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kkuznecovv's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
dalek_genocide's review against another edition
The main character is not a good person and there seems to be no redemption or development. Hard to keep going when you dislike the main character
danelleeb's review against another edition
5.0
*****Spoilers for the 1st book in this series************
So, we met Quentin in the first book of this trilogy, [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977], and he was an unhappy teenager with a genius IQ living in Brooklyn. On his way to a Yale interview, he somehow winds up taking an entrance exam for a prestigious school of magic. Now, Quentin was always an unhappy nerd, but when he discovered that magic was real, he thought he'd found the thing that would make him happy. But it didn't - well, it did for a bit, and then it didn't. He thought the magic in his life would be more, well, magical - like the magic in his favorite book series of his youth. Then, when one of his classmates stumbles into the land where that book series takes place and they actually find that it is real, Quentin latches onto that. Of course, *this* will make him happy. But then he goes there and he learns that magic is dangerous, it's not all unicorns and rainbows. The book ends as Quentin takes up one of the thrones of Fillory. So, he's a king of the magical land he was obsessed with. He can be happy now.
The Magician King, the 2nd book in this trilogy, picks up right where the other book left off. Quentin, Eliot, Julia, and Janet are the kings and queens of Fillory. Living in the lap of luxury, ruling a magical kingdom ~ they have what Quentin always dreamed of. Yet, Quentin is bored, listless, just not happy with what he's got. Again. You'd think he learned his lesson from Book 1, but no. Now he's got this idea he needs to go on a quest. So he does, with Julia in tow.
Now, I'm not going to get into his quest or what happens or even the cool backstory on Julia and what happened to her while Quentin was at Brakebills, but I will tell you that Quentin's constant whining will make you want to put this book down.
But don't. Put up with his whining. Keep reading. It will pay off.
If you didn't like Book 1, you may not like Book 2. If you had lukewarm feelings for Book 1, you will be impressed with Book 2. If you loved Book 1, you will be amazed by Book 2.
I can't wait to see where all of this goes in Book 3.
So, we met Quentin in the first book of this trilogy, [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977], and he was an unhappy teenager with a genius IQ living in Brooklyn. On his way to a Yale interview, he somehow winds up taking an entrance exam for a prestigious school of magic. Now, Quentin was always an unhappy nerd, but when he discovered that magic was real, he thought he'd found the thing that would make him happy. But it didn't - well, it did for a bit, and then it didn't. He thought the magic in his life would be more, well, magical - like the magic in his favorite book series of his youth. Then, when one of his classmates stumbles into the land where that book series takes place and they actually find that it is real, Quentin latches onto that. Of course, *this* will make him happy. But then he goes there and he learns that magic is dangerous, it's not all unicorns and rainbows. The book ends as Quentin takes up one of the thrones of Fillory. So, he's a king of the magical land he was obsessed with. He can be happy now.
The Magician King, the 2nd book in this trilogy, picks up right where the other book left off. Quentin, Eliot, Julia, and Janet are the kings and queens of Fillory. Living in the lap of luxury, ruling a magical kingdom ~ they have what Quentin always dreamed of. Yet, Quentin is bored, listless, just not happy with what he's got. Again. You'd think he learned his lesson from Book 1, but no. Now he's got this idea he needs to go on a quest. So he does, with Julia in tow.
Now, I'm not going to get into his quest or what happens or even the cool backstory on Julia and what happened to her while Quentin was at Brakebills, but I will tell you that Quentin's constant whining will make you want to put this book down.
But don't. Put up with his whining. Keep reading. It will pay off.
If you didn't like Book 1, you may not like Book 2. If you had lukewarm feelings for Book 1, you will be impressed with Book 2. If you loved Book 1, you will be amazed by Book 2.
I can't wait to see where all of this goes in Book 3.
shewantshercupofstars's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
patremagne's review against another edition
4.0
http://abitterdraft.com/2015/06/the-magician-king-by-lev-grossman.html
Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is one of the most divisive novels in the genre. Most readers either love it or hate it, with scant few somewhere in between. I found that I really enjoyed it, despite Quentin being a whiny, miserable, and wholly unlikable piece of shit. It takes a truly talented author to write such a compelling story about a character with zero redeeming qualities. And I really mean zero. None. Zip. Nadda. Of course, I’ve always been a sucker for plots that include some kind of training school, be it magic at Hogwarts or swordplay and discipline at the Temple of the Sixth Order. Grossman seamlessly weaved his own unique story with various sorts of pokes, jabs, and borrowed from Harry Potter and Narnia and out the other end came this compelling, albeit very bleak tale of Quentin Coldwater and his dream for shit to do.
Well, Quentin’s back, and after becoming king of the recently-discovered-to-be-real Fillory, he’s bored again. In Quentin’s staple never-satisfied way, The Magician King furthers the tale of Quentin’s quest for shit to do. Word has come to High King Eliot’s desk that an island on the far reaches of Fillory hasn’t been paying its taxes. Quentin leaps at the opportunity to do something, even something as droll as collecting what would amount to a meager amount of tax revenue. Only this time, he’s not alone, as his friend Julia is coming along.
Julia…Julia Julia. The Magician King has alternating chapters: the present storyline following Quentin and Julia on their quest, and the past that tells of Julia’s rise to the status of magician. While Quentin and crew learned their magic the normal, legal way at Brakebills, Julia had to take what she could get, learning through a series of rogue underground magic schools.
In The Magician King, Quentin is an entirely different person. While he still has the aforementioned never-satisfied attitude (who likes being bored, though?), he has clearly learned and grown up remarkably in his time since Brakebills. I daresay I actually loved him, and I’m sure that was Grossman’s purpose all along: to string the reader along with this unlikable character in order to really appreciate how much he grows and develops. Unfortunately, Julia sort of took on a minor portion of Quentin’s the-world-is-against-me attitude, although she has the history to back it up and she clearly grows throughout the flashback chapters. The most stark difference between the two is that Julia actively seeks to solve her problems, while Quentin had a bad habit of just whining.
Shortly after reaching the tax-resisting island, Quentin and Julia find themselves beginning another quest of far more consequence than a minor tax dispute. Where The Magicians was almost universally accepted as an overwhelmingly bleak, depressing tale, The Magician King had a much more wholesome feel to it. It had variety, moments both light and dark, and Grossman has without a doubt found his element in his prose. He’s got the perfect mix of everything, from cultural references to mood to plot complexity, and the story simply flows.
While The Magicians was a good steak from your average steakhouse, The Magician King was Kobe beef in steak form, cooked as perfectly as a middle novel can be, and I expect The Magician’s Land to be the epitome of the glory that is steak, if you’ll forgive the metaphor.
Lev Grossman’s The Magicians is one of the most divisive novels in the genre. Most readers either love it or hate it, with scant few somewhere in between. I found that I really enjoyed it, despite Quentin being a whiny, miserable, and wholly unlikable piece of shit. It takes a truly talented author to write such a compelling story about a character with zero redeeming qualities. And I really mean zero. None. Zip. Nadda. Of course, I’ve always been a sucker for plots that include some kind of training school, be it magic at Hogwarts or swordplay and discipline at the Temple of the Sixth Order. Grossman seamlessly weaved his own unique story with various sorts of pokes, jabs, and borrowed from Harry Potter and Narnia and out the other end came this compelling, albeit very bleak tale of Quentin Coldwater and his dream for shit to do.
Well, Quentin’s back, and after becoming king of the recently-discovered-to-be-real Fillory, he’s bored again. In Quentin’s staple never-satisfied way, The Magician King furthers the tale of Quentin’s quest for shit to do. Word has come to High King Eliot’s desk that an island on the far reaches of Fillory hasn’t been paying its taxes. Quentin leaps at the opportunity to do something, even something as droll as collecting what would amount to a meager amount of tax revenue. Only this time, he’s not alone, as his friend Julia is coming along.
Julia…Julia Julia. The Magician King has alternating chapters: the present storyline following Quentin and Julia on their quest, and the past that tells of Julia’s rise to the status of magician. While Quentin and crew learned their magic the normal, legal way at Brakebills, Julia had to take what she could get, learning through a series of rogue underground magic schools.
In The Magician King, Quentin is an entirely different person. While he still has the aforementioned never-satisfied attitude (who likes being bored, though?), he has clearly learned and grown up remarkably in his time since Brakebills. I daresay I actually loved him, and I’m sure that was Grossman’s purpose all along: to string the reader along with this unlikable character in order to really appreciate how much he grows and develops. Unfortunately, Julia sort of took on a minor portion of Quentin’s the-world-is-against-me attitude, although she has the history to back it up and she clearly grows throughout the flashback chapters. The most stark difference between the two is that Julia actively seeks to solve her problems, while Quentin had a bad habit of just whining.
Shortly after reaching the tax-resisting island, Quentin and Julia find themselves beginning another quest of far more consequence than a minor tax dispute. Where The Magicians was almost universally accepted as an overwhelmingly bleak, depressing tale, The Magician King had a much more wholesome feel to it. It had variety, moments both light and dark, and Grossman has without a doubt found his element in his prose. He’s got the perfect mix of everything, from cultural references to mood to plot complexity, and the story simply flows.
While The Magicians was a good steak from your average steakhouse, The Magician King was Kobe beef in steak form, cooked as perfectly as a middle novel can be, and I expect The Magician’s Land to be the epitome of the glory that is steak, if you’ll forgive the metaphor.
gne's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-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
sanaastoria's review against another edition
5.0
[5 Stars] Review to come... I may have loved this more than the first...
luneary's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 stars. I enjoyed it a bit less but I still really liked the characters
catalogthis's review against another edition
4.0
[b:The Magician King|10079321|The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316177353s/10079321.jpg|13362064] begins a few months after the spectacular ending of [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)|Lev Grossman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977], in which Quentin is rescued from his mundane, non-magical life in the real world by fellow Brakebills alumni and the mysterious Julia. The four are now installed as the kings and queens of Fillory, and Quentin is bored out of his mind by the perfection of it all. He yearns for the next adventure (even considering that the last one was pretty terrifying, and ended in the death of another classmate), and decides that a sea voyage to collect taxes from a tiny island community in a far-flung corner of Fillory might be just the thing.
I couldn't quite get into this, and abandoned it after two chapters. I might pick it up again someday, because I am sincerely curious about Julia's story. We didn't see much of her in the first novel after she flunked the Brakebills entrance exam.
Recommended for fans of fantasy classics (i.e. Narnia), which I am not.
I couldn't quite get into this, and abandoned it after two chapters. I might pick it up again someday, because I am sincerely curious about Julia's story. We didn't see much of her in the first novel after she flunked the Brakebills entrance exam.
Recommended for fans of fantasy classics (i.e. Narnia), which I am not.
daisyfriesen's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed this book more than The Magicians. Quentin matured and was actually likeable in this one. He wasn't perfect and content, but he didn't hate himself so much that he did terrible things to his loved ones.