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The New York Times bestselling novel about a young man practicing magic in the real world, now an original series on SYFY
“The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this.”
—George R.R. Martin
“Sad, hilarious, beautiful, and essential to anyone who cares about modern fantasy.”
—Joe Hill
“A very knowing and wonderful take on the wizard school genre.”
—John Green
“The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.”
—Cory Doctorow
“This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them . . . an unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.”
—The New Yorker
“The best urban fantasy in years.”
—A.V. Club
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A high school math genius, he’s secretly fascinated with a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a magical land called Fillory, and real life is disappointing by comparison. When Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to an elite, secret college of magic, it looks like his wildest dreams have come true. But his newfound powers lead him down a rabbit hole of hedonism and disillusionment, and ultimately to the dark secret behind the story of Fillory. The land of his childhood fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. . . .
The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.
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Release date
August 11, 2009 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415962466
- File size: 501397 KB
- Duration: 17:24:34
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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June 1, 2009
Harry Potter discovers Narnia is real in this derivative fantasy thriller from Time
book critic Grossman (Codex
). Quentin Coldwater, a Brooklyn high school student devoted to a children’s series set in the Narnia-like world of Fillory, is leading an aimless existence until he’s tapped to enter a mysterious portal that leads to Brakebills College, an exclusive academy where he’s taught magic. Coldwater, whose special gifts enable him to skip grades, finds his family’s world “mundane and domestic” when he returns home for vacation. He loses his innocence after a prank unintentionally allows a powerful evil force known only as the Beast to enter the college and wreak havoc. Eventually, Coldwater’s powers are put to the test when he learns that Fillory is a real place and how he can journey there. Genre fans will easily pick up the many nods to J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, not to mention J.R.R. Tolkien in the climactic battle between the bad guy and a magician. 5-city author tour. -
Mark Bramhall sets up the delicate lines between reality and fantasy in the story of Quentin, a teenager from Brooklyn who is surprised to find himself at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy. Sound a lot like Harry Potter? Bramhall delivers the author's irony and allusions as he portrays a maturing, fully-dimensional protagonist. Quentin is insecure at heart, prideful at times, fearful at others. He longs to change the world like the heroes from the enchanted realm of Fillory, which he read about as a boy. When Quentin discovers that Fillory is real, Bramhall distinguishes the hero's imaginings from the reality of the dark realm he finds. As Bramhall depicts this Narnia-like land, he fully portrays the characters, heroes, villains, even the secondary characters such as the cruel Mage, a drunken Bear, and a timid tree person. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine -
September 28, 2009
Grossman's novel is a postadolescent Harry Potter
, following apprentices in the art of magic through their time as students at an upstate New York college to their postcollegiate Manhattan misdeeds, with jaded ennui tempering the magical aura. Mark Bramhall, a smooth baritone with a supple speaking voice, reads carefully, with a slight air of heaviness and sorrow. He pauses frequently and freights the silences with a tenderness well befitting a coming-of-age novel. A Viking hardcover (Reviews, June 1).
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