The Magicians

Executive Summary: It almost felt like two different books, but I generally enjoyed both of them. I can understand why a lot of people don't however.

Audio book: Mark Bramhall is excellent. This is my first time encountering him, but he's definitely on my short list of great narrators. He does voices and has great inflections when he reads, making me really glad I opted to go the audiobook route despite also owning the ebook.

Full Review
I love the magic school trope. I can't seem to get enough of it. About all I knew coming in was this book had to do with a magic college, and that many people didn't like the protagonist.

I guess I should have read the description. I tend to avoid it though because too many of them seem to provide too much detail about the plot. Really this could be two books.

The first half is totally the magic school trope I was hoping for. The second half is more “traditional” fantasy. I would definitely have liked more of the school. More detail about the magic, the school, etc. What there was I enjoyed however.

Then the book took a turn. The protagonist I was kind of indifferent towards, but was far from hating suddenly became extremely unlikable. And so did the plot. It really makes me wonder a bit about Mr. Grossman. Maybe he could use a hug?

Things got REALLY depressing. If I wasn't doing this in audio, I might have put it down. I'm glad I didn't though. Thankfully this sort middle transition period was fairly short and the second half picked up.

The second half feels like an homage to The Chronicles of Narnia. I know I read some of them when I was a kid, but I was never enamored with them the way Quentin is with Fillory.

I found this second half good, though not as much as the first half. Part of that was how generally unlikable Quentin becomes. I still don't really get why Mr. Grossman felt the need to do do that. Some sense or reality? The popularity of dark fantasy?

I don't need everything to be shiny and happy, but it wasn't even like Quinton is someone you love to hate, or some kind of lovable anti-hero. Really he just depressed me a lot. This book could really stand to be a whole hell of a lot less depressing.

There is a great story here, but it gets bogged down in places that will likely turn many people away from it. For me it was enough to jump right into the second book, which seems to be largely better received than this one is.