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Our discussion of Book One of The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman

This was a spirited discussion! Quentin’s sexism and terrible behavior was a deal-breaker for some of us, but others chalked it up to his youth and appreciated his self-awareness (at times) of his limitations. One of the group had read the book years ago and hated it – this time around she liked it better, while someone else had the opposite experience, which pretty much sums up our mixed reviews.

Comments:

  • It was refreshing to have a flawed protagonist who wasn’t a goody two-shoes like Harry Potter and was more like a Holden Caulfield.
  • Since all the magicians were described as highly-competitive and type A, I expected them to be jerks and appreciated all the unexpected things that happened, like in the beginning when Quentin was drawn to the giant cabinet and it seemed like it might be a portal to Fillory, but instead the point of the scene was to find a body on the floor nearby.
  • The drinking was too over the top – a big deal was made of Eliot being an alcoholic, but they all were doing the same thing.
  • So many references! Star Trek, Scooby-Doo, Alice in Wonderland, and especially Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. Fillory was a Narnia-like world with Umber the goat standing in for Aslan.
  • The Harry Potter references were distracting – was there a reason for welters other than as a counter to quidditch?
  • I loved to hate this book! It was a forced exercise in anti-Harry Potter characterization.
  • It was disturbing to have Harry Potter and Narnia referenced extensively in the same book – nooooo!
  • Harry Potter gave you wonder along with the darkness. This book is just darkness. Fillory was supposed to bring purpose into their lives, but it really didn’t.
  • The author had some beautiful sentences and great ideas, but too often the story did not hang together. Things would be mentioned, like the school’s crest, and then never mentioned again. Also, an explanation was never given for the students who were mysteriously missing from the school.
  • The author chose not to show things that were happening, like when the beast ate a student. Quentin was in the room, but he doesn’t know what happened until later on when he is told that it happened. We are limited to Quentin’s viewpoint.
  • It could have been so much better.
  • One problem was that there was no future for students after graduation, no evil to fight, nowhere to go.  Since all the graduates were given a lot of money to live on by the school, there was no impetus to do anything at all.  Alice’s parents were prime examples of magicians serving no purpose in the world.
  • There were a lot of times where the magicians didn’t even seem to realize they were magical – when they could have used magic and inexplicably didn’t. A mention was made to the “circumstances” being different in Fillory as an excuse for not using magic to create warming spells or somehow keep their coats with them. They were able to use magic when they were under attack, though.
  • Why was the button created? In Narnia, rings were created for a reason. In Lord of the Rings, they were created for power. Here? Others thought the button was fine as a magical object, like a Portkey in Harry Potter.
  • One person who saw the TV series based on the book thought it was worse than the book, but someone else liked the series and felt it had more action.

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you may have about The Magicians. We gave this title the codes AGE, MAG, LEL, SEX & ALC with an average rating of 3.

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