The Magicians; The Magician King; The Magician's Land

what can i say.... lev grossman can flat out write... my mistake.... create with words a setting of reality with fantasy where neither can exist without the other. i have reached the middle of book 2 as i write... the book i was reading.. is patiently waiting .

it is a joy for the mind... creating what is happening while the book is read, like HD digital between page and mind.

After watching the Television version, I discovered this was a trilogy of books! I could not be more thrilled. What was so great was that with the books you get so many more mind pictures than any TV show could ever offer. Also, each book stands solidly on it's own, even though you need to understand the characters and how they came to be who they are... So I guess that I am suggesting the trilogy because not only do you get the full 3 stories, you also get to see how the characters grow and change. These are much richer and more complex characters than the Television has time to develop. I love the show, but these books deliver the real story.

Well written; creative and complex plots throughout the 3 books. Highly recommended for science fiction lovers, creative thinkers and writers.If you enjoyed reading Tolkien and JK Rowling you will enjoy this author's development of a new world complete with unique adventures, characters and practices.

I can't say enough how much I thoroughly enjoyed this book series. If you are looking to read it because of the Syfy Channel TV show be warned it is very different but it is wonderful from start to finish in all 3 books.

I purchased this series because I had caught the first season of the television adaptation on SyFy. The TV show does a great job of covering the story, and oddly, in what I think is a first with a book series, goes into more detail than the books. I am use to watching a movie or TV Show where there isn't enough time to go into great detail or every plot twist that a book can- but with this series the TV Show seems to delve more into the story than the books. It is interesting and unexpected outcome.

The books are good- I might actually like the TV show better- but I did see it first, so maybe it has to do with expectations. I still easily recommend reading the book. I am currently giving this series to a friend as a gift.

Shipping, packaging and everything was on time and fine. No complaints. The actual trilogy was just OK. Definitely prefer the show and the characters on it. One of the first books that I have ever read where I can honestly say the show is MUCH BETTER!!!

The books are great, the set is what you'd expect. Quality books in a cardboard case. I won't bore you with a book review from someone that doesn't review books but a simple search of "Top Fantasy Books" and a click on any of the top links will surely show you this book in the top 5 in most cases and I honestly can't find a reason it shouldn't be. Slow to start but builds into a favorite within 10 chapters.

The tv series is actually better. The books are decent, but the TV series does a much better job of intertwining the events of the books (i am 3/4ths of the way through #2), as well as doing a better job fleshing out most of the chars. It's still a good read, so no negatives there.

I bought the books because of the television show. I'm currently struggling with boredom trying to read the first book. Today I realized why I found it so boring. It's a bunch of tell without much show. It's full of page filler and not much action.

I read a review of Grossman's trilogy that described it as Harry Potter for adults and I knew Syfy had bought the rights to it, so I thought I would give it a try. The cosmology created is not at fun as the one in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but the characters were well-developed. I liked the way Grossman used flashbacks to fill in the backstory. I read all three back to back because I really did want to know where the story went. The characters are sympathetic and the situations have verisimilitude. I have recommended these books to several friends.

I feel the story was told at the end of the first book and things happened after that just to continue the story. In places it was tedious and not a page turner. Too many references to other books. The Fillory book story line sounds too much like Narnia

A lot of people described this as the adult version of Harry Potter so I expected the series to occur in and among the wizard school but really they blow through school in the first book and then dive in to the rest of the plot. Full disclosure I have not finished the whole series as of this review. I very much like the concepts involved here but many of the characters decisions are just tragically stupid and although they exhibit wildly powerful magic throughout many of them do not use it when they should it seems just to further the plot.

This book was torture to get through. 3rd person point of view. Quentin (protagonist) was a jerk and very cocky. The book was so slow moving, but abrupt in so many spots. All three books were the same. Overall I suggest it is a waste of time and there are much better books. Try reading "The Darkest Minds" trilogy. It's amazing.

I absolutely hated this book. I say book because I didn't bother to read the second and third after struggling to finish the first. I hated the main character. The only time I have ever said this..."the tv show is MUCH better than the book".

I honestly love this series, and since the show came out, I was looking for a trilogy to reread them all.

The box is beautiful, the books designs are fantastic, and I'm super excited to read them again! ... The sad thing about this box set (which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5) is that each of the covers has a purple "Coming to Syfy 2016" printed on it. I'm not super picky about anything, but I'm not a fan of this logo on the covers; the illustrations are beautiful, but they're unfortunately ruined (just my opinion) with that purple emblem.

I literally couldn't finish the first book. I'm an avid reader and will finish most any book just to see how it all plays out, even if I don't particularly love or enjoy it. Leaving a book partially read bothers me but I couldn't even get myself to finish the first of this series. My niece, whom was watching the series, said the show is so much better...

These books could have been amazing. There is some truly good stuff here. Some of the characters are very engaging and they evolve, just as in real life. Sadly the author seems so busy trying to impress his audience with his 'superior' intellect that the story is rife with cutely esoteric references requiring an Ivy League education and several advanced degrees in unrelated fields of study to "get" them all at a glance. Think Dennis Miller doing Monday Night Football. Most of this knowledge is, of course, attributed to [tiny spoiler] a first year university dropout suffering a major personality disorder among other things. I do agree with Mr. Grossman that very high intellect can be it's own kind of hell, euphemistically speaking, and I know that damnable black dog well....too well.

My only real issue with this series, which I do recommend, is that it reads like something actually written by someone who was an adult in the 1970s or thereabouts. Who else still says *dink* these days or thinks computers must be super-huge, "as big as the world," to do math proofs, however complex, or ..countless other oopsies far too numerous to be smartly placed easter eggs for Boomers?

The entire tone of the books reads as if one is eavesdropping at "The Club" on a group of ever and always over-privileged middle aged white men from the 1960s. The cultural and entertainment references are hilarious. RIP Alan Rickman, who was at least still handsome in the early '90s. A reference to *cigarette advertising* was even overlooked in editing... I mean is actually mentioned in the second book, in present tense! The references to current technology thrown in here and there are absolutely jarring and take one completely out of immersion. The end result detracts from a whopper of an adult and earthy coming of age tale suitable for readers 16 to 106.

I will not get into his treatment of accessories, I mean women, other than to say in fashion as well as attitude it is pure 20th century. Also in the pet peeve department, Mr. Grossman's (again dated) snub of Norse beliefs during his Ganymede dissertation would have made me throw my book had I been using one. Hmm, humans raised to live with the gods. Nah, nothing Norse (VALHALLA!) rings a bell... and no, a side mention of a Loki-like being hassling a black Madonna does not count. Are you effing kidding me? In fact I just took away a star for that slight alone.

In the end it's a good story with some new ideas (no matter from whence they originated) about magic but it is bogged down by an ever-present feeling that the writer simply did a half-assed job of modernizing a dead elder's work. That is my feeling, not an accusation. If this was an intentional conceit, bravo!

Harry Potter fans were told they would enjoy this series. The first page had vulgar language and it never stopped. This series is about the life of a college student including graphic sex and drug/alcohol use. My kids read Harry Potter before they were in middle school. No way would I advertise this series for that age. I read 3/4 of the first book and couldn't continue.

For folks who are looking for anything like Harry Potter - "Harry Potter on steroids", "Harry Potter for adults", "Harry Potter but better/worse/anything", these books may be for you, but they're not what you're looking for. The only likeness really that these books have to HP is that there's a magic school that exists, there are different "houses" - actually the Disciplines, but that dictates what you're best at - and that there are heroes and villains. A lot of my friends who liked the HP books love these, but they're a lot darker from the get-go and get into some pretty heavy topics. The narrator focuses on introspective opinions of the characters and what makes them absolutely awful people, while somehow still tricking you into liking them. It's an interesting read, but I felt like I really had to clarify the whole "somehow like Harry Potter" thing. Go forth and explore this awesome little word!

The characters are poorly developed if at all. None of whom are likeable. Drastic events will happen for no apparent reason and with no discernable consequenses. Between these events is boring and depressing filler as the protagonist painstakingly learns pointless magic, hangs out with other self-centered immature students and lazily and pitifully lusts after every female. Waste of time. Absolutely shocked this book has such high ratings.

I'm so glad to have a new series to read (and the first eight percent (can't view as "pages") has been really entertaining). Unfortunately the Kindle trilogy doesn't offer chapters as bookmarked sections; annoying but I could live with it. However there are pages missing once you start The Physical Kids section of first novel. I can't continue and need a refund.

Like many of the people writing reviews here, I decided to read these books after watching the TV show on Netflix. Having experienced both, I find that I came away with the same general feeling about them - entertaining, but unsatisfying - but for very different reasons. Because I'd rather end with the praise, let's start with my complaints. Whereas the my main problem with the TV series largely arises out of the overabundance of tortured angst, unnecessary sex scenes (the latter problem mostly being an issue with the first season's apparent belief that "carefree grad student" means oversexed juvenile in a twenty-something's body and is likely also a result of the producers misunderstanding what it is that makes Game of Thrones so popular), and leftist political positions, my issues with the book series are a little different.

The books thankfully lack most of the angst and political nonsense of the TV show and have a more controlled and reasonable amount of sex scenes which are usually plot relevant if not strictly speaking necessary. They do, however, have their own flaws. I'm certainly not the first to notice that in the first book, the protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, is nearly unbearable. The author does a good job of world building and establishing the general conceit of the series - that magic is real but largely unknown to the general populace, that there's a secret college of magic in upstate New York, and that a certain series of books about a magical world beyond this one - a less philosophically and theologically sound knock off of the Narnia series essentially - were actually true. Unfortunately, the main character's love of this in universe book series for children is not the only childish aspect of his personality. He's vain, self-centered, a bit whiney, and probably the most entitled person about whom you'll ever read, at least in the first book. He eventually mellows out, but there's a whole book you have to go through to get to that point. The rest of the main cast suffers from a similar immaturity and overabundance of character flaws - usually a combination of hubris, vulgarity, mild alcoholism (some of this may be the result of the author's apparent wine obsession, it's not quite as bad as George R.R. Martin's food fetish, but it can come up a bit too often), and elitism, which makes them difficult to empathize with in the early parts of the books. Thankfully, most of them also grow out of at least some of their issues in the last two books, but not all of them do. While the overabundant character flaws certainly make the first book the most difficult to read at length - I imagine most people will reach a point once or twice where they'll have to put the book down for a day or so because the characters grate on them - the flaws do at least serve the purpose of permitting personal growth when some of the characters do overcome their issues, so there's that.

As for the vulgarity, that too is grating and unfortunately never goes away. It gets less creative and more repetitive, but it doesn't go away. While the TV show certainly suggested that I should expect a certain quantity of creative vulgarity from the characters, especially Janet (Margo in the TV show) and Elliot, the amount of it in the books is unnecessary and made me roll my eyes more than once. I especially take issue with the fact that the author's favorite from of vulgarity is blasphemy - each and every main character's favorite fall back word is either "Jesus" or "Christ" and not said with the appropriate level of respect that the Lord's name deserves. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect every book I read to be respectful to my religious convictions, and I definitely don't expect everyone to follow the Commandment about not taking the Lord's name in vain, especially when I'm reading a book about self centered magicians who run into various would be gods and largely fall in the atheist or agnostic camp. I don't mind that the characters mostly are at the least irreligious (indeed, although the one section of the book where some of the characters have what could charitably called a religious argument is full of weak and largely fallacious arguments, it read as the kind of half-cocked argument one would fully expect from drunk recent college grads and was thus appropriate), and I wouldn't make this comment if the blasphemy was just an occasional exclamation, but you'd be hard pressed to find three pages in a row in any of the books where no character uses one or the other name as if it were an expletive. Not only is this repetitive and grating, it also weakens the distinctive aspects of the various characters by making them all sound similar. If the author really needed the characters to be vulgar so frequently, he could at least vary it from time to time.

Now, all of that said, the book series isn't bad. I read all three rather quickly and largely enjoyed them. The actual plot of the books, once it gets going, is fairly strong, the characters (once you get past their boorishness in the fist book) are mostly interesting (Janet is a bit of an exception, she doesn't really grow or change, and the Julia character could charitably be called two-dimensional for most of the books). As noted, there is a good amount of character development over time, and the books aren't nearly as dreary and defeatist as the TV show was. As modern fantasies go, this one is decent, and each book takes the series' main themes in different directions. Ultimately, if you can get past the issues I noted above, the series is entertaining. Don't expect anything earth shattering or intellectually provocative, but if you're looking for a fun read the Magicians series isn't a bad choice.

These books are amazing! And I highly recommend reading them all! The Magicians is one of my favorite series - one of the great modern fantasy series. The characters might be powerful magicians (this should not be a spoiler), but there flaws are uniquely - and often maddeningly - human. I gave it 4/5 stars because the first book - The Magicians - while good, didn't hook me. It intrigued me enough to stick it out through and I am thrilled I stuck with it because Grossman blew my mind with The Magician King and The Magician’s Land. If you love fantasy, modern humor, and fleshed-out, relatable characters this is a MUST READ!

If you purchase the hardcovers be aware that they come with dust jackets instead of the printed pattern being on the actual book. I know that not many people care about that kind of thing but me I did and paying $50 for a trilogy I was a little disappointed to receive dust jackets.

I was so happy to find these books at the beginning of my holidays: A ‘Harry Potter on steroids’. I saw free days full of sun, happy loneliness and a good friend before me. And then I read the books. Well… The relationship developed very fast from happy-go-lucky to determined and detached loyalty with a lot of resentment in the back of the throat. What a piece of pretentious nothingness, what a celebration of vacuous ego’s.

After reading I asked myself if my being a Christian kept me from appreciating these books; a preference for redemption etc. But I don’t think that’s why I disliked these books so much. It’s just because these books are so flatfooted, intelligently flatfooted, but flatfooted all the same.

The characters are not interested in other people and that changes their goal in life. Instead of figuring out why most people annoy them they live as if they don’t exist. What remains is an obsession with knowledge/ magic. Though that gives a lot of intricate writing about the ins and outs of magic, it’s just that. Magic is just as flat a thing as anything else in the book. Magic is just the manipulation of circumstances. Boring! Magic is not a metaphor for a kind of knowledge: knowledge that destroys human connections and that is rooted in human connections like it is in Potter. That makes it for me all a bit flat.

‘The really funny thing was that even though he’d hit bottom, he couldn’t honestly say that it was all that bad there. He had his friends, or some of them. They had Josh’s money. They still had magic, and alcohol, and sex and food. They had everything.’ Book 2 p. 212

Of course. Great happy-list. I get the intention of the writer. He wants to write about real life where we don’t do better, we don’t connect well and we go to the office instead of Hogwarts. Fine! But do we go to the office to find and understand the intricacies of the programs we make, or do we go there to bud heads with the person on the other side of the screen? I personally think the latter option gives much more interesting books.

Or as Chekov said:
‘Let’s put God – and all these grand progressive ideas – to one side. Let’s begin with man; let’s be kind and attentive to the individual man.’

I do not even know where to start to tell you how much I sincerely loved these books. I started them skeptically as I am typically not a fan of science fiction books. But, from the beginning I was drawn in and unable to stop (I highly recommend buying the box set so you don't have to)! The characters are relatable and the story is a mix of Narnia and Harry Potter for young adults. I love these books - and have even read them more than once!

I was a little disappointed when I started reading these books. Most of the plot is very predictable and it feels like Grossman took most of his ideas from other young adult authors. I love young adult books and normally have trouble setting them down because I want to know what happens next. With these I don't really care. I'm kind of disappointed I bought the whole set because I can barely get through the first book.

I honestly do not understand the hype of this series. Much like the main character, this book is almost unbearably pretentious and continuously strives to make itself seem better than it is. I started reading this excited to enter into a new magical world but instead got an unfinished plot and a series of events that contributed nothing to the story. There was a notable fixation on sex, alcohol, and the female form which takes away from the fact where we are supposed to be as excited about magic as Quentin originally is.

I finished book one and was left asking "what was the point?" So Quentin can do magic. Great. What does he do with it? He gets drunk, does drugs, and has sex. He spends four years learning it, and does absolutely nothing with it. Any character that actually has an edge gets relegated to the background so we can suffer through more of Quentin's pitiful whining of how bored he is.

I'm not sure if I can finish the rest of the series. I just regret that I actually wasted the money on a series that is mediocre at best.

I love these books, so I decided to purchase the whole series. This will only let you read the second book if you have the Kindle App on a mobile device. I can't read it on my computer, which is really annoying.

I endured all three books because I'm actually a magician and felt compelled to read the whole story. It was difficult to keep reading and you should read the one and two-star the store reviews for the individual books as other readers have done a good job of explaining what doesn't work in this story. I regret the time I spent reading this series and that's why I wanted to weigh-in with a review.

Interesting so far. The dour, socially awkward, self-doubting 'hero' is appeals, because he's also rather proud of his mental prowess. The tv character walked around hunched shouldered and somehow tongue-tied in most conversations. The books explains that. I've started the 1st book of the trilogy, which is apparently the first season of the Sy Fi TV series "The Magicians". I notice that there are many references to Harry Potter in reviews, however, I find the story to more parallel the first book of the Narnia series, "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis, which was my favorite of the set as a child. In fact, the going through the place of the Neitherworld where the portals to many worlds are through fountains echoes the multitude of pools in the woods in the "Magician's Nephew". I noted the Dean manipulates our dreary hero Quentin's fingers to make magical gestures in the "exam". I thought that was a great visual feature of the tv show. Sometimes we see diagrams of mudras, etc. but I am glad there is no explanation. It seems that magic is really delicately balanced upon many ephemeral factors, and that it has its cost. I like the psychological study as a socially inept person finds some talent and strengths to finally out grow childish hopes. It's written with common English as dialog, and the tv show has several sexual encounters, so this is not a kiddie's night time story book. It's a philosophical study, that fascinates me. What if? And then what? Life doesn't get easier, it seems, with magic, it gets way more complicated, and deadly serious. I'm still reading!

Man can Lev Grossman write! I would highly recommend this series it is full of characters you'll love and twists and turns you'll never see coming. I would recommend reading it before you watch the TV adaptation.

I purchased this series because I had caught the first season of the television adaptation on SyFy. The TV show does a great job of covering the story, and oddly, in what I think is a first with a book series, goes into more detail than the books. I am use to watching a movie or TV Show where there isn't enough time to go into great detail or every plot twist that a book can- but with this series the TV Show seems to delve more into the story than the books. It is interesting and unexpected outcome.

The books are good- I might actually like the TV show better- but I did see it first, so maybe it has to do with expectations. I still easily recommend reading the book. I am currently giving this series to a friend as a gift.

After watching the show, i partially knew what I was getting into when I bought the books. The timeline of the first book to me by suprise, but by the end I couldn't get enough! I finished the final book about a week ago and already want to re-read the entire trilogy because it was just SO GOOD