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#5 Platform: The Magician King
Feb. 13th, 2012 01:29 amThis one was wondrously tightly done, and just better than the first.
Book #6: The Magician King
Author: Lev Grossman
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
Caution: Some real spoilers for The Magicians.
If the take home message of the Magicians was that getting what you want, even if it's more than you ever rightly expected you could, won't really make you happy, a large part of the message of the Magician King is that it's still better than seeing what's out there, and not getting a chance at it. That just can gnaw away at you, and however you saw your life going before, you can't go back to your previous plans.
This book picks up a few years after the events of the Magicians, and we find ourselves back in Fillory with our hero, Quentin Coldwater, now one of the Magician Kings of the land. But being a king and having life be an easy time is too simple for Quentin, who really wants to be a hero, and get out on adventures. So he grasps on to the first thing he can sign onto for getting out of the castle, a trip out to collect some taxes from an outlying island of the kingdom, along with Julia, one of the queens of Fillory now. The trip starts out on the slow side, but it turns into a big quest that carries along the length of the book. It's a real hero's journey, as it were, and it's not always what you think; it ends up going through some surprising places.
Getting back to Julia: interspersed with the tale of Quentin's quest, we hear the tale of how she came to show up at the end of the previous book to claim a seat at the royal table of Fillory, after not even having made it into Brakebills in the previous book. This is a tale of obsession and pain, of picking apart the weave of the world to find the magic that you know is out there, and the price you pay to get at it, and to find your place, and of trying to recognize your place when you find it. Knowing that there's magic out there, but being denied access, is the worst thing for the motivated, brilliant Julia, and while you know that something terrible has happened to her in the past - just looking at her part in Quentin's quest in the present, it's clear - finding out the whole cost of her journey is, I think, more powerful than Quentin's side. I found myself looking forward to getting back to her side of the story when I was in Quentin's section, and the present-day quest in Quentin's section was really quite good, too.
The best thing of this for me, though, was how tight the plot was. Oh, yes, the lead characters were really good - I can identify with Julia and Quentin both, and they're well fleshed out. And yes, the writing is also very well done, lucid and memorable, drawing the reader in, and weaving through a number of styles as necessary; legend and fairy tale, busy fighting and family drama. Julia and Quentin's POV sections definitely felt different, too. But the plot... there are a couple of niggling details (the star system doesn't entirely make sense to me, for example), yes. But it's so tight. All these details that weave in that come into play at some point, or by the big piece at the end of the story; all these pieces that turned out to be foreshadowing or important that filled their roles in how things played out, from new details of the world to appearances from old characters, and it all came together beautifully. You don't normally see that in second books in a series; I was mightily impressed.
Anyway... this was a great book. I really enjoyed it; I love that sort of plot, and the world and characters are well-done and fully realized. Even if you weren't super fond of the Magicians (particularly if that was because you found the characters whiny or annoying), I'd give this a chance. And if you liked the Magicians, what are you waiting for? All I'm waiting for now is the next one.
Next up: A review for Last Man in Tower.
Book #6: The Magician King
Author: Lev Grossman
Provenance: Borrowed from Westmount Library
Caution: Some real spoilers for The Magicians.
If the take home message of the Magicians was that getting what you want, even if it's more than you ever rightly expected you could, won't really make you happy, a large part of the message of the Magician King is that it's still better than seeing what's out there, and not getting a chance at it. That just can gnaw away at you, and however you saw your life going before, you can't go back to your previous plans.
This book picks up a few years after the events of the Magicians, and we find ourselves back in Fillory with our hero, Quentin Coldwater, now one of the Magician Kings of the land. But being a king and having life be an easy time is too simple for Quentin, who really wants to be a hero, and get out on adventures. So he grasps on to the first thing he can sign onto for getting out of the castle, a trip out to collect some taxes from an outlying island of the kingdom, along with Julia, one of the queens of Fillory now. The trip starts out on the slow side, but it turns into a big quest that carries along the length of the book. It's a real hero's journey, as it were, and it's not always what you think; it ends up going through some surprising places.
Getting back to Julia: interspersed with the tale of Quentin's quest, we hear the tale of how she came to show up at the end of the previous book to claim a seat at the royal table of Fillory, after not even having made it into Brakebills in the previous book. This is a tale of obsession and pain, of picking apart the weave of the world to find the magic that you know is out there, and the price you pay to get at it, and to find your place, and of trying to recognize your place when you find it. Knowing that there's magic out there, but being denied access, is the worst thing for the motivated, brilliant Julia, and while you know that something terrible has happened to her in the past - just looking at her part in Quentin's quest in the present, it's clear - finding out the whole cost of her journey is, I think, more powerful than Quentin's side. I found myself looking forward to getting back to her side of the story when I was in Quentin's section, and the present-day quest in Quentin's section was really quite good, too.
The best thing of this for me, though, was how tight the plot was. Oh, yes, the lead characters were really good - I can identify with Julia and Quentin both, and they're well fleshed out. And yes, the writing is also very well done, lucid and memorable, drawing the reader in, and weaving through a number of styles as necessary; legend and fairy tale, busy fighting and family drama. Julia and Quentin's POV sections definitely felt different, too. But the plot... there are a couple of niggling details (the star system doesn't entirely make sense to me, for example), yes. But it's so tight. All these details that weave in that come into play at some point, or by the big piece at the end of the story; all these pieces that turned out to be foreshadowing or important that filled their roles in how things played out, from new details of the world to appearances from old characters, and it all came together beautifully. You don't normally see that in second books in a series; I was mightily impressed.
Anyway... this was a great book. I really enjoyed it; I love that sort of plot, and the world and characters are well-done and fully realized. Even if you weren't super fond of the Magicians (particularly if that was because you found the characters whiny or annoying), I'd give this a chance. And if you liked the Magicians, what are you waiting for? All I'm waiting for now is the next one.
Next up: A review for Last Man in Tower.
