The Magicians

I recently finished reading "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. It was a novel that was recommended to me in the summer but I hadn't gotten around to reading it - or rather I hadn't gotten around to actually seeking the book out.

First and foremost I must say that I am a fan (I just began reading the sequel: The Magician King). I was actually convinced that I would enjoy the book by/before the end of the second chapter. Despite its mooching off of other well-known fantasy stories including, but not limited to, Narnia, Harry Potter, and Oz, Grossman manages to eke out his own style of storytelling that is both familiar and new all at once.

The themes and tools are all familiar - but with a modern twist - and swearing. Harry Potter and the kids in Narnia never swore. Sex, drugs and drama. Oh yes, and magic.

I wasn't clear where the book was heading or how it planned to evolve. The book begins with the main character, Quentin, discovering that magic is real, being admitted into a magical school and so on and so forth. The strange thing was that the author was flying through the years when Quentin was at school so that by the time he wrapped up taking us through Quentin's 4-5 years at school we were only half way through the book. What could come next? Well, what comes next, once you read it, seems obvious and if you didn't see it coming you feel as though you should have.

The second half of the book is more Naria while the first half is more like Harry Potter. The book, while about learning and growing, is really dark and depressing. It touches on how miserable so many people are with their lives. How even when we have so much we're still never happy. Grossman touches on today's generation's sense of entitlement and constant disappointment.

I can't speak for the second book just yet, but the first one gets a thumbs up from me. Seek it out - it's not entirely a feel-good book - but then, as the novel strives to show us, life isn't always a feel-good journey.

Later all... ;)