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The Magicians

Lev Grossman

2009128 pagesabout 2–3 hours
2009
first published
  • 2009Penguin USA, Inc. · ENGISBN 9781101080603
  • 2009Random House Group Limited · ENGISBN 9781409067146
  • 2009Viking · 402 pages · ENGISBN 9780670020553
  • 2009Arrow · 496 pages · ENGISBN 9780099534440
  • 2010Thorndike Press · ENGISBN 9781410422545
  • 2015A Plume Book · 402 pages · ENGISBN 9780399576645
  • 2020Boom! Studios · 128 pages · ENGISBN 9781684155651
  • 2010Plume · 416 pagesISBN 9780452296299

A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real worldQuentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

How it feels

Emotional toneUnflinching
AtmosphereEerie

How it reads

Plot intensityCharacter driven
ComplexityLayered

When and where

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