The Magicians

Lev Grossman

Quentin is a brilliant but bored student in the New York public school system, preparing to be accepted into the Ivy League university of his choice and move on to a successful life. And then he is recruited to attend a highly prestigious school of magic where during his interview, he gets the "thrown into the frying pan" revelation that magic is real. It is everything he believed and hoped for while ready Fillory and Further. It is here that Grossman relies on a distinct popular culture knowledge (or at least a target audience knowledge) of C.S. Lewis Narnia series. Fillory is Narnia. A magical world that kids secretly get pulled into with talking animals, they become kings/queens but they must return home and future cousins/siblings go back in later volumes. Grossman provides enough hints about this magical world that insiders will know fully what the context is. And the same way with his school of magic Brakebills. He provides enough similarities to Hogwarts that readers can jump immediately and quickly into the world. This is potentially a massively beneficial strategy, allowing the story to cover lots of ground without spending the time developing the world fully. Just let the readers past experience with similar worlds fill in the gaps. Unfortunately, Grossman does not manage that balance well. At least 4 times throughout, I found myself saying "Ok, I get it" only to have to read through several more chapters of unnecessary detail and nuance. Only in the final third does he put everything together and does the story become a page turner. Only then, does the weaving of these worlds become its own unique thing, taking us to a place where neither Lewis nor Rowling were willing to go. And based on this, it means that I will probably need to read the sequel, which if the trend holds, will be a wholly unique offering of this mash-up sort of magical world.

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