The Magicians was made into a TV show. I watched a few episodes. It was interesting and, I think, well done. I'm not a big TV watcher as a general rule, so I'm not the best judge. It's worth checking out, though. I think it might even be better than reading through all the depressed interior monologues and pointless wandering that fills the book.
It takes strange, unexpected turns, so that it's impossible to even make a guess at where the story is going. This can be exciting, or frustrating, depending on the reader. I think I would have appreciated a little more foreshadowing, so that things had more of a sense of coming together in the end. Like, I could look back and realize that the story was heading toward this point all along. Whatever.
The high point of this novel for me was definitely the writing. The prose is beautiful, but also full of relatable descriptions that amazed me. Grossman describes the little details of life in a way that made me perfectly understand them. For example, the becene where Quentin is taking an exam with other students: Grossman describes the tension, the sounds, everything perfectly; I was reminded of details of my own experience in this kind of situation that I would never think to write down, but that worked perfectly to make the scene real. Really, the descriptions were amazing.
The characters and theme were not, though. Quentin is moody and negative, which kind of pervades the entire book. There is no uplifting moment of redemption at the end. I guess Grossman is trying to convey the all-too-familiar feeling of being in your twenties and feeling lost and purposeless in this world, and he does that. But that's all. Like I said, there's no real resolution. He ends the book still feeling lost and even more miserable than before, even though he's an awesome magician and everything. I get it; external things can't make you happy or give you purpose. That has to come from within. Very nice, and even true. But, I don't know, the whole thing was too depressing for me, and there was no clear character arc that gave me a sense of completion. That's why I didn't bother reading the other two books in the trilogy. The Magicians was made into a TV show. I watched a few episodes. It was interesting and, I think, well done. I'm not a big TV watcher as a general rule, so I'm not the best judge. It's worth checking out, though. I think it might even be better than reading through all the depressed interior monologues and pointless wandering that fills the book.
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