The Magicians

This is a magic world, something that remembers me Narnia, but this time there isn’t only a childish fairy tale. This time everything is real: there aren’t only happy endings, there aren’t only superior and good guides that show you the path. Here fairy tales come to the reality.

In this way I could explain The Magicians, and I thing that are those qualities, plus the author style of narration, that make this a great book.

I met this universe because of the tv show, and I like it, but this book make me absolutely love it!!! I can’t understand how the showrunner decide to put together all parts of the book, and this makes me suspicious and curious about the future development, but his is another story.

I thing that this first book is a sort of grown up fairy tale that makes we understand that dreaming about a fantasy kingdom in possible, magic is possible, but nothing come without a price (like Rumpelstilzchen remember us!!!), and sometimes it is high.
I really appreciate how the author create the characters and how he’s able to create empathy between them and the reader. I appreciate too the way he gives them the time to reflect about magic and its sense.

In conclusion I sincerely suggest this book to everybody, and I can’t wait to reading all the trilogy!!!

I hate giving up on books. It is like breaking up with someone. You became emotionally invested in the characters, but in this case I couldn't force myself to finish the book.
The story, the characters, the style, everything is over the top.

This is the weirdest fantasy book I have read so far. A Potter-like story in which the boundary between reality and fantasy becomes so thin that you start confusing them. It describes magic in an adult delusional manner, as if it were something dirty and heavy to carry. Alcohol, drugs and depression are all part of a sad world in which magic simply exists and the young men, whether they are touched by it or not, grow up with the same problems and frustrations about their future. Language is absolutely not thought for children. The end of the story is even bitter, such as the after taste of the drink you start enjoying only as a grown-up, when you realize Coca-Cola is so damn sweet that you need to try something else instead. The author pushes his mind to a level of creativity that I have never experienced before. I think it's new and fascinating.

This book threads a very tiny needle with very fine thread. Fantasy books set in the present are in kind of a bind: either the protagonists have never read a fantasy novel, which is unrealistic, or they have and are portrayed as awesome for keeping the faith in magic when their peers have not, which is unrealistic and annoying, or they're realistic portrayals of the kind of kids that believe in Narnia after 12, which is basically calling the reader a loser.

The Magicians takes this painful trap and uses it to great effect. The magic as intelligence metaphor usually bores me, and meta-awareness within a book usually angers me, somehow they work
together beautifully to create a story about how neither intelligence nor genre awareness will save you if you can't learn from your mistakes. It captures the pain of being gifted, the coping mechanisms children develop to deal with that pain, the pain these coping mechanisms inflict when the environment changes, and the pain that that inability to change continues to inflict. This is a protagonist you pity, not one you admire.

This is an incredibly hard act to pull off, and I spent the entire book worrying that Grossman would drop a ball and the whole thing would unravel. The ending isn't quite as strong as the start, but it nonetheless pulls it off.

Bonus: the reader in the audio version is amazing.