Frank R's Reviews > The Magicians

This book is full of spell-casting, teleportation, battles with unearthly creatures, talking animals, etc., but there is no magic in it.

Reviewers have described this book as a grown-up take on the Harry Potter or Narnia series, but that assumes that being a grown-up means that one is a boring, shiftless, selfish, cowardly asshole. Because those are the defining traits of our main character. Quentin starts out as your typical fantasy protagonist--adrift in his own world, sensing there is something more but not knowing how to find it. Finally, he is introduced to the magical world behind the everyday, but he finds it just as full of ennui and disappointment as the real world. Even when he goes beyond our world, on a full-scale magical adventure, it's a disappointment. Quentin gains powers, goes through relationships, explores amazing new vistas, suffers painful loss, but does not change. He is the same disappointed, whiny pain in the neck at the end that he is at the beginning. Constantly looking for some magic to come and change his life and make him happy.

So, although this book is well-written, and certainly a very original take on the genre, it is not very fun. It just wasn't an enjoyable book to read.