The Magicians by Lev Grossman
I finished reading this book today. This one is a mixture of things — Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, X-Men, and any US teen TV show you can think of that’s showing today. It’s an engaging story and Grossman goes with the amusing references to Scooby Doo, Potter, Star Wars, and more contemporary culture references than you can shake a wand at.
Yes, this is a book about teen wizards and witches, but they’re American, the magical college is somewhere in New York, and they all seem to have a drink problem.
The first two thirds of the book is taken up with the magical training of our hero Quentin who is the archetypal moody outsider who also happens to be a genius. We get to know his gay best friend, Eliot, and his shy but steely girlfriend, Alice. They’re all ‘Physical Kids’ because they specialise in Physical Magic. At this stage of the book there are lots of similarities to the Harry Potter series, but these aren’t young teens, these are college age late teens and early twenties. There’s sex, but to be honest it’s the drinking that seems to take centre stage, and it’s not until near the end of the book that Eliot admits that had his life taken the expected path he’d have drunk himself to death.
The last third of the book sees the Physical Kids in a Narnia type world called Fillory. It’s here that there are some echoes of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy, and certainly the Neitherlands that Quentin and co find themselves in for a while seems to be rather like a De Chirico painting. Talking animals, centaurs, and other magical beings appear in Fillory where the friends fight for their lives in an epic battle that rather put me in mind of a TV series finale. I’ve not seen the TV adaptation but it would be well suited, and would find an audience amongst those viewers of ‘Grimm’, ‘True Blood’, and the like.
So, did I enjoy it? Yes. It’s fun, and funny in parts. I’ve got the next two books of the trilogy, so I plan on reading them after I’ve dipped into some Amitav Ghosh. Would I recommend them to anyone? Again, yes. If you loved C.S.Lewis, J.K.Rowling, or even J.R.R.Tolkein, and George R.R.Martin — wow, how this lot love their initials!
It’s not highbrow or particularly literary. The plot goes along at a fairly cracking pace and it’s an easy read — great for relaxing with a glass of wine in your hand, just don’t try to keep up with the characters…
I was given a copy by a dear friend, but you can buy this book online from the usual suspects. I recommend getting a copy from Hive, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, or your local library.
