But it still doesn't entirely redeem Grossman, in my eyes. I am happy to report that The Magician King is better than its predecessor. Grossman does write well, his worldbuilding is pretty good (albeit derivative, albeit deliberately so), and there was such potential in the premise of taking Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia in earnest and using them as the basis of an adult fantasy. So, why did I read The Magician King? Well, a lot of people kept saying 'It's so good, it's better than the first book!' And I really wanted to like The Magicians. The only decent and heroic people in the first book were of course the ones who got fucked over the hardest. The protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, is an overprivileged dickbag who doesn't get any better by the end of the book. I thought it was a cynical mockery of the material Lev Grossman claims to love.

Lewis and at the cutting edge of literary fantasy. Once again Grossman proves that he is the modern heir to C.S. It also introduces a powerful new voice, that of Julia, whose angry genius is thrilling. The Magician King is a grand voyage into the dark, glittering heart of magic, an epic quest for the Harry Potter generation. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom.

Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. Now Grossman takes us back to Fillory, where the Brakebills graduates have fled the sorrows of the mundane world, only to face terrifying new challenges. The Magicians was praised as a triumph by readers and critics of both mainstream and fantasy literature. Return to Fillory in the riveting sequel to The New York Times best-seller and literary phenomenon of 2009: The Magicians.

The magician king