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#5 Platform: The Magicians
Jan. 30th, 2012 12:36 amHere's a bonus review for something I finished last year... since it's relevant again, let's give it a shot.
2011 Book #35: The Magicians
Author: Lev Grossman
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
This review is going to be more spoiler-y than my reviews usually are. Not that I'm going to ruin the ending or later plot points or anything, but I think to do this right and talk about the themes I want to, it's going to take us into territory that's deeper in the book than I usually go into writing these up. Okay? So let's go.
If you've heard about this book, you've probably heard that it's like Harry Potter or Narnia but more grown-up, where grown-up is generally taken to mean it has more drinking and sex. And to a certain extent, that's true: our hero, Quentin Coldwater, finds his way out of a normal, humdrum life he's unsatisfied by, and into Brakebills, a magical university where he makes new friends, masters a lot of magic through lots of discipline and hard work, and has a variety of adventures. And yes, there is drinking and sex. You can see where the comparisons came from.
That said, this is really a more adult book in a different sense. One of the main themes of the book is that getting what you want and getting to feel special won't necessarily make you happy; getting what you really want may even make you a worse person. Quentin and his friends aren't morally great people, and they can be petty and jealous and feel trapped and bored just as well with lots of magic as people manage to do without. It just means that they don't have to worry about their subsistence, but Quentin wanted life to be better, and it doesn't necessarily manage. Even getting to discover new worlds doesn't necessarily get across what you really want out of life; changing your views might have to carry you the rest of the way. But if you accept this, the world can still be full of wonder, and people can still be heroic; the book can still move you that magical way.
The writing is fluid and evocative, and there are definite deconstructions and take-offs from Narnia and the Harry Potter books. The characters are well-sketched, for the main ones, and are complex enough to feel both likable and not likable at the same time. The choice of themes and the building of the relationships really resonated with me. It took a bit for me to get set up in the story and feel attached to everyone, but I ripped through it afterwards. The very end part of it was a bit odd, as it didn't feel as earned as the rest of the story, feeling more like a sequel hook, but I'm very much looking forward to reading the sequel, so I can't punish it too much. In fact, I think I will go start that now.
Next up: The Magician King. As predicted.
2011 Book #35: The Magicians
Author: Lev Grossman
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
This review is going to be more spoiler-y than my reviews usually are. Not that I'm going to ruin the ending or later plot points or anything, but I think to do this right and talk about the themes I want to, it's going to take us into territory that's deeper in the book than I usually go into writing these up. Okay? So let's go.
If you've heard about this book, you've probably heard that it's like Harry Potter or Narnia but more grown-up, where grown-up is generally taken to mean it has more drinking and sex. And to a certain extent, that's true: our hero, Quentin Coldwater, finds his way out of a normal, humdrum life he's unsatisfied by, and into Brakebills, a magical university where he makes new friends, masters a lot of magic through lots of discipline and hard work, and has a variety of adventures. And yes, there is drinking and sex. You can see where the comparisons came from.
That said, this is really a more adult book in a different sense. One of the main themes of the book is that getting what you want and getting to feel special won't necessarily make you happy; getting what you really want may even make you a worse person. Quentin and his friends aren't morally great people, and they can be petty and jealous and feel trapped and bored just as well with lots of magic as people manage to do without. It just means that they don't have to worry about their subsistence, but Quentin wanted life to be better, and it doesn't necessarily manage. Even getting to discover new worlds doesn't necessarily get across what you really want out of life; changing your views might have to carry you the rest of the way. But if you accept this, the world can still be full of wonder, and people can still be heroic; the book can still move you that magical way.
The writing is fluid and evocative, and there are definite deconstructions and take-offs from Narnia and the Harry Potter books. The characters are well-sketched, for the main ones, and are complex enough to feel both likable and not likable at the same time. The choice of themes and the building of the relationships really resonated with me. It took a bit for me to get set up in the story and feel attached to everyone, but I ripped through it afterwards. The very end part of it was a bit odd, as it didn't feel as earned as the rest of the story, feeling more like a sequel hook, but I'm very much looking forward to reading the sequel, so I can't punish it too much. In fact, I think I will go start that now.
Next up: The Magician King. As predicted.
