The Magician King

Son of a...

Let's start with The Magicians. At the time, I thought it was “okay” - being a fan of series like Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc., I had a difficult time merging new-age teenage sullenness - no matter how true-to-life - with my idea of those playful, magical fantasy worlds established elsewhere. That said, I thought The Magicians explored some very interesting themes: disillusionment with one's current status/life/the state of the universe, the adolescent feeling of invincibility that comes with college life, the somewhat stagnant realization that life-after-college isn't all its cracked up to be (even when infused with magic), etc.

I picked up The Magician King because there was enough in the first book to interest me. I wasn't expecting a lot, but I thought I'd give it a shot.

Boy, did this book catch me off guard. It was good. It was very good (much, much better than I'd expected).

Quentin, the main character, has landed on top of the magical world: he's the king of Fillory, the fantasy land that he's idolized his entire life. However, even after gaining everything he ever wanted, he's bored. He needs some sort of quest because, after all, that's what every fantasy hero needs (and no one knows that cliche - and that it is a cliche - better than Quentin). So, along with his fellow King (Eliot) and Queens (Janet and Julia), our hero sets off to find his adventure.

What follows is a multi-layered tapestry of discovery, adventure, pain, suffering loss, disbelief, love, and destiny. The story bobs and weaves between time and space, switching between the present story of Quentin's adventures, the past story of Julia's transformation from Stanford-bound know-it-all to power-hungry hedge witch, and the strange, heart-wrenching thread that ties these two plotlines together.

I loved this book. However, let's go back to that first sentence. I won't spoil it, but the story's ending is a sure-as-shootin' cliffhanger. It's okay - even exciting - that Lev Grossman plans to write a third novel in this series; however, this book ends too quickly and quirkily, as if Grossman needed to stop before he wove his third time into this one.

Oh well. Minor quibble. The Magician King (and, truly, this whole series) is flawed, yes, but so is the reality it describe: our reality. These books speak to the deep part of us that, like Quentin, wishes magic could solve the world's problems. Give this one (and its a predecessor, if you haven't already) a shot.