Amateur Book Review : The Magicians by
Lev Grossman
This is the first time I will be
writing a review of a book, so please bear with me if this turns out
to be what you do not expect.
This book was included in a list I read
somewhere about the 100 Best Science Fiction Books of All Time. Among
that list is The Lord of the Rings, 1984, Necromancer, and the works
of Isaac Asimov, Neal Stephenson, Robert Jordan, and others. You get
the drift.
When I read the title, I thought to
myself, “Harry Potter.” When I read it at first, there was no
magical feeling of discovering a new world, just a rehashing of all
the old cliches of magical worlds and mythologies. This is kind of
what I felt with the books of Rick Riordan with his Percy Jackson
books. This book has been heavily influenced by the work of C.S.
Lewis, particularly his “Narnia” series. You can see it with the
scenes of the children going inside an ordinary home furniture, a
grandfather clock instead of a wardrobe, and coming out in a magical
world. There's also an Aslan reference with the ram gods Amber and
Umber, and a similar four thrones for the human kings and queens. A
Peter Pan similarity to Martin Chatwin is also there as well as a
Hogwarts in Brakebills'.
The book hits its stride after the kids
graduate from the school. I realized while I was reading this part
that the previous pages were just preparation for the emotional
roller coaster that the book brings out in me. Much like Quentin and
the Physical Kids clique had to study magical incantations to prepare
for the real world, some of the earlier scenes laid the background
for what will be happening later.
Quentin, the main protagonist, has won
the genetics/circumstance lotto. He has magical abilities. But much
like what would happen to your worldly ambitions should you win the
lottery, Quentin and his gang has everything they've ever wanted, and
it has made them deeply unhappy. There was an earlier scene where
Alice made Quentin promise not to grow up being exactly like her
magical parents. People who has it all and thus bored out of their
minds. They don't have any overriding ambition to do anything else,
except to have a fictional book about magic go real and the ensuing
pathos resonated with me, thinking, I could be them.
The magical beings and the magical
world they inhabit becomes secondary to the emotional milieu of the
book. Going inside a grandfathers clock suddenly takes on a sinister
turn as the reason behind why a kid would hide behind it is revealed.
Going to Neitherland and on to Fillory instead of rotting away in a
boring desk job may be a reflection of how we want to escape our own
ennui. I could be Quentin, I realized. If The Lord of the Rings
suddenly became real and I could go to middle-earth through the
Neitherlands. I would be happy, but then again I could live to regret
it.
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