The Magician's Land
Ratings126
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings126
Average rating4.2
**THE STUNNING CONCLUSION TO THE *NEW YORK TIMES* BESTSELLING MAGICIANS TRILOGY**
Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical world of his childhood dreams. Everything he had fought so hard for--including his closest friends--is sealed away in a land Quentin may never again visit. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of magic. But he can't hide from his past, and it's not long before it comes looking for him. Meanwhile, the magical barriers that keep Fillory safe are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. Eliot and Janet, the rulers of Fillory, embark on a final quest to save their beloved world, only to discover a situation far more complex--and far more dire--than anyone had envisioned.
Along with Plum, a brilliant young magician with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demimonde of gray magic and desperate characters. His new life takes him back to old haunts, like Antarctica and the Neitherlands, and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers buried secrets and hidden evils and ultimately the key to a sorcerous masterwork, a spell that could create a magical utopia. But all roads lead back to Fillory, where Quentin must face his fears and put things right or die trying.
*The Magician's Land* is an intricate and fantastical thriller, and an epic of love an redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It's the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master and a broken land finally becoming whole.
This description comes from the publisher. *The Magician's Land* is the third book in the Magicians Trilogy, the first of which is *The Magicians*.
Series
3 primary booksThe Magicians is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2009 with contributions by Lev Grossman.
Reviews with the most likes.
Great story.
The only reason it gets four stars is that there was this huge plot point from the second book that gets completely ignored (save for a couple of sentences near the end). I kept wondering how the third book's plot would pertain to that event and when it didn't I felt a little disappointed.
If I had gone into this book without any expectations that it would resolve anything from the second book, I would have given it the full five stars.
Fantastic.
I just loved how quentin character developed later in the story.
An amazing job done by Lev Grossman to complete the series
This is one of those books that I've been waiting for since about 30 minutes after I finished the previous book in the series – and at the same time, one I didn't want to arrive, because that means I have to say good bye to Quentin, Brakebills, Fillory and the rest of the gang. The nods to Lewis' The Last Battle were pretty obvious, but naturally, there was a lot more going on than that. Unlike Lewis, the book never really felt like the end of anything but a chapter in the lives of most of these characters, and that their lives went on beyond these pages (you know, those that survived). I really like that kind of finale – one which is definitely an end to the story, but one that the characters go on from, having adventures (however mundane those may be) that we don't get to see.
It's obvious straight away, that Quentin didn't respond too well from the events of The Magician King all too well – but for the record, neither did Eliot. So at least that's fair. We get Quentin's story told to us in two timelines – first, in the present, and the other starts shortly after King. I'm sure there was a point to that, but it didn't strike me as necessary (although I should add, now that I've typed this, I can actually start to appreciate why Grossman may have chosen this. Still, I'm sticking with not necessary). But it didn't interfere with anything, either, so I'm not going to complain.
Upon his exile, Quentin ends up at Brakebills, looking for answers, looking for hope and ends up becoming an entry-level professor there. And he's good at it, for the first time, really since his student days there, he seems content, he seems at home. You really start to think that he's got a happy ending in a quiet life ahead of him. And you know that you're wrong, if only because the book has a lot more pages in it – but also because you know Quentin. Still, it's a nice oasis for both character and reader.
In the present, however, Quentin's part of a magically powered team of thieves – by the time you get an explanation for how he ended up in this situation, with his new companion/disciple Plum, you almost don't care. You've just accepted this reality, and really want to find out (as much as Plum and Quentin do) just what they're after and how they can pull off their heist.
Part of their research requires a trip to Fillory's Antarctica campus. Which I'd forgotten all about, much to my chagrin. Instead of traveling there as birds, they opt to travel as blue whales. A choice I just loved.
[Quentin]'d imagined that he'd get some kind of deluxe ocean-vision as part of his package of new whale-senses, but in fact he didn't see much better than he had as a human. With his eyes on different sises of his head his binocular depth perception was shot, and having no neck, all he could do to change the view was roll his eyes around or steer his whole humongous body. Also, unnervingly, he didn't seem to have any eyelids anymore. He couldn't blink. The urge decreased over time, but it never completely went away.
The Last Battle
You only had to see a unicorn lay open the side of a centaur once, the ribcage flashing white when the ripped skin flopped down, to swear a mighty oath never to fuck with or even look at another unicorn again. I'm putting down the hearts and fluffy clouds and backing away slowly. Don't want any trouble here. You can have all the rainbows.
Quentin didn't care. It was a bookstore, and he felt at home in bookstores, and he hadn't had that feeling much lately. He was going to enjoy it. He pushed his way back through the racks of greeting cards and cat calendars, back to where the actual books were, his glasses steaming up and his coat dripping on the thin carpet. It didn't matter where you were, if you were in a room full of books you were at least halfway home.
The lights were too bright, and there were too many TVs, but it was a bar, and that was another place, like bookstores, where Quentin felt at home. Drinks were a lot like books, really: it didn't matter where you were, the contents of a vodka tonic were always more or less the same and you could count on them to take you away to somewhere better or at least make your present arrangements seem more manageable.
The Magicians
