Scan barcode
csmall73's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
The magician king
Once again the breakbills are experiencing boredom. Even as kings and queens of Fillory, there is no challenge there is no economic crisis to rectify or classism. Effectively landing in a utopian system.
Julia seems to have replaced Alice in the group. Still going through a bit of a mental breakdown even after going to breakbills later on. After becoming a mad hedge which first. Some ongoing depression from hell.
Julia and Quentin stumble back into Jersey blindly. How to get back? Why were they returned?
A strange back and forth between the present pursuit of a route back to Fillory and Julia’s flashbacks to what happened to her off page in the first book. Her spin into loosing her mind and finding the second class magicians that don’t get into breakbills.
Penny resurfaces in the neither land and we meet some new characters. Learning the structure of the worlds and working to keep the loophole in the universe that’ allows them to have magic in the world.
Frustratingly nonchalant throughout. Existential crisis through out. The title seems misleading in how things played out with the magician king.
x0pherl's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't like this quite as much as The Magicians. For one thing, one of the major plot lines was based on [b:The Voyage of the Dawn Treader|140225|The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1343185059l/140225._SX50_.jpg|3349054], which is one of my least favorite Narnia books, and has a similarly vague and annoying "quest" in it. When a major plot point of your book is a quest to collect taxes, you're maybe doing something wrong. Just saying... For another thing the main character is bored and disaffected for most of the beginning, which had me bored and disafected right alongside him.
There is a very lovely backstory about Julia, which did much to rescue the book, and by the end it picks up and gets interesting.
There is a very lovely backstory about Julia, which did much to rescue the book, and by the end it picks up and gets interesting.
paigiee10's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
raven_morgan's review against another edition
4.0
Overall, I liked this much better than the first book, mostly because of Julia's point of view.
I did have issue with what I felt was unnecessary sexual assault, since that same thing could have been achieved without it.
I did have issue with what I felt was unnecessary sexual assault, since that same thing could have been achieved without it.
lizpace's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
reginas_books's review against another edition
4.0
New review:
It's interesting what a decade will do to one of my favorite books. I think I was able to read this with a more critical eye now.
A lot of people rate the first book, The Magicians, quite low, so it only makes sense that people going on to read the sequel were tolerant of Quentin being an awful sad sack. Lev Grossman understands the deep, dark trenches that a person's soul can sink into and he puts all of that onto paper without pulling his punches. Quentin is depressed, ungrateful, entitled, and he often finds a way to put the blame on other people. And he continues to be unlikable for most of this one too - I only felt sympathy for him in three brief scenes in this book. Lev Grossman excels at lines that are so blatantly jarring that I kept turning the pages, hoping Quentin would just realize how outrageous and dysfunctional he was being. He only just starts to get there by the end of the book.
For me, The Magician King is largely saved by Julia's backstory, which is told in parallel to Quentin's story. Having also watched the TV show, I wish that Grossman had spent a lot more time fleshing out Julia's character. She goes through a lot, far more than Quentin ever realizes, and the turmoil that she experiences is downplayed a lot due to Grossman's disaffected writing. I think the ending of this book would have felt a lot more powerful and uplifting if readers got more time with Julia.
Unfortunately, I think that the narration is told so solidly from Quentin's point of view that it would feel out of place to have done so.
Old review:
So let me tell you about the way Lev Grossman looks at fairy tales: they're not real. If the ending of the story is happy, it isn't really the end. This is a pretty down-to-earth fantasy writer, and in my opinion, his work blooms all the better for it.
The Magicians was puzzling. It left me confused and hungry for more. I couldn't tell if he was poking fun at the genre, or revolutionizing it. In The Magician King, I think it became a little clearer. The writing is casual, the tone disaffected... Grossman writes in some very meta ways, once commenting that Ember's explanation "closes a plot hole quite neatly,"amusingly self-aware.
But The Magician King does more than just shake up our well-known "Harry Potter grows up and meets the real world" formula. There are real characters that Grossman has written, characters to fall in love with, and cry over. And through all of his haphazard writing comes a very real message: We all want to be the champions of our stories, but what are we willing to give up to get there?
It's interesting what a decade will do to one of my favorite books. I think I was able to read this with a more critical eye now.
A lot of people rate the first book, The Magicians, quite low, so it only makes sense that people going on to read the sequel were tolerant of Quentin being an awful sad sack. Lev Grossman understands the deep, dark trenches that a person's soul can sink into and he puts all of that onto paper without pulling his punches. Quentin is depressed, ungrateful, entitled, and he often finds a way to put the blame on other people. And he continues to be unlikable for most of this one too - I only felt sympathy for him in three brief scenes in this book. Lev Grossman excels at lines that are so blatantly jarring that I kept turning the pages, hoping Quentin would just realize how outrageous and dysfunctional he was being. He only just starts to get there by the end of the book.
For me, The Magician King is largely saved by Julia's backstory, which is told in parallel to Quentin's story. Having also watched the TV show, I wish that Grossman had spent a lot more time fleshing out Julia's character. She goes through a lot, far more than Quentin ever realizes, and the turmoil that she experiences is downplayed a lot due to Grossman's disaffected writing. I think the ending of this book would have felt a lot more powerful and uplifting if readers got more time with Julia.
Unfortunately, I think that the narration is told so solidly from Quentin's point of view that it would feel out of place to have done so.
Old review:
So let me tell you about the way Lev Grossman looks at fairy tales: they're not real. If the ending of the story is happy, it isn't really the end. This is a pretty down-to-earth fantasy writer, and in my opinion, his work blooms all the better for it.
The Magicians was puzzling. It left me confused and hungry for more. I couldn't tell if he was poking fun at the genre, or revolutionizing it. In The Magician King, I think it became a little clearer. The writing is casual, the tone disaffected... Grossman writes in some very meta ways, once commenting that Ember's explanation "closes a plot hole quite neatly,"amusingly self-aware.
But The Magician King does more than just shake up our well-known "Harry Potter grows up and meets the real world" formula. There are real characters that Grossman has written, characters to fall in love with, and cry over. And through all of his haphazard writing comes a very real message: We all want to be the champions of our stories, but what are we willing to give up to get there?
charles_dunham's review against another edition
4.0
I wish 4.5 stars was an option for this worthy sequel to "The Magicians. I'm making an effort to be more stingy with my praise so my favorite books can be distinguished from my almost favorite. This book both subverts and enjoys the notion of a classic quest as Quentin accedes to the demands of talking animals and attempts to save a magical kingdom from collapse. Witty and thoughful, this would be story enough, but the dark elements from the prequel come through in the parallel back-story of Julia, who never had Quentin's cozy experience at Brakebills school of magic, who instead took a more tragic route before rejoining Quentin in Fillory. Any adult who enjoys both Harry Potter and David Sedaris is likely to appreciate both books in the series and hunger for more.
themainplantain's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
lapislazuli159's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0