I finally finished “The Magician King” by Lev Grossman this weekend.
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I say “finally” because it took me more than a month to get through it, which is pretty unusual for me. It is 400 pages long, but still… I like a book that’s fast paced. While I liked this book, it moved a little slowly for my taste. I usually abide by Mama Dish’s literary guideline, which is: “Thou shalt not finish a book if thou dost not like it by 50 pages in.” But I really did care what happened to the characters, and the world Grossman has created fascinates me. So I forged on.
This is the sequel to Grossman’s “The Magicians,” which I read earlier this year. It was recommended to me because it’s been classified as a “Harry Potter” for adults. I thought that would bother me, since I’m such a fan of Harry Potter. The Magicians is similar to HP in that it’s about a magic school, and it has several “coming of age” storylines. It is definitely more adult… there’s sex, drinking, and F-bomb dropping all over the place. The books in general are darker. They are college students, after all.
One of the things I liked about the books is that the characters knew about Harry Potter as a fictional character, and even poked fun at the fact that they were living in a similar world. It made it seem more OK to me that the concept was simliar, and not just a knock-off. I loved this line, describing the main character, Quentin, who is tall and has black hair:
“His cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones jagged. His clothes hung on him. His hair–cut your hair already, you’re not Alan Rickman–was lank.” (I took out an expletive… it’s a family blog.)
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So if you love Harry Potter, give these books a try. Rumors are that there’s a third book in the works tentatively titled, “The Magicians Land.” If the rumors prove to be true, it will appear on my Kindle… Shazaam!
