While the writing was inconsistent, really liked the overall coming of age story! The 2nd half was definitely the best part. ( )

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW!

Okay I will be honest, more-or-less halfway through this book I just wanted it to end. When I saw the blurb on the back about how it's supposed to be "Harry Potter and Narnia... for adults!", I will admit, it's what drew me in. I'm always up for a good fantasy that works along the lines of fantasies I've enjoyed in the past. The problem is, Grossman draws mainly off the formulas for fantasies that have worked in the past. When it says "Harry Potter and Narnia for adults," that's just about all it is, you just add sex, drugs, and cussing.
The plot entails one Quentin Coldwater, your typical gloomy, my-life-sucks teenager. Quentin has an obsession with a series of books about the fictional Chatwin children, who travel to the magical land of Fillory by going through a grandfather clock, and help defeat evil (sound familiar?). Quentin would like nothing more than to have magic powers and escape from his dreary New York life into Fillory. Not long after, he by chance gains entrance into Brakebills, a school for magic – a lot like Hogwarts, but in upstate New York. From there on, he makes some friends and becomes a real magician, only to find that the world of magic is much more boundless and dangerous than it seems.
Now, despite the generic-fantasy-formula, the book probably still could have worked, but there are other problems too. For one, the main characters are basically insufferable. Quentin, our hero, is for lack of better words, a whinging, immature idiot. There haven't been a lot of characters out there in the literary world that I've wanted to strangle blue, but Quentin has a special spot in that list. There is not really any kind of personal development for the characters. They don't really seem to learn anything at all from their mistakes and problems. When something bad happens, they whine about it then continue along the same track. Another issue I had with the characters was that they have this amazing world all around them, open to them, and they can only complain about how it doesn't make them instantly happy. They expect a magical cure for the unhappiness to appear out of nowhere. You mean you have to choose to be happy?? Overall, Alice was the one character I actually liked and had some compassion for, then of course she gets killed off.
Now, I'm not saying that there was nothing redeemable about this book, because there were aspects that I really did enjoy. There were moments when Grossman's descriptive and creative abilities really shone through. The only problem is, these moments were short-lived and the story goes back to the old track that wasn't so great. I really enjoyed the moments of magic which he described, and the way the characters did magic – I wish there was more time spent on that then time spent listening to whining. I also think the world of Fillory and Brakebills had a lot of potential. Despite those redeeming qualities, I don't think they're enough to convince me to spend the time required to continue on with this series. Overall, it's a somewhat average book. It's worth trying out, I suppose, if you're someone who enjoys fantasy – you never know, you might like it better than I did – but then again, you might just end up bored and anxious to get it over with. ( )

This book was Harry Potter without the sense of wonder, hope, and strength -- of course, Harry Potter was a child's book and The Magicians is not...

But I honestly wonder if you can call 'The Magicians' more realistic or not. Sure, it covesr the risks of magic, and a bunch of magical teenagers crammed together with hormones and booze and teenage angst better than Harry Potter did, and certainly, more realistically for a certain segment of the population. But after that it loses realism in exchange for rampant cynicism.

It comes to a certain suspension of disbelief. I can believe in the structure of other fantasy 'heroes' better than I can in The Magicians as opposed to seeing Quentin Coldwater cock everything up and ruin pretty much every good chance he had only to re-embrace everything that had shat on his life at the end of the book. While I am probably intrigued enough to pick up The Magician Kings -- which is a good sign for me -- the major thing holding me back is that Quentin is a fuck up who I cannot really believe is going to do anything but fuck up.

It's not a bad book. But it is a difficult book, if you don't want to essentially watch people ruin their lives with too little sense and not enough foresight. Which is fine if you enjoy that, but I see people do that enough in my daily life without having to add it to my reading. I'm honestly hoping he'll learn something from his experiences and the next book he'll grow a little, but... I don't know if I can hold too much hope there. ( )

An odd book that turned out to be completely different from what I expected going into it. The idea is interesting, though I can't say that the writing is particularly compelling or that the plot is very good at all. Still, I've heard they get better, so I'll have to see what happens with the next two. ( )

I really liked this despite the reaaaally long period of unnecessary description without action in the middle. Enough so that I'm grateful that I have something to move onto to read. Not sure why I'm in such a reading drought.

( )