The Magicians - Lev Grossman 4/5
Blurb from Fantastic Fiction -
Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a very different path to any he'd ever imagined. The envelope, and the mysterious manuscript it contains, leads to a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power and, for a while, it's a world that seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last - and when it's finally shattered, Quentin is drawn into something darker and far more dangerous than anything he could ever have expected...
I quite enjoyed this one, not the best written book in the world but it was a little bit different to all the other adult Potter-esque books available out there!
One minute Quentin - depressed, obsessed with his best friends girlfriend and the Fillory books by Christopher Plover - is on his way to an interview for Princeton and the next he's at Brakebills College of Magical Pedagogy wondering what on earth he's going to do in the real world after graduation. The first 2 parts of the book are fantastic, following his progress through college and the trials they all go through. I loved the special fourth year project where they all had to fly to Antarctica and the surly professor waiting for them at the other end (and yes, you find out why he's like that) It's once Quentin and his friends Eliot, Alice Janet, Josh and Penny are in the real world that things seem to start going spectacularly wrong and also where the book goes off the rails a bit. The group end up in Fillory on a quest but this section seemed rushed and there was sometimes too much detail crammed into certain sections. The ending was quite obvious really but still left things complete.
Thumbs up for The Magicians, as long as you're not expecting anything highbrow and a big improvement on his last book
Blurb from Fantastic Fiction -
Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a very different path to any he'd ever imagined. The envelope, and the mysterious manuscript it contains, leads to a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power and, for a while, it's a world that seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last - and when it's finally shattered, Quentin is drawn into something darker and far more dangerous than anything he could ever have expected...
I quite enjoyed this one, not the best written book in the world but it was a little bit different to all the other adult Potter-esque books available out there!
One minute Quentin - depressed, obsessed with his best friends girlfriend and the Fillory books by Christopher Plover - is on his way to an interview for Princeton and the next he's at Brakebills College of Magical Pedagogy wondering what on earth he's going to do in the real world after graduation. The first 2 parts of the book are fantastic, following his progress through college and the trials they all go through. I loved the special fourth year project where they all had to fly to Antarctica and the surly professor waiting for them at the other end (and yes, you find out why he's like that) It's once Quentin and his friends Eliot, Alice Janet, Josh and Penny are in the real world that things seem to start going spectacularly wrong and also where the book goes off the rails a bit. The group end up in Fillory on a quest but this section seemed rushed and there was sometimes too much detail crammed into certain sections. The ending was quite obvious really but still left things complete.
Thumbs up for The Magicians, as long as you're not expecting anything highbrow and a big improvement on his last book
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