Robert Wilson

This story is really thought provoking; kind of sours my desire to read anything similar.

This book really surprised me with it's theology so well integrated into all of it's character's lives. It was a wonderful set-piece revolving around the themes of loyalty, duty, and love. I recommend this book to anyone who has grown tired of the usual over-wrought drama of today's fantasy best-sellers.

This book was much improved over the first ([b:The Magicians 6101718 The Magicians Lev Grossman http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg 6278977]) by moving away from solely following the story of Quentin. In the first story he moped the whole way through even as he was granted whatever he wanted, time after time. This time out, we still follow Quentin in the present but are given the story of Julia in alternating chapter flashbacks which truly create the backbone of the story. Julia is a much better formed character than Quentin and she doesn't make the nonsense life choices that plague Quentin's arc. I'm sure that there's probably another book on the way to tell us more about how Quentin will continue to pout his way through life, being handed everything he wants on a silver platter and finding it all wanting. Unless he becomes a changed character following the final scenes from The Magician King it will fall back to the bland story arc that marred the first book.

This book was really fun to read. It doesn't follow the current trends in fantasy literature. This book is fantasy without magic, for the most part, making it more of an alternate universe story set in medieval Europe. I recommend this to anyone interested in a gangster-revenge tale in a fantasy setting. I haven't read Joe's preceeding books, the First Law trilogy, but I am probably going to pick up [b:The Heroes 9300768 The Heroes Joe Abercrombie http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1284418103s/9300768.jpg 12879765], which follows this book.

I was a fan of the tv series and I enjoyed the movie when it came out earlier this year, so it probably comes as no surprise that I liked this book as well. The writing is as good as the show and the plot takes place shortly after the events of the movie. That means that Logan is out of the picture for the most part and that is a good thing in my opinion. There is plenty of emotional angst without that story line. Most of the cast of characters is present as well, although more Weavil wouldn't have been a bad thing. All in all a pretty good mystery with a few twists to keep you guessing.