The Magicians

Fantasy

First published: 2009
Print length: 402 pagesA Plume Book, 2015

Description

Quentin Coldwater, a dissatisfied Brooklyn student obsessed with children’s stories about the magical land of Fillory, unexpectedly earns admission to Brakebills, a secret North American college of magic. Enchantment there is neither effortless nor consoling: students must master lost languages, exact gestures, and demanding specialties, and one experiment unleashes a terrifying otherworldly Beast. Quentin forms friendships, trains at an isolated Antarctic campus, and begins a relationship with Alice, yet achievement fails to supply the purpose he expected. After graduation, he and his friends discover that Fillory is real. Entering it means confronting a realm more dangerous and politically divided than the books promised, in a fantasy about privilege, disillusionment, and the limits of getting what one desires.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Descriptive · Direct · Witty

Pace

Moderate

Tone

Cerebral · Dark · Melancholic · Unsettling

Structure

Linear

Focus

Character · Ideas · World

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 4 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

AmbitionBelongingFriendshipIdentityLoveObsession

About Lev Grossman

Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist whose career has joined imaginative fiction to sustained criticism and technology reporting. As Time’s book critic and lead technology writer from 2002 to 2016, he covered literature alongside video games, blogs, consumer electronics, and other forms of digital culture. That range carries into fiction that moves among literary fantasy, mystery, children’s books, graphic narrative, and screenwriting. He wrote The Magicians trilogy, which treats magic as a demanding discipline rather than an easy consolation and follows desire, disappointment, and the search for purpose across adulthood. Codex brings a similar interest in obsession and hidden systems to a rare-book mystery, while The Bright Sword revisits Arthurian legend. Across these works, Grossman tends to enter inherited story forms from skeptical, contemporary angles, balancing detailed worlds and direct, often witty prose with characters alert to the gap between fantasy and fulfillment. His work in children’s fiction and the Alice’s Story graphic novel also shows a willingness to change audience and perspective without leaving speculative storytelling behind.

Series

Magicians Trilogy · Book 1

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: A Plume Book
Language: English
ISBN: 9780399576645

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