Book Review (Canon): The Magicians

The Magicians

Written by Lev Grossman in 2009

The Raccoon: Quentin Coldwater, a gifted yet depressed high school student, is offered the chance to leave his dreary life behind and attend Brakebills, a university of magic.  However, his obsessive pursuit of adventure and meaning threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

UNMASKED: Most books in which characters have supernatural abilities leave me disappointed with my regular life once I finish them.  The Magicians, however, left me content with the idea that I could learn magic, if only I wanted to spend five difficult years studying its intricacies.

The portrayal of magic in The Magicians is the most realistic yet fascinating to date.  Grossman’s world does not offer magic education to anyone younger than seventeen, and with good reason: there are countless variations to each spell based on the seasons and phases of the moon and several ancient languages needed to cast them.  Additionally, mastering magic allows one to achieve anything he/she desires; in fact, Quentin’s fifth-year project is to travel independently and without supplies to the moon and back, which he is more than capable of doing.

Grossman also acknowledges the complications that result from this power: the graduating twenty-somethings are released into the world spoiled by the knowledge that they do not need to work another day in their lives.  It was incredibly interesting watching Quentin and his friends struggle to actually be happy with the world at their fingertips.  However, this period in the story is also where I began to dislike Quentin.

Quentin’s friend-then-girlfriend Alice once chastises Quentin, “You actually still believe in magic.  You do realize, right, that nobody else does?  I mean, we all know magic is real.  But you really believe in it.”  Even after being recruited to Brakebills, even after a certain plot point that I do not want to ruin for you because it is a magnificently clever twist of epic proportions, Quentin continues to feel that something is missing, and he waits for an outside force to give his life meaning.  At a certain point, it became nearly impossible to relate to and support such an apathetic, immature protagonist.

While I remain on the fence about continuing the trilogy, The Magicians was a refreshing return of magic to my mind.  The novel captures all of the excitement of children’s fantasy stories along with the character development and disquieting moral controversies only possible in adult literature.

Strengths:

• Grossman’s idea of magic fits neatly into a world that is otherwise the same as our own, and it does not interfere with any existing belief system or other magic books.
• From a changing and random entrance exam, to a semester spent in Antarctica, to a graduation ceremony involving demons, Brakebills is an exciting and often hilarious place to read about.
• There are subtle roasts of Hogwarts as an inferior institution.

Weaknesses:

• There were times when Quentin seemed to be more of a vehicle for Grossman to display Brakebills than a character with his own thoughts and desires.
• Quentin’s best friends receive too much attention in the beginning chapters considering that they are absent throughout the rest of the novel.

Rating: 16/20 buttons

Ideal Setting: Read this when you are looking nostalgically at Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia.  There is still magic to be found!