The Magician King: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy) (2011 original; edició 2011)

Really remarkable - I thought there was way too much going on here, but Grossman brings everything together in the end as if it were, you know, magic. ( )

A fabulous follow-up to The Magicians. Like its predecessor, the plot wasn't perfect but I cared about the characters, couldn't put it down, and felt a crazy number of emotions. While loose threads were being wrapped up in the end and some of my predictions panned out (and some didn't), it was the emotional roller coaster that made me fall in love with this book. Julia's story in particular ripped my heart out and shredded it. Oh my, it was difficult and powerful and great simultaneously. Quentin does actually grow and mature by the end, though he's still l just as frustrating and sightly unlikable for most of it. The magic and descriptions of the setting are fabulous; Grossman really brings Fillory, the magical underworld of Earth, and the Neitherlands to life. Not perfect by any means, but reading it is a perfect emotional experience. ( )

Much better than #1! ( )

This installment in the series focuses more on Quentin than the others, and while technically the whole series does, in the case of the 2nd novel it feels like a letdown. We get to see Julia's story here, but it is...different. Julia feels cast as this kind, soft thing that just doesn't have any real interest in anything, and while I understand some of where that comes from, in this setting it feels superfluous and unnecessary, not to mention slightly disingenuous. Especially with the background that Julia has as a self-taught firebrand.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being soft--that isn't what this is about. Her storyline feels very out of place, though, and I feel like we could have had a better characterization of the after-effects on Julia. It just seems....weird.
The rest of it seems fine.
I also feel like the quest for the keys was a little bit of a letdown. Maybe it was the style the story was in, or maybe I love the TV show too much, but it was....missing something. Like, it first came out of left field, and then went out of right field, and...never quite settled. It was too hero-y, I guess. Not hard enough. I forget when this was published, though. That context is everything.
I continue to enjoy the descriptions of Fillory. I started disliking Penny's story. It was a little weird. But I guess for a character who was actually into theoretical studies, it is about accurate.

There are problems caused by having seen a modern TV show adaption before reading the book. ( )

The Magician King by Lev Grossman is as good as I wanted the first book in this series to be.

The big flaw with The Magicians was that toying with the genre sometimes overshadowed telling the story. That's not the case with this second book. The parameters of Mr. Grossman's magical world are already defined and the genre gimmicks are already established. There's no need to rehash them and so he doesn't.

Which means that The Magician King can focus on simply telling a good story. The storytelling in this novel is more cohesive and coherent than its predecessor, and as a result it's much more powerful and effective.

The Magician King has the substance that the premise of the first book promised but mostly failed to deliver.

The trope that Mr. Grossman takes on with The Magician King is the traditional hero's story. But he doesn't toy with it the way he toyed with magical fantasy in the first book. Rather, what he offers us here in a sincere exploration of hero stories—not as a trope but to find out what it actually means to be a hero. The non-glamorous and often painful reality of it. Not just the accomplishment but the costs of being a hero.

This is where Mr. Grossman's excellent character work finally pays off. The characters in The Magician King aren't necessarily good people, but the heart of this story is the genuine friendship and love they all feel for each other. Their connections run deep and we care about them because of it.

That's the biggest difference between this book and the first one: in The Magicians, I cared more about the world than about the characters. In The Magician King, the world is no less compelling but I care about the characters more. Which is as it should be.

The Magician King also takes us deeper into the mechanics of the magical world and reveals even larger vistas than the first book. It takes us through the culture of magic that exists outside of officially sanctioned schools like Brakebills. It shows us—literally—what lies beneath the Neitherlands. In the end, it leaves Quentin in a position that leaves me at a loss to imagine what might happen next.

I can't wait to find out. ( )