Tag Archives: Fillory

Book review: The Magician’s Land

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Lev GrossmanThrown out of Fillory and back in the non-magical world, Quentin Coldwater retreats to his former magical university in Brooklyn. Brakebills. He becomes a professor where he teaches his discipline, described as ‘mending small things’. Remember this, it will be important later. This is the final book of the trilogy by Lev Grossman and like book two, The Magician King, this final instalment is action-packed.

The story moves between present and past, Fillory and earth, above ground, in the air and underground. Seeking adventure, and money, Quentin meets a new group of underground magicians and accepts a task for payment of $2m. On the team is Plum, who admits she once attended Brakebills too.

In parallel we get the stories of Quentin, Eliot [still in Fillory] and Plum. In order to understand the threat in the present, we have to go back in time to fill in the real story of what happened to the Chatwin children [whose true adventures inspired the novels of Fillory]. And it becomes plain that the Fillory known by Quentin from his childhood love of those novels, is incorrect. The novels were fictional and Fillory is not what it seems.

Depending on them all, is the very existence of Fillory.

A cracking finale.

Click here to read my reviews of the first two books in the trilogy:-
The Magicians #1
The Magician King #2

If you like this, try:-
‘The Queen of the Tearling’ #1 by Erika Johansen
‘The Invasion of the Tearling’ #2 by Erika Johansen
‘The Lost Girl’ by Sangu Mandanna

‘The Magician’s Land’ by Lev Grossman, #3 Magicians Trilogy [UK: Arrow] Buy now

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
THE MAGICIAN’S LAND by @leverus #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1rD

Book review: The Magicians

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Lev GrossmanIn the first sentence of The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Quentin Coldwater does a magic trick with a nickel. A human version of magic.

Another series about magic, I hear you ask? Well this is nothing like Harry Potter. Quentin is due to sit an entrance exam for Princeton when he wanders into the grounds of a mysterious school in upstate New York. In a large room full of unknown teenagers, he sits the oddest test he has ever known. Then he is told he has passed and is accepted at Brakebills, a school of magic. For the first few months his best friend is a glass marble on which he practises his magic.

This is an adult tale. Brakebills is not Hogwarts and Quentin is a young man on the cusp of adulthood, with lingering adolescent depression and lack of confidence. The teenage magicians practise their magic, get drunk and have sex. At his ‘youngest’ moments Quentin remembers the magical tales he loved as a child about a land called Fillory. When he is down, he wishes he could escape to Fillory. And at first, he thinks Brakebills might be Fillory. But it isn’t because Fillory, of course, is fictional.

There are three books in the series and out of necessity in this book Quentin learns his magic. There were times I wished it would move more quickly, the carrot of Fillory is dangled in front of Quentin so much. In Harry Potter – oh how Lev Grossman must be tired of the comparisons – the threat of Lord Voldemort hovers from the first pages. There is no dark threat hovering over Quentin, just teenage angst, teenage love, and a longing to escape his daily life into Fillory. When he does reach Fillory, will it be what he expects?

Read more about the Magicians Trilogy at Lev Grossman’s website here.

Lev Grossman

[photo: jonathan saunders]

If you like this, try:-
‘Divergent’ #1 by Veronica Roth
‘Insurgent’ #2 by Veronica Roth
‘Allegiant’ #3 by Veronica Roth

‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman [#1 Magicians Trilogy] [UK: Arrow] Buy now

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
THE MAGICIANS by @leverus #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1oy