Lev Grossman, The Magicians trilogy (spoiler tags used for third book, The Magician's Land)

[Jerol]

Finally read the first book and I'm eager to read the second but it'll have to wait. Was it perfect, ah hell no but entirely entertaining. I like that Quentin was a jerk but I don't think his friends were asswipes. Janet was a bit of a bitch but jeez, it was all the kind of behavior you see in twenty-somethings only to hit their thirties and go, whoa did I need to grow up.

Here's an interesting story from Grossman regarding how the Magicians relates to his own life:

It’s definitely not a through-and-through confabulation. My life and my work definitely have a strong connection, but it’s a bit of a weird one. My work isn’t about my past, it’s about my future.

Let me explain.

I plotted out The Magicians in 2004. It took me five years to write it. At the end of those five years I was talking to my shrink about the book, explaining what happens in it and so on, and he looked sort of gobsmacked. He walked me through the whole story, showing how it was a tightly structured allegory of all the stuff I’d been doing during those five years — basically I’d written out a program for the next five years of my life, in a metaphorical language, then written the story as a novel.

So fiction for me — it turns out — is a way of experimenting with my life before I actually do it. You could call it preemptive autobiography.

I found this review to be a little more accurate about the book than many of the negative ones here. Like someone pointed out further up thread, if you're complaining about the world building you're missing the point:

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/08/the-magicians-by-lev-grossman

Lev Grossman is doing more than just telling a story here. Indirectly, he’s having a conversation with fantasy readers about what it’s like to be a fan of stories that involve magic and alternate realities. It’s about escapism. It’s about what it means to be comfortable with something when you know that it’s a dream, a book, a wish, a movie—and then wishing you could forget what you find out when someone lifts the curtain and shows you the reality behind the fantasy. I think one of the reasons some people disliked this book is that it made them uncomfortable, but in a way that’s hard to put your finger on. As entertaining as the book is (and yes, on one level this is also simply a really fun story), underneath the surface it plays with some of the basic suppositions people have about fantasy—and it doesn’t play nice. (That’s also why I think that some people who complained that the magical realm of Fillory isn’t detailed or fleshed out enough, or that it’s too derivative of Narnia, sort of missed the point.)

[Starkess]

One thing that drove me absolutely nuts in TML:

At the end of The Magician King, Josh gives Quentin the palazzo in Venice. Quentin goes back to Brakebills instead to become a professor. That I totally buy--it suits him and he fits there better than he would rattling around a fancy palazzo and sulking (he's still Quentin, after all). But then after that, when he needs resources to bring back Alice, why the fuck does he get involved in a criminal ring instead of just

going to the palazzo? Even if he doesn't want to live there, he could easily sell the thing for way more than 2 million. And he never even mentions it. I guess it's minor, but since it's the inciting incident for the whole plot, it really stood out to me as a bad continuity error.

[lady narcissa]

Starkess, Grossman addresses this on Goodreads. I can't find a way to link to a specific question and answer but if you go to this page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/142270.Lev_Grossman/questions

Its down near one of the very first questions he answered.

[Starkess]

Starkess, Grossman addresses this on Goodreads. I can't find a way to link to a specific question and answer but if you go to this page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/142270.Lev_Grossman/questions

Its down near one of the very first questions he answered.

Thank you!

If anyone else is curious as well:

At the end of The Magician King Josh offers the Palazzo to Quentin and he halfheartedly accepts. What happens to the Palazzo? Does Quentin own it at the beginning of book 3, and simply abandons it to work at Brakebills? Couldn't he sell or mortgage or VRBO the place to fund his magical research? Are these most pedantic questions you've ever received on your work?

You're not actually the first person to ask about that. In fact my first concept for The Magician's Land opened with a long sequence of Quentin at the palazzo. But I felt like a) we kind of did that in TMK but more importantly B) it was a nice gesture from Josh, but transferring ownership of a Venetian palazzo probably isn't that easy in practice. I couldn't think of a way for Q to take ownership of the palazzo w/out Josh there to sign it over.

This was actually what I thought the most likely explanation, I just wish he could have even mentioned it. One throwaway comment about Quentin trying to go the palazzo after getting kicked out of Brakebills and getting bounced at the door--in fact it would have heightened the sense of desperation why he was turning to robbery. It would still probably bother me a little, as the previous impression was that getting money was child's play for magicians, so it didn't quite work as a motivation for me, but man that palazzo thing was bothering me for the whole book!!

[Jerol]

Dealing with an ill member of the family and spent too much time in waiting rooms. Magician's Land was on the iPad so I dug in. I think he nailed the ending pretty well. Also the chapters where Janet went off on her own and where a world was collapsing were pretty stellar, fast-paced and unrelenting. The arc of Quentin and the Physical Kids completed itself pretty well. Kids who seemed to be horrible pricks grew up, got real, found their priorities. I wouldn't put this into the ranks of GRRM, Abraham, or Hobb but it was a good ride that finished well.

Now onto The Crippled God - god help me...

[Gigei]

Do we still have to spoiler everything?

About the money (minor spoilers only):

In fact, Josh sold a unique magical item that's impossible to replace because he wanted to get an epic amount of money. This shows that it's not actually that easy to get tons of money. So it's not like Quentin can just snap his fingers and get 1 million USD.

Having said that, magicians in the stories never starve. I think it's quite likely that Quentin could get a smaller/medium amount of money without too much of a fuss. However, I would think that raising a more substantial sum would require time and effort. So he turned to crime to get it faster/easier.

This is the same reason most people turn to crime, in fact. I mean, it's quite a classic story, isn't it? A person could earn $1m USD by working hard for 2 years as a dentist or they could get that much money in a week by swindling an elderly relative.

A quick search gives me this quote:

It was more than Quentin had expected. There were probably easier and safer ways in this world for a magician to earn two million dollars, but there weren't many that were this quick, or that were right in front of him. Even magicians needed money sometimes, and this was one of those times

I honestly never thought Q was desperate. He just wanted the easy way.

[alguien]

I have to admit, I enjoyed this one far better than the other two. Grossman wrote a Quentin that has matured (but not unrealistically so--he's not perfect) and trying to do better. When Coldwater gets called on his past bullshit, he owns up to it and doesn't make excuses, but he also doesn't let it drag him down either. It really worked for me.

Grossman had the courage to give us an unlikeable protagonist and his long con paid off by having him grow up in the third book and discover that magic should be (hey, waddayaknow!) magical. The resolutions, and there were many more than I expected (and some occured WAYY too quickly) were for the most part satisfying--especially the scenes with Ember and Quentin's land.

Well done to Mr. Grossman! I'm glad I kept going with the series.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Alguien,

I read the first book. Are the other two worth it?

[alguien]

Scott, I think so. The second one has a good (though occasionally horrifying) storyline with Julia and does a fun take on the Dawn Treader quest. Quentin becomes marginally less insufferable.

But the third book, combined with the short stories that take place in between them, make the series as a whole worth it in my eyes.

[Kat]

I also liked the 3rd book a lot. Things got tied up well. It also had some really nice/funny turns of phrase scattered throughout. It was satisfying enough that I actually went back and re-read the first two books immediately afterward because I missed them.