I feel like I should preface this review by stating that I *am* a fantasy fan. _The Magicians_ is either a fantasy novel dressed as a mainstream literary novel, or a literary novel decked out in the trappings of a fantasy novel. At times it seems to switch back and forth between the two. It is not, however, a novel you should read without at least some experience in the genre. You definitely need to read C.S. Lewis' _The Chronicles of Narnia_ before tackling this one. There are also plenty of references to J.K. Rowling, T.H. White, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, etc. etc. but the Narnia theme is absolutely central to the plot, the world, and the heart of _the Magicians_.

Quentin is a brilliant, albeit miserable, high school senior at the start of the novel. He's never really felt like he belongs in the real world and harbors a bit of an obsession for his favorite childhood fantasy novels set in a made up land called Fillory.

Fillory is obviously a stand-in for Narnia. In fact, as the novel goes on it becomes more and more obvious that Fillory is *exactly* like Narnia, it begins to get a little annoying that Grossman didn't just use Narnia! Copyright issues are probably responsible for that (although Neil Gaiman used Narnia in his short story "The Problem of Susan.")

Anyways, Fillory sits neatly in the background for the first half of the novel, which is taken up with Quentin's acceptance to a secret magical college called Brakebills, very much like Harry Potter and Hogwarts, except with college-aged students who spend a lot of time swearing profusely and getting drunk. There's sex in there, too, but it's never described in detail - always as a passing thing, a sentence or two.

The first half of the book, set at Brakebills, was actually my favorite part of the novel. The descriptions of the college grounds, the lectures, and how hard the students had to work to perform magic was fascinating, interesting reading. There's also a chilling chapter where one of their professor's utters an incantation slightly incorrectly and allows a creature from another dimension access to their world.

If I have one problem with the Brakebills half of the novel, it would be that at times it read a bit too much like Grossman was constantly criticizing the Harry Potter books with cheap jibes about how you can't just learn magic using "fake Latin" and magic wands. And while I don't have anything against criticizing Harry Potter, it got a little annoying. At times I felt like saying "Yes, your take on magic is more gritty and realistic, I get it, get on with the story, please!"

My real problem with reading this novel came from the fact that I never felt quite sure what Grossman thought about the fantasy genre. Did he hate it? Was the whole point of _the Magicians_ just to make fun of the genre? But why bother writing such a detailed magical world with so many lavish, clearly well thought out, rules and history?

I found the second half of the novel weaker than the first. After they graduate from magic college, Quentin and his friends discover that Fillory/Narnia is in fact real and that they have a way of crossing between worlds to get there. After a lot of dilly-dallying they eventually go there, and it's fairly predictable what happens - things are darker and more gritty and realistic then in the books they all read as children. Which we of course all knew was exactly where Grossman was going to go with it. Since Brakebills was a darker, more grown up Hogwarts, naturally Fillory is a darker, more grown up Narnia.

As well, Quentin, who was never "shiny happy people" to begin with sinks into all-out miserable depression in the second half of the book. He turns nasty and mean to his friends, lashing out at them all because he has troubles with his girlfriend, which were largely his fault to begin with. He gets his dream, his ultimate fantasy, of going to FIllory and all he does when he gets there is mope and be a miserable jerk to everyone around him. It gets old, fast.

Sure there are battles, there's bloodshed, there's an evil monster to fight, okay. Things do pick up again considerably at the novel's climax, and there's a neat twist or two, but unfortunately the climax occurs about forty pages before the end of the book, and we are then treated to a long, rambling and generally depressing denouement. The ending is very unsatisfying - it doesn't seem like there was a point to anything.

I thought Neil Gaiman did a superior job of critiquing the Narnia books in his short story, "The Problem of Susan" (which you can find in his collection _Fragile Things_) and Gaiman did it a lot more succinctly.

I think my main problem with this novel was the pacing. Parts of it just dragged. I did enjoy parts, but the conclusion left me dissatisfied. I've heard that Grossman is writing a sequel. I don't know if it's true, but I don't think I'd read it. My rating: 3/5 stars. ( )

I heard this refereed to as Harry Potter for adults, it reminded me more of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin - the school setting was there, but largely ignored for the story. This was complex and layered, I think it will bear rereading to get to the heart of it. I enjoyed it very much on the first read through. There wre lovely nods to Harry Potter, and obvious references to Narnia books. More modern references to iPods and such I found a little distracting, the timeless nature of the story keeps it above the soon-to-be-dated references to technology. ( )

The Magicians has been described as “Harry Potter for grownups,” and in a way that’s accurate. It is the story of Quentin, an extremely intelligent and socially awkward high school senior who leaves his ordinary life behind to study magic at the Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, hidden in a secret corner of upstate New York. While he is there, he studies the magical art, makes friends, and has what is by many accounts a normal college experience, much like Hogwarts for an older student body. After graduation, he and his fellow Brakebills alumni aimlessly drift through New York’s magical underworld, fueled by the sex, drugs, and hedonism that J. K. Rowling’s characters never got to experience, until they finally stumble upon the grand adventure that has been eluding them for so long. Quentin’s story, however, is much darker and more melancholy than Harry Potter’s. Though he battles demons and explores magical worlds, Quentin finds that his new talents can’t bring him the happiness that he was missing in his more mundane life. Grossman has cleverly borrowed not only from Rowling, but from C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein and other masters of fantasy in The Magicians, but in the end his question to Quentin and to us is “Can a man who can cast a spell ever really grow up?” ( )

I went into this book knowing exactly what it was about and almost completely enjoyed it. Grossman drew his inspiration from some of the most famous and popular children and teen fantasy novels to bring us this rather amusing and at times quite series novel. The book carefully weaves all these different stories together, creating a world that is both like the ones we're familiar with and completely different. I can understand how fans of the other books would be upset, but Grossman knew what he was doing and he does it well. ( )

The Magicians . . . it started off a little slow - which seems to be the norm for stories where someone discovers they have a hidden talent and they're whisked to another world to learn more about it. But, it stayed slow for a loooong time. Also, too often there seemed to be very little sense of wonder at the new abilities (understandable later in the book but not so much in the earlier parts). The characters were by and far, spoiled rich kids, really shallow and they didn't grow throughout the book even though there was a strong effort by the author to try to say otherwise. Still, I did enjoy parts of it - I'm just not sure if it was enough to want to revisit the settings and find out where the characters end up years down the line. ( )