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 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Amazon Best of the Month, August 2009: Mixing the magic of beloved children's fantasy classics (from Narnia and Oz to Harry Potter and Earthsea) with the sex, excess, angst, and anticlimax of life in college and beyond, Lev Grossman's Magicians reimagines modern-day fantasy for grownups. Quentin Coldwater lives in a state of perpetual melancholy, privately obsessed with his childhood books about the enchanted land of Fillory. When he’s admitted to the surreptitious Brakebills Academy for an education in magic, Quentin finds mastering spells is tedious (and love is even more fraught). He also discovers his power has thrilling potential--though it's unclear what he should do with it once he's moved with his new magician cohorts to New York City. Then they discover the magical land of Fillory is real and launch an expedition to use their powers to set things right in the kingdom--which, naturally, turns out to be a much murkier proposition than expected. The Magicians breathes life into a cast of characters you want to know--if the people you want to know are charismatic, brilliant, complex, flawed magicians--and does what Quentin claims books never really manage to do: "get you out, really out, of where you were and into somewhere better. " Or if not better, at least a heck of a lot more interesting. --Mari Malcolm

Author: Lev Grossman
Series: The Magicians (Book 1)
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Viking Adult; 1 edition (August 11, 2009)
Media type: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 416 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0452296293
Followed by: The Magician King
Publication date: 11 August 2009


Reader Review

Wondrous -- but you still want to smack that idjit.

Stop thinking this is a fantasy book. I know, I know, it's called "The Magicians," the plot synopsis references all three of the most famous fantasy series and describes a handful of familiar fantasy tropes, including the school of magic and the fairy tale land come to actual life. But forget all of that. I have read more fantasy books than I can remember -- I'm named for a character in perhaps the most famous fantasy series of all time -- and I'm telling you: "The Magicians" is not a fantasy.

It has fantastic elements, yes. There is magic; there is a school for magic, where the characters learn to cast spells, using hand gestures and arcane language and strange mystical components -- Ziploc bag full of mutton fat, anyone? -- and there is a voyage from this world to another, a land of naiads and fauns and magical speaking animals, gods and demons, kings and queens, quests and wishes. But this book is something very different from the usual fantasy novel. In "The Magicians," Lev Grossman has done something unusual, and remarkable, perhaps even unique: this is a grown-up fantasy. This book is to fantasy what "The Grapes of Wrath" is to travel books, what "The Metamorphosis" is to self-help: so much more depressing and visceral and funny and horrifying, and genuine, and fascinating, and hard to read and therefore valuable, that it doesn't belong in the same category despite sharing some central traits. The setting is imagined, and there are supernatural things that happen, but make no mistake: this is a serious novel.

Where the characters in most fantasy books are heroic, larger than life, the sort of people we wish we could be, these magicians are not: the characters are too close to plain old humanity, flawed, contradictory, foolish and foolhardy, to stand in as idealized versions of ourselves. Where most fantasy books provide an escape from our reality, this book does not. In point of fact, the moral of this book is that escape is not only impossible, but dangerous and harmful to attempt. The hero, Quentin Coldwater, attempts to escape every serious situation he faces, and every time, he ends up worse off than he would have been if he had just been able to deal with it, honestly and sincerely. But his response to his worsened circumstances is to try to escape again -- with predictable results. Every step Quentin takes is the wrong one, and every step sinks him deeper and deeper into a quagmire. The book gets hard to read: not because the writing is anything less than excellent, as it is top notch from first page to last, but because the urge to reach into the page and slap, shake, and eventually throttle the main character becomes overwhelming. But that desire, that feeling, should be familiar to every adult who has thought back on his or her life, and shook his or her head, thinking, "Why did I do that? How could I be that stupid?" That desire to smack Quentin is no different from the desire to smack our younger selves, and sometimes, that's a terribly annoying feeling to have, which makes this a somewhat annoying book to read.

The real triumph of this book, however, is that it is not only a serious novel, despite what I have been saying. Grossman is able to describe a world of wonder and imagination, and populate it with characters who are utterly unworthy of the magic all around them, who appreciate nothing, who completely flub their great chance -- just like I would have done if I lived through this experience, just as most of us do with our great chances in our real, mundane, unfantastic lives, which are also as full of wonder as any dreamed by a teller of tales. And because the characters are so real, so easy to relate to, it makes the fantasy seem just as real (which, of course, makes the real world just as fantastic). Brakebills reminded me of my own college experience, and yet it is a magical place. Fillory is indeed a fairy tale land come to life in this book, and I found myself wishing that I could believe I would have handled Fillory better than Quentin does -- but knowing that I would have done almost precisely the same things, made the same choices and the same mistakes. And the ending is glorious: the climactic action scene is thrilling and impossible to put down; the revealed secrets are both surprising and satisfying; the final resolution is, if not completely happy, at least hopeful.

I won't say that this is a great book, on par with "Of Mice and Men" and "Catcher in the Rye" and "To Kill a Mockingbird," but I will say that it is closer to those than it is to "The Hobbit" or the Xanth books. If you are a fan of literature, of thinking about your reading, then you must get this book, especially if you enjoy fantasy. If you are just looking for an escape, look elsewhere -- because this is not a fantasy. Or at least, it isn't only a fantasy. It's a wonder. 

-- by Theoden Humphrey "Dusty"

The Neverending Chronicles Of Hogwarts Wardrobe

Ok right off the bat you get the distinct impression you've read all of this before.

Boy feels socially akward...boy discovers he's magical...boy gets into private magical school.

So right away you feel...wow that's very Harry Potter of you. Yet somehow it's not bad and the author even at times makes fun of this very obvious fact by referencing Rowlings work. I thought the book would feel stale, and oddly I found just the opposite. The differences are slight but they are there. Here it's college, the student body is much smaller and the quirkiness of the world is much more subdued.

Now the other obvious work at play here is C.S. Lewis and his Narnia books...except here it's called Fillory. But the rest is almost exactly the same. Childrens books written long ago where the young Chatwin siblings find themselves falling into a magical realm through a grandfather clock. Talking animals and all. Right down to the need for human Kings and Queens and the set of 4 thrones. ANd while for the majority of the book these tales remain as such...tales which our antagonist holds quite dear...the last quarter of the book finds a more real version which, while still resembling the childrens tales, ends up being far more sinister in actuality.
And for good measure I seemed to feel a dash of Neverending Story thrown in. The books he's been reading aren't fiction!

Now all that being said and all the painfully obvious similarities aside, I found an astonishing thing happen once I stopped thinking about those facts. I found that even though these ideas were recycled the author does manage to bring a fresh take on them. I enjoyed reading this book immensely and I really didn't expect that. He writes succinctly and manages to encompass a great span of time and events while still leaving the reader feeling as if nothing were left out. And maybe there's a bit of that "comfort food" mindset at play here. But it didn't matter while I was reading it. I was genuinely curious where the story was headed and I was engaged with the characters straight on through.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy books and those with a bit of a yearning for old childhood classics minus the childishness.   

-- by Crystal Lily "Coriolous"

 

Well written book, but it left me Numb
 
The Magicians by Lev Grossman is a well written story about a magical world, a fairly detailed world of rules and exceptions. The story, at one point, had a very poignant concept of what magic may be: That if the universe was a house that God made for everyone, that Magic was the tools he left behind, possibly by accident, in the garage. That perhaps using Magic was as dangerous as kids finding these power tools and such, and using them without direction or precaution.

The characters in the story are fairly fleshed out, in that you have a good sense of what drives them, what makes them tick, you can see the dynamics between them. The description of the magic school Brakebills is very well done, filled with things that people don't understand about and that has a life of its own. And while at the very end there's something that can lead to a sequel, there's definitely an ending to this book, no gimmick cliffhanger that requires you to wait for the next book.

Definitely, the book had the makings of a great story. Yet, I was left numb at the end, not happy, not sad, not scared. And that, really, is why I left this review with 3 stars. I read fiction to be entertained. This entertainment can be in the form of humor, feeling good, scared, excited, titillated, insightful, or some combination thereof. Instead, when I read this book, I saw through the eyes of a fairly apathetic protagonist, who messes things up and blames everyone else, who had chances to become a hero and fails each time. I read about a person who wanted something, got it, didn't like it, and became apathetic. I read about the antagonist being defeated, the protagonist winning in the end, and no one feeling ... well, happy for having accomplished anything. Perhaps this is what real life can be. But come on, that's not entertainment. And that's what's sad about this, that this book had the potential to be a GREAT story, but misses the mark significantly.

Would I recommend this book to someone else? Honestly, I'm not sure, and that's why I must conclude with 3 stars.

I'm interested in discussing this story with anyone else who is willing to, without putting any spoilers into play, so I'll do that via comments to my own review. Feel free to join in. 


-- by Mitchell M. Tse "mitchelltse"

American Gods by Neil Gaiman [2001]

American Gods is Neil Gaiman's best and most ambitious novel yet, a scary, strange, and hallucinogenic road-trip story wrapped around a deep examination of the American spirit. Gaiman tackles everything from the onslaught of the information age to the meaning of death, but he doesn't sacrifice the razor-sharp plotting and narrative style he's been delivering since his Sandman days.

Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.

Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.

More than a tourist in America, but not a native, Neil Gaiman offers an outside-in and inside-out perspective on the soul and spirituality of the country--our obsessions with money and power, our jumbled religious heritage and its societal outcomes, and the millennial decisions we face about what's real and what's not. --Therese Littleton

Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (June 19, 2001)
Media type: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 480 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0380973651
Followed by: Anansi Boys; The Monarch of the Glen (Fragile Things)
Publication date: 19 June 2001

Reader Review

"This Is a Bad Place For Gods..."

Released from prison shortly after the accidental death of his wife, ex-con Shadow finds himself free, but bereft of all the things that gave his previous life meaning. As he bids his farewell to the fragments of that life, an eerie stranger named Mr. Wednesday offers him employment. Wednesday needs someone to act as aid, driver, errand boy, and, in case of Wednesday's death, someone to hold a vigil for him. Shadow consents and finds himself drawn unsuspectingly into a cryptic reality where myth and legend coexist with today's realities.

Mr. Wednesday, trickster and wise man, is on a quest. The old gods who came over to this country with each human incursion have weakened as their followers have dwindled and are now threatened with extinction by the modern gods of technology and marketing. Wednesday travels from deity to deity, rounding up help for what will be last battle. He engages ancient Russian gods, Norse legends, Egyptian deities, and countless others who have found their way to America in the past 10,000 or so years. Shadow never quite understands what his role is in all of this, but he experiences visions and dreams which promise that he is far more than Wednesday's factotum.

The plot is unendingly inventive as it treks its way across the country. From Chicago to Rhode Island, and Seattle to the magical town of Lakeside, Shadow's journey seems to follow the back roads of America. The people he meets are gritty, and the gods are even grittier. Gaiman creates believable characters with quick brush strokes and builds vivid landscapes that belie their mundane origins. Gaiman, recently moved to the U.S. has invited us along on his own quest to discover an America uniquely his own.

This is a novel that resonates at many levels, it is Shadow's initiation quest, Gaiman's search for the American identity, a revisionist Twilight of the Gods, and last, but not least a captivating piece of fiction. The gods that people this story came with people who found their way to this country from almost every time and place. Gaiman has put his finger on once of this country's greatest truths. Every person who ever lived here has roots from somewhere else. We have crossed oceans and land bridges, on foot, and by every other means of transportation. Our culture has been created whole cloth out of the character and beliefs of all those people. Gaiman has managed to capture a bit of that vision and put it on display for the reader.

After his superb work in "Neverwhere," "Stardust," and the Sandman graphic novels, Neil Gaimon has established himself a force to be reckoned with in the crossover horror/fantasy genre. Now with his new novel Gaiman establishes his mastery in a remarkable story of quest and transformation as he comes to terms with his own vision of America. "American Gods" defies classification and invites superlatives. This is one of 2001's must reads.

- by Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™"

 

Neil Strikes Again

After waiting several years for Neil's new book, I hungrily devoured the 400+ page "American Gods" in just over two days. The story follows Shadow Moon, recently released from prison, as he comes to work for a man simply known as Wednesday. Wednesday is a peculiar old man with a frightening knowledge of Shadow's past and an amazing talent of swindling people who introduces Shadow to many fascinating characters, who it is later learned, are all transplanted Gods endeavoring to hold on to life all across America.

Gaiman explores the sacred power hidden in the kitschy roadside attractions doting the landscape of America's many back roads; their once glorious power waning as people worship more modern cultural icons and ideas. The sprawling story pits the forgotten gods America's immigrated citizens brought with them to the new land against the high-tech gods of modern living in a war for the very right to be worshipped. Shadow is pulled headfirst into the dispute and ends up playing a crucial role in the upcoming battle. The meanings of life and death, self-worth, spiritual beliefs, and redemption are all explored with Gaiman's witty intelligence.

Gaiman's ability to entwine multiple plot lines with clever cultural critiques while maintaining fantastic character descriptions and an engaging narrative solidifies the fantasy/horror author's place as one of the world's best storytellers. Much more than a magical tale of combating Gods, Gaiman paints a picture of a melting pot left too long to boil, and a country who worships the next big thing a bit too easily and with little consideration for it's ancestry.

Definitely worth buying, and undeniably worth reading (all though you might want to slow down a bit more than I did!). And while you're at it - check out "Stardust" and "Neverwhere", you won't be disappointed.

- by J. Dzwigalski "cyber junkie"

Definitely not a light vacation read

If you're looking for a good book to take on vacation to read in your hammock while listening to the waves lap along the shore, sipping your lemonade, basking in the sun, generally feeling quite pleasant about life, "American Gods" is not the book for you. However, if your goal is to be taunted and confused, yet strangely fascinated, then you should definitely pick up Neil Gaiman's latest novel. "American Gods" is a complex story about humanity and the moral fabric of faith, which is changing rapidly in our increasingly modern world. A thought provoking and intriguing read, Gaiman's story is rich with mythic characters and bizarre interactions. His messages about culture and society are all at once dark, humorous, cynical, depressing, insightful, enlightening and at times, gruesome.

American Gods depicts the journey of Shadow, a man just released from prison with nothing to lose, who takes a job for a mysterious man, Wednesday. His life takes many severe, dark and strange turns as he accompanies Wednesday on visits with other complicated characters. He soon finds out he is dealing with different deities from various parts of the world, who now try to survive in America. The group of gods is preparing for some kind of war. Shadow tries to stay impartial by simply doing his "job" without getting personally committed to the cause. However, somewhere along the way, his conscience leads him to discover more than he ever wanted to know about what is really going on between the supernatural forces, who all hold stakes in the culture and future of America.

Gaiman skillfully brings in many legendary, religious and mythological figures throughout his intricate plot. The true identities of these layered characters are riddled and hidden amidst different plays on words and clever uses of symbols. For example, Wednesday seems to obtain his name from the simple fact that it is indeed a Wednesday when Shadow meets him. However, the reader will soon figure out that the word Wednesday originates from Odin, the primary god from Norse Mythology. As the reader witnesses more of Wednesday's actions and personality traits, it becomes clear that Odin is in fact Wednesday's true persona. Wednesday reveals: "' I told you I would tell you my names. This is what they call me. I am called Glad-of-War, Grim, Raider, and Third. I am One-Eyed. I am called Highest, and True-Guesser. I am Grimnir, and I am the Hooded one. I am All-Father, and I am Gondlir Wand-Bearer. I have as many names as there are winds, as many titles as there are ways to die,'" (Gaiman 103). This is the case with many other individuals in the novel; their identity is slowly revealed over the course of events, the use of names with hidden meanings and connections to other characters. The facades are well constructed and later deconstructed as the plot surges along. This aspect of the book, while very effective for those readers familiar with various mythologies of the world, is sometimes over laden with references to events and symbols of the various deities. It's admirable to include such a wide variety of worldly figures, but somewhat detracting from the story if as a reader, too much extra research is necessary to understand the associations.

The use of supplemental "Coming to America" inserts is also a skillful yet time consuming venture for the reader. Upon first read these excerpts may seem out of place and unrelated, but after thoughtful review, are actually giving us a more rounded viewpoint of the gods' existence in America. The stories range from African gods to creatures from Oman to a woman from Cornwall, England who worships piskies.

If this book were to have a movie rating, it would possibly be NR (not rated). The language is often times harsh and abrasive. There are some very detailed and explicit sexual encounters, which although not gratuitous, do have readers wondering if it is necessary for the story's momentum and meaning. These scenes depict the sensual and all-consuming power of the religions of old; the depth of connection exists on a level that discomforts modern society. Have we grown shallow in our acceptance of the gods? Has god been put at a distance to be worshipped from afar?

The messages of Gaiman's novel provide a unique commentary on American culture. The status of religion is a major theme. The image of gods fighting for survival and yearning for genuine worshippers, forces the reader to think about the history of myths and religions and how those ideas were lost and/or revived in our current world. Gaiman seems to be noting that in America, people choose what they want to believe from a smorgasbord of theories and ideas. Shadow explains to the old gods: "'This is a bad land for gods. You've probably all learn that, in your own way. The old gods are ignored. The new gods are as quickly taken up as they are abandoned, cast aside for the next big thing,'" (Gaiman 420). The minimal role of the character Samantha Black Crow is powerful as she states her personal creed to Shadow about her contradictory yet passionate beliefs about the world: "'I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not,'" (Gaiman 307). She represents the possibility to live openly and respectfully of beliefs in America and embrace almost all of them.

There is also a personal journey aspect to the story. Shadow goes through many tragedies and trials, which lead him on a path of continuing self-discovery. He endures the unthinkable and comes out a stronger, wiser, "more alive" man. As readers, we can find a common ground with Shadow and his quest for answers to his questions. He finds his own voice in the sea of many.

"American Gods" challenges the reader's views of our world and society. The rich, and sometimes harsh language is adeptly woven together to create a book which is difficult to grasp at times but eventually pieces together the riddles and puzzles which have been laid out along the way. If you choose to read this novel, a wildly strange adventure with a deep and complex meaning await.

- by Emma Russell

A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin [2011]

Dubbed “the American Tolkien” by Time magazine, George R. R. Martin has earned international acclaim for his monumental cycle of epic fantasy. Now the #1 New York Times bestselling author delivers the fifth book in his spellbinding landmark series--as both familiar faces and surprising new forces vie for a foothold in a fragmented empire.

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance once again--beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has three times three thousand enemies, and many have set out to find her. Yet, as they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

To the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone--a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge yet. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

And from all corners, bitter conflicts soon reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all...

Author: George R. R. Martin
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 5)
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Bantam (July 12, 2011)
Media type: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Audio Book
Pages: 1040 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0553801477
Followed by: The Winds of Winter
Preceded by: A Feast for Crows
Publication date: 12 July 2011


Reader Review

These dragons don't dance, they stumble

In "A Dance with Dragons," George R.R. Martin seems to have ripped out a page from his own self-written guide to writing a good story, and replaced it with a page from Robert Jordan's version - and in both cases, the change was very much for the worse.

The page he borrowed could charitably be called "Setup," or "Preparation," or even given some grandiose description about the "careful movement and positioning of critical pieces on a game board." In practical terms, though, it comes down to "Delay," "Pointless Stalling," and would be more accurately summed up as "an entire book about multiple characters wandering slowly across the world to approach - but never reach - a place in which something interesting has the potential to happen." For example, everyone's favourite dwarf has a simple goal: he wants to throw in his lot with the dragon queen, offering her whatever advice and wisdom he can. A noble goal, that, and one that would do a great deal to move the story along - his cynicism would open her eyes about some pretty important things. But does he make it to her? Not in this book! No, he's far too busy being packed into barrels like Bilbo the hobbit, swapping tales with cheese lords, being lost, found, sold, and bought, falling in with slaves and signing paper for sellswords, and even being saddled with a plucky lady-dwarf sidekick who continually tells him that he should stop causing trouble and just focus on making the big people laugh, because that's what dwarves are for. In Westeros during the previous four books, he was known and feared as Tyrion of House Lannister, Halfman to the wild mountain tribes, former Hand of the King, unsung hero of Blackwater Bay, the Imp, kinslayer and Kingslayer both; in Essos during this book, all he really manages to do is play a lot of Stratego, reminisce about a previously-unmentioned happy boyhood of gymnastics training in the art of dwarfish capering, and fall convincingly off a trained pig.

The same song is sung throughout the book: nobody actually *gets* anywhere. In Meereen, Daenerys mopes, sighs, tosses her braids, and moons over a pretty boy. On the Wall, Jon Snow hems, haws, asks everyone within earshot for advice on what to do, then completely ignores all of the advice to do something entirely different while complaining about how nobody supports him. Stannis grits his teeth, Melisandre misinterprets prophecies, Dolorous Edd makes comments about mules. A new character is introduced who represents either the most vibrantly crimson scarlet of red herrings, or George R.R. Martin on waterskis leaping majestically over a great white shark; the jury's still out on the kid, but it *is* safe to say that he spends half the book marching determinedly in one direction before abruptly turning around and charging off on completely the opposite course.

And then, there's the issue of the page missing from this book, the page that had elevated the first three books so high above the likes of Goodkind or Jordan. It's the page called "Caprice," or "Injustice," or maybe "Nobody is Safe." It's the page on which he knowingly and thoroughly subverted the standard fantasy tropes of good triumphing over evil, of all death being either deserved (if the deceased was a bad guy, like for instance an orc) or deeply meaningful (a sacrifice, like Boromir dying to protect the hobbits). The previous books used that page, and used it well. No character was sacred: anyone could die at any time, for any reason - or for no reason at all - because the world was a cruel and merciless and fickle place, and justice and honor and fair treatment were exceptions rather than rules.

In "A Dance with Dragons," though - and in "A Feast for Crows," to an extent - that page is notably absent. The Onion Knight, by this point, has gone through more lives than the average cat; while I have great fondness for the character, I almost wish Martin *would* kill him off just so the poor soul could rest. Whenever Arya gets a knife pressed against her throat, it turns out to be a well-meaning rescuer offering her a haircut. Mance dies then reappears good as new, Catelyn died and reappeared (somewhat the worse for wear, in her case), ghosts from the past pop up alive and well and living in the Westerosi equivalent of Paris. At this point, I'm more than half-expecting Khal Drogo to ride up on a skeletal horse and say "Hey Dany babe, I busted out of the nightlands, let's cross the poison water before my afterlife parole officer finds out I'm here." A Song of Ice and Fire has gone from "Nobody is Safe" to "Every Main Character is Totally Safe at this Point," and the suspense is just *gone*.

So, after all that, do I regret reading "A Dance with Dragons"? No. The sad truth is, even a mediocre George R.R. Martin book is better than most of the other offerings in the genre. My thoughtful boyfriend bought it for me on iBooks the very hour it was released, and I'm sincerely grateful that he did, and I'll buy and enjoy the next one just as promptly.

But even though this book was good enough, it can't help but suffer by comparison to the others. On its own merits, I rated "A Dance with Dragons" 3/5 stars; compared to the magnificence of the first three, though, it's more like a 1.5/5. 

- by Kate Morris "now with 52% more minty freshness"

 

Better than AFFC, Barely

If you had told me to make a list off the top of my head before I sat down to read this novel, of events I'd want to see, or resolutions I was looking for, it would have been something like:

Dany mastering her dragons, escaping the Meereen situation, and heading west.
Tyrion arriving at Dany's court to serve her in his unique ways.
The battle with the Others finally starting in a serious way.
Jon learning who he is.
Cersei's trial and the unleashing of FrankinGregor.
What is Jaime going to do?
Is Briennie dead, what did she say to get out of the noose?
Quentyn arriving at Dany's court and revealing Dorne's plans to her.
Victarion using the horn to control the dragons.
Bran meeting the Greenseer and finishing his training.
Arya finishing her training.

A pretty obvious list based on the story so far, right? I would have been happy with 3 of these stories moving along, 4 would have been downright wonderful. Instead I got one and a half. And the kicker...it's the last one and a half I would have chosen.

This would have been bad enough...only it got worse. GRRM manages to add two more very interesting plotlines, one of which is Stannis' battle for the North, the other of which we'll let be a secret, and he gives no resolution for them either.

This is a novel that ended 200 hundred pages short. Throughout all of it we are given two "big" stories, the North and the East, and both of them look to lead towards large power altering battles that will rival the Blackwater...only we never get to them. The book stops before BOTH.

It is a novel filled with ships sailing, and sailing, and sailing some more. Of marching, and marching, and marching some more. Jon Snow becomes muddled in food stores, concerned with wildlings, with not an Other in sight of the wall. Dany reverts back to trying to save absolutely everyone, doing anything at all to make a false peace, and turns on her own dragons. Cersei has 2 chapters, Jaime 1, and both of them feel like they should have either been included into AFFC or left out till Book 6. Bran and Ayra train, but it has no end in sight.

Tyrion....Tyrion learns to cherish his inner dwarf. If all this doesn't sound exciting, don't worry, you will be lucky enough to get to read near 50 pages of food descriptions scattered about the novel. There is also about 100 "You know nothing, Jon Snows", about 50 "Words are Wind" and considerable "I must go forward" and something about Lannister's and debts I didn't know about...

I can't say it was all bad. If there wasn't good I wouldn't be so disappointing in where the book ended after all. Reek, Barristan, Asha, and Davos were all fantastic, the single Melisandre chapter shed much light on a certain bastard's destiny, and my main-dragon Drogon was the star of the book.

But...I have just finished 1000 pages, it is fresh in my mind, and what drives me to my disappointment is the thought of another 5 years...where I will have my list above, one scratched off, and yet two more added.

3.5 but it doesn't deserve the curve.

- by Richard Raley "Writer for Life"

Martin regains focus, but is a little free with the cliffhangers

A Dance with Dragons is the fifth novel in the Song of Ice and Fire series and probably the most eagerly-awaited epic fantasy novels in the recent history of the genre. It may be six years since A Feast for Crows was published, but it's eleven since A Storm of Swords came out and the last time we saw new material from Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen or Tyrion Lannister, the arguable central triptych of characters around whom the whole series rotates. The risk is high that Martin would deliver a novel that fails to meet expectations.

Fortunately, he succeeds in giving ASoIaF fans a book that is almost everything its predecessor wasn't. Whilst Crows was tightly-focused and constrained in geographic setting, Dragons is huge, epic and sprawling. The novel covers events happening almost five thousand miles apart from one another, with a huge cast of characters, old and new. Where there are new characters, they are there to serve specific plot points and get the storyline really moving along, whilst some major existing characters are simply not featured where they have nothing to contribute to the storyline. Martin employs a fairly strict POV structure this time around: Dany, Jon and Tyrion (and, to a lesser extent, another character) get a significant number of chapters each but everyone else only gets a few. Once their work for the novel is done, they're outta there, and other POVs only show up when needed. This gives the novel a busy, revolving-door feeling at times as characters come in, do what needs to be done, and then get out, and gives some individual storylines and chapters a rather concise, focused feel, despite this being a huge, long book. Certainly with these 'lesser' POVs, there's little to no time for filler, though with some of the bigger POVs there are moments when Martin dwells on a story point a bit too long or delivers bit of background information which, whilst intriguing, doesn't really contribute much to the storyline at hand.

It's a busy book with lots happening, possibly more than any other book in the series bar only A Storm of Swords. It's also the most disparate, and the geographic sprawl would make it easy for Martin to lose control of either the timeline or the plot focus. He doesn't do either, and by the end of the novel the timelines have been pretty much re-synched (with plenty of AFFC characters reappearing in the final few chapters to keep everything moving). Thematically, the book is much concerned with the notion of deeds, not words (the term "Words are wind," is oft-repeated, probably a little bit too much) and the notion that you can only know people by what they do, not what they say. Disease and pestilence also play a role, whilst for the military engagements Martin expands his influences to include Napoleon's ill-fated march into Russia. These scenes are vivid enough to make you feel chilly even if you're reading the book on the beach.

This series is known for its plot twists, sudden shocks and major character deaths, and Martin doesn't stint here. Some twists are genuinely shocking (though a couple have some carefully-built-in get-out clauses), on the level of the Red Wedding or higher, though others are a bit more predictable, with the author having taken care to lay some groundwork in earlier novels. Other elements come out of nowhere: the resolution of a key, major backstory mystery from the very first novel (probably not the one you're thinking of) is unexpected in both happening with two books still to go, and also in the amount of detail it gives. Another twist is bravely pulled off with almost solely the use of new characters and actually works, throwing almost all of the carefully-constructed fan theories out there for a loop.

Characterisation is particularly strong, and Martin seems to relish some descriptive passages. A detailed account of the Doom of Valyria - quite a few books overdue - is spine-crawling and disturbing, whilst another one of Martin's trademark huge feasts may feel over-familiar right up until you realise what's really going on, at which point a belly laugh is the only possible response.

A Dance with Dragons is a bleak book. Winter has fallen in all its fury and it really doesn't seem possible for the war-ravaged Seven Kingdoms to survive, with no harvest taken in and little to no supplies put to one side. Some characters are trapped in nightmarish situations whilst others have to be careful with every decision they make lest they trigger chaos and bloodshed. But there are moments of lightness, and the feeling that in the darkness there is still hope for these people and their world.

Towards the end, A Dance with Dragons picks up an irresistible momentum which brings us towards what looks like the biggest convergence in the series to date. But, in a misstep that could have been fatal if not handled better, we never quite get to that climax, which seems to have been mostly delayed to the start of The Winds of Winter. Instead Martin breaks off the book on a series of cliffhangers that dwarf anything seen previously, and only a few story threads find any sense of resolution. But we then get a couple of concluding chapters featuring some of the most pivotal and startling moments in the series to date, and the real sense that whatever readers think A Song of Ice and Fire is about, or how it will end, Martin is not necessarily interested in doing the same thing. The ending is impressive, despite the cliffhangers, but brings in a little note of bitter sweetness: waiting a year for The Winds of Winter would be hard enough, but the fact that we know we'll probably have a lot longer is frustrating.

A Dance with Dragons (****½) solves a lot of the problems experienced in the previous book in the series and brings renewed energy and focus to getting this story towards the endgame. A series of cliffhangers, some over-used terms (though "Nuncle," only gets one airing, thankfully) and a feeling that Martin might be revisiting some plot elements a little too freely dent the book's achievements, but a series of emotionally intense and surprising final chapters restore the faith that Martin has regained control of the story.

I am a moderator on the Westeros.org website, the creator and chief admin of the Game of Thrones Wiki and someone who is mentioned in the acknowledgements of the book. Whilst I have tried to have been as honest as possible in my review, you may want to bear those factors in mind.

- by A. Whitehead "Werthead"