The Magicians: (Book 1), Book 1

Lev Grossman

Oct 2009 · Random House

About this ebook

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. Obsessed with the fantasy novels he read as a child, he finds the real world just doesn't compare.

Then one day it happens: he stumbles unexpectedly into a hidden world and is invited to join a very exclusive college, where he will learn the secrets of magic.

But something is still missing.

And now Quentin will do anything to find what he's always been looking for.



Praise for The Magicians Trilogy


'The best fantasy trilogy of the decade.' Charles Stross

'The most entertaining and compelling fantasy I've read in a long time.' The Times

'Lev Grossman has conjured a rare creature: a trilogy that simply gets better and better as it goes along... Literary perfection.' Erin Morgenstern

'May just be the most subversive, gripping, and enchanting fantasy novel I've read this century.' Cory Doctorow

'Dark and dangerous and full of twists. Hogwarts was never like this.' George R. R. Martin

'Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.' Joe Hill

'A darkly cunning story about the power of imagination itself.' The New Yorker

'The Magicians ought to be required reading... a terrific, at times almost painfully perceptive novel of the fantastic.' Kelly Link

'Brilliantly explores the hidden underbelly of fantasy and easy magic, taking what's simple on the surface and turning it over to show us the complicated writhing mess beneath.' Naomi Novik

Ratings and reviews

A lot of the reviews on this book are painfully unfair. Personally I think that Book 1 was, great, good ending and interesting snippets into this universes magic, but that's all it seemed to muster and left a lot to be desired with minimum exploration into a TON of things. Spoilers if you haven't read the book yet. The day of the beast was well written but lacked any sort of proper in-depth exploration and the results of that had incredibly little influence on Q for the rest of the book. In summary book one is good but felt stunted in growth with simply not enough time put into it. 5 years of magical learning summed up with little amounts of interesting magic. Book 2 left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It felt like it was thrown together and the idea that fillory was real felt like it was just convenient writing. BUT despite my gripes with the book, it was consistently impressive with its descriptions and painted a wonderful view of the characters surroundings. Then again, I take back what I said at the begging and after really thinking about it, maybe the reviews aren't all that unfair.

Yes the story is derivative, but intentionally so. The writing style - Grossman loves splitting up his sentences - can be a bit jarring at times when overused, but the story and the characters make it all worthwhile. I look forward to reading the next one and watching the TV series.

I'd hate to hard on this book but it had so many opportunities to deliver a brilliant story that looped and plotted and it failed. Overall an OK read.

About the author

Lev Grossman is the author of the #1 bestselling Magicians trilogy, which has been published in thirty countries and adapted as a TV show that ran for five seasons. He is also a screenwriter and the author of two children’s books, The Golden Swift and The Silver Arrow, and his journalism has appeared in Time, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, among many other places. He lives with his wife and children in New York City.