The way things were going, it was headed toward a 3-star rating.
The best parts of the story took place in Fillory-Eliot and Janet saved the first 75% of the book, and Janet may have emerged as the most compelling character in the series for me. Even Quentin’s showdown with maniacal Smurfette (aka Niffin Alice) felt kind of meh. After the epic build-up of the first two books, watching Quentin putter around Brakebills, deal with his father’s death, and get mixed up in some asshatted talking bird shenanigannery felt anticlimactic. The whole Quentin/Plum/suitcase caper seemed like it should have been raucous good times but, it just felt flat. A nice texture to add to a salad, sure, but certainly not something that you’re going to seek out and crave.
So, what did The Magician's Land taste like? For most of the book…cucumbers-that is, not unpleasant, but kind of bland and unremarkable. I enjoyed it more than I did The Magicians, but if reading The Magicians was like eating some weird gourmet spiced cinnamon chocolate cardamom kale monkey essence designer gelato (perplexing and memorable and tasty but kind of off-putting), then reading The Magician King was like eating vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup-delicious, but immediately forgotten because you’ve had it many times before and can easily get it again. It was much more comfortable to read-like slipping on an old pair of sweatpants after wearing too-tight fancy-pants designer jeans all day (ummm…or so I’ve heard, having no direct experience myself with such tomfoolery…ahem). I expected The Magician King to continue in that vein…instead, it presented a pretty paint-by-numbers fantasy tale, filled with heroic feats of derring-do, albeit with cynical hipster commentary.
It was the Watchmen spin on the tried-and-true fantasy formula-let’s think about what would REALLY happen if some kid woke up one day, discovered he had magical powers, and got into a school with other hormonal and maladjusted teens in the same situation. It was the other side of the Harry Potter/Charlie Bucket coin-kid gets golden ticket, only golden ticket turns out to royally screw up one’s psyche. The Magicians left me depressed and flummoxed, but intrigued. But, not unlike clichéd and stupid Facebook statuses, it’s complicated. Don’t get me wrong-the ultimate impression is a positive one. I’m still not really sure what to make of it. It was the Watchmen spin on the tried- Warning: spoilers to follow!
To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.more He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, and a new Fillory-but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. With nothing left to lose, he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic, but he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.Īlong with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quent Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams.
With nothing left to lose, he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic, but he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him. Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams.