Realistic Magic

7.12 The Magicians

Side note: I love a book that uses as its title a title of a book that plays a part in its plot, even more when it is a surprise.  It is one of those little secret things that make my toes curl and make me so happy that I am a reader.  Little bits of magic.  Now, back to the book…

I see this described as an adult Harry Potter because they have sex and drink, but wouldn’t Harry have done that if Hogwarts were a college? Ron certainly would have, and that Hermione… Just imagine her letting lose for a bit.  Frankly, the author deals with these similarities by addressing them directly in the text so you have to give some credit to him for that. I saw using the setting of a small magical school as a way to highlight how we grow up going to school to “be something”, then often flounder when that space of “being” isn’t filled up in all of the ways that we expect it to be.  They go to magic school and then what?  Nothing.  They travel in to the world of the books they read as kids (very Narnia) and then what.  They beat the bad guy and then what.  Nothing, nothing, nothing.  Nothing is ever everything we want it to be; nothing ever completes us. Not even when we can do magic.

This is all highlighted by the main, and my least favorite, character Quentin. Coldwater was a very fitting last name for him because he was always bogged down in his own dissatisfaction.  I understand feeling lost as to what your purpose is, but when he was in love he wasn’t happy, when he was with his friends he wasn’t happy, he would get exactly what he wanted (like secret admittance into a magical school) and immediately react to it in a negative way.  Maybe the truth is that I didn’t like that about him because it felt a little familiar, but I am not the hero in a novel.

The story felt kind of empty, pushed through, and not fully developed.  I found I didn’t really care, but I couldn’t stop reading either.  There is a lot going on: finding the school, attending the school, falling in love, graduating, first foray into the “real” world, trip to Fillory, back to the real world.  All of these things are important, but they also felt very black and white instead of full of color because there just wasn’t enough time to do them all really well.  Is there a solution to this?  Not an obvious one. 

I have to admit that I loved the end, and by that I mean the last paragraph, so it rebounded a bit but I am not sure if it was deserving.