Book Review: The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman

The Magician's Land - Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams.  With nothing left to lose, he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic, but he can't hide from his past, and it's not long before it comes looking for him.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters.  But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, to to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever.  He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, and a new Fillory--but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory together.  To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.

3/5 stars (liked it)

I thought it was a little slow at the beginning.  We find out what Quentin has been up to and it's really not much.  He becomes a professor at Brakebills.  We also find out what has been going on in Fillory.  Overall I thought it was a good wrap up to Quentin's story and Fillory's story.  We got to reunite with some old characters and we got to say goodbye to some characters.

Book Review: The Magician King - Lev Grossman

The Magician King - Lev Grossman

Quentin Coldwater should be happy.  He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory--a fictional utopia--was actually real.  But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace.  His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring.

Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off--only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, a they'd hoped.  As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia's illicitly learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.

3/5 stars (liked it)

Quentin is the biggest whinniest baby ever.  He is never satisfied with what he has and is constantly seeking something better.  I would much rather have read this story from Eliot's point of view.  Although I really liked that we got to learn more about Julia in this book and all that happened to her from the time that she failed the test to get into Brakebills and how she met up with Eliot.  Although I wish we could have found out why she was there in the first place and their meeting from her point of view.

Book Review: The Magicians - Lev Grossman

The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Like everyone else, precocious high school senior Quentin Coldwater assumes that magic isn't real, until he finds himself admitted to a very secretive and exclusive college of magic in upstate New York.  There he indulges in joys of college-friendship, love, sex, and booze -- and receives a rigorous education in modern sorcery.  But magic doesn't bring the happiness and adventure Quentin thought it would.  After graduation, he and his friends stumble upon a secret that sets them on a remarkable journey that may just fulfill Quentin's yearning.  But their journey turns out to be darker and more dangerous than they'd imagined.

3/5 stars (liked it)

I didn't really like Quentin, I thought he was a bit dull, whinny and mopey.  I did like the other characters though.  This book spans his whole college education.  While most of his college times are fairly normal and boring it isn't until he graduates and is living in the real world that things pick up.  There we meet an old character Penny.  He brings them an adventure to the land of Fillory, which is a place that is in a book series.  Quentin has been obsessed with the books.  I almost think this book could have just started after Quentin and the others graduated and they spend more time on their adventure.