The Magician King by Lev Grossman [2011]

Amazon Best Books of the Month, August 2011: This second volume in Lev Grossman’s celebrated series picks up just after the events of its 2009 prequel The Magicians. Quentin, Eliot, Janet, and Julia are now the High Kings and Queens of Fillory, a fantastic realm not unlike Narnia, and they pass their days “deliquescing atom by atom amid a riot of luxury.” To ease his royal boredom, Quentin embarks on a quest with Julia. Despite his romantic visions of heroic feats and easy accolades, the quest goes horribly awry, and they find themselves back in the depressingly real world of Chesterton, Massachusetts. With the help of seedy underground magicians, a dragon, and a young boy named Thomas, they undertake a desperate journey back to Fillory. Grossman’s writing here is sharp and self-aware, and the characters feel like people you actually know, but cooler: they are delightfully profane and dripping with irony, they are arrogant and shallow, they are finding their way in a magically perfect world that somehow still lets them down, and they are learning to fight for the things they love. The Magician King is a triumph of (and an homage to) modern fantasy writing, and a must-read for grown-up fans of Narnia and Harry Potter. --Juliet Disparte

Author: Lev Grossman
Series: The Magicians (Book 2)
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Viking Adult (August 9, 2011)
Media type: Hardcover, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 416 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0670022311
Preceded by: The Magicians
Publication date: 09 August 2011

Reader Review

First, thanks to Penguin and NetGalley for making this available to review!

The Magician King is a great follow-up to The Magicians. Picking up soon after the end of the first installment, the beginning of the Magician King finds Quentin, Julia, Janet and Eliot sitting on their thrones as kings and queens of Fillory. Their lives are luxurious and peaceful, but Quentin is bored. Beginning with a make-work quest to an outer island, Quentin and Julia soon find themselves on an adventure that leads them first in search of a golden key, then back to the Real World and beyond.

While this part of the book is well-written and enjoyable, it was the intermingled chapters that told Julia's story that I found more engaging. These chapters explore Julia's study of magic - while Quentin was matriculating at Brakebills, Julia gradually became more obsessed with what she'd missed out on by failing the entrance exam. While Quentin's studies were fraught with danger, Julia's were perhaps even more so -- in an entirely different way.

The parallels between Fillory and Narnia continue in The Magician King. At times, I found myself wondering how much of the obviousness (is that a word?) is intentional. And, as I write this, I wonder -- C.S. Lewis wrote Narnia as an allegory for Christianity. The Magicians and Magician King explore a scientific basis for magic and also have roots in alternate mythologies - does he intend any similar allegories? Something to think about.

Regular references to pop culture phenomena may date The Magician King, and I found parts of the narrative difficult to get into, but overall I greatly enjoyed this title. I hope that Grossman continues exploring his magical realms. I'd be particularly interested in a greater exploration of the members of Free Trade Beowulf.

-- by Karen

 

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I don't typically review books that are the second or third in a series. That's because it's hard to review a sequel without giving away too much information about the first book. Now, however, I'm breaking my own rule for The Magician King because I just can't let it go to print without putting in my two cents.

But, that being said, there are ***SPOILERS*** in this review if you haven't read The Magicians.

I'm going to start with the thing I liked the most about The Magician King. It's a feeling. It's the same feeling I get when I'm at the movie theater (about once every six months) and the movie is something I'm really excited about, but while the previews are on I'm totally engrossed and not thinking about the feature film. Then the previews end and for a split second I forget what's coming next. And when I remember, I get this sudden jolt of nervous excitement.

Maybe it's just me--I don't get out much--but that's how this book made me feel whenever one of Julia's chapters came up.

Which brings me to my next point: Julia. Her chapters only occupy about 1/4 of the real estate in this novel, if that, but it's clear that she is the protagonist of The Magician King. This is partly because Quentin is still a mopey little wiener who sighs around his own story but mostly because Julia is a force of nature. Finally we get to hear what happened to her between her ill-fated Brakebills entrance exam and her ascension as Queen of Fillory.

Meanwhile, Quentin is looking for something to do. He settles upon a journey to Utter Island to collect three years' worth of back taxes, but being Quentin he has to make an ostentatious quest out of the expedition. And, of course, things start to get weird pretty fast. He and Julia make an interesting team: both with a caravan's worth of emotional baggage, both incredibly smart and powerful, both really good at screwing up their own lives.

Where Quentin (I love Quentin, I really do, but he's SO emo) is depressed in a kind of sad and pathetic way, Julia is depressed in a dark, fiery, angry way. She's totally hardcore in her unhappiness, and her magic is an extension of that. In The Magician King we finally get to see what the non-Brakebills-educated magicians are all about, and let me tell you, it's pretty awesome.

I'm going to stop there, before I give too much away. Suffice it to say that the dialogue is still hilarious, the prose is still luscious, and the characters are still irritatingly human. I plan to read this one again when it comes out in August

-- by Jake Hallman 





Is there something, someone bigger than me out there?

The book opens with the four rulers of Fillory, a magical land, on a horseback ride into the forest. They’re seeking a hare who can predict futures. It’s really just a lark, an excuse to have something to do. Then everything turns serious. There is a death and priorities change. Two of the rulers stay home but Julia and Quentin head out for adventure and answers.

Julia’s story is riveting, it’s beautiful, it’s even mystical. She’s a hedge witch meaning she’s learned her magic alone or with other rogue magicians living in secret safe house, a system not unlike the Underground Railroad. She goes from house to house learning whatever each group knows of the craft. She searches online and finds magical nibbles that are soon erased by big brother. Then she joins an online group of like minded people, some of them are even more damaged than Julia. This group hole’s up in a beautiful mansion near Provence. After going down countless tunnels leading nowhere they decide to seek the Goddess. Their journey is lovely as well as terrifying.

Then there’s Quentin. Though he loves his life as one of four rulers of his beloved Fillory he’s longing for more. That’s when a quest presents itself and he can’t resist its call. He finds an ancient bewitched boat, repairs it and sets out to parts unknown in search for seven golden keys. Oddly he’s not quite sure why he’s seeking the keys so he just adds their elusive meaning to his quest check list.

Julia is another of the Fillory rulers and she and Quentin lives weave in and out of one another’s finally dovetailing at the ending. I enjoyed this book tremendously though as I said Julia’s story packed the biggest punch. I didn’t like the ending, or not all of it. I freely forgive Grossman though because he was probably using this ending to set up his next book which I can’t wait to read. In case you’re wondering, though this book is a sequel to his “The Magician” which I haven’t read, I didn’t feel lost. He provides enough of the back story to propel you through “The Magician King”.  

-- by Cynthia 

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