Author: Lev Grossman

Publisher: Viking/Penguin

ISBN #:   978-0-670-02055-3

Type:  Fiction:Fantasy

Pages: 402 Hardback

Published:  August 11, 2009

Website:  http://levgrossman.com/

Purchase:  $16.17 (HERE) 

The Story

“Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. He’s a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he’s still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless.

Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought it would.

Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real.”

(Excerpt is from www.levgrossman.com)      

The Review

My twins love Harry Potter… I fall asleep, EVERY TIME, we watch a Harry Potter movie.  They loved the books, too.  I never felt the desire to read them.

My twins love fantasy… Eragon, Twilight, you name it.  Me?  Not so much.

But, being open minded to read something new is something that I want to be.  Open mind, open heart… open to the stories and possibilities that I would normally shy from.  Yes, that’s the person I want to be, especially as a book review blogger.

I read The Magicians with no pre-conceived ideas, beliefs, or prejudices.  In all honesty, I really enjoyed the middle third of this book very much.  The reading of it came easily to me and I couldn’t wait to turn the pages.  However, the first and last thirds of this book were a challenge for me.  I struggled to get through the first section, felt engaged in the middle, and then couldn’t wait to get through the last one.  Despite the solid writing, the magic and the fantasy of this novel were just not enough to make this a “great book” for me.

Grossman is a gifted and talented writer with so much imagination.  I can see that many people are going to really enjoy this book.  They will be swept away into the magical lands of Brakebills and Fillory.  I need to make the distinction that, unlike Harry Potter, this is an ADULT book about magic and one that I would not recommend for youth.  It maintains sexual content and language that are unsuitable for young readers. 

The Rating

On Sher’s “Out of Ten Scale,” I am giving The Magicians a rating of 7.5 out of 10.  You may scratch your head and wonder why the decent rating of a book that I didn’t particularly care for.  It can best be explained in that I found it to be a very well-written, original and creative novel.  All of the elements of a good story were present.  The amount of creative genius that it must take to be able to write a book of this caliber just amazes me.  For all of these reasons, I believe The Magicians deserves the rating, despite the fact that it clearly isn’t the book for me.  Oh… and one last note… a sequel is being written.  So, if you love this one, you’ll get another story with Quentin and the magicians!

Attn: Book Review Bloggers

Somehow, someway… (maybe by magic???) an extra review copy made its way to my doorstep.  As such, I have an ARC to giveaway.  However, since it is an ARC, I only feel comfortable giving away this copy to a book review blogger who understands the nature of reviewing an ARC.  Therefore, if this is a book that you’d like to review, please leave me a comment below.  I will contact the winner of the review copy via email on August 23rd… so, feel free to leave me a comment up until then.

Giving Thanks 

Thank you to Viking/Penguin for my review copy of The Magicians.

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