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The Magician King: A Novel (Magicians…
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The Magician King: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy) (edition 2012)

by Lev Grossman (Author)

Series: The Magicians (2)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
4,1701982,831 (3.86)178
Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them.… (more)
Member:edgewood
Title:The Magician King: A Novel (Magicians Trilogy)
Authors:Lev Grossman (Author)
Info:Penguin Books (2012), Edition: Reprint, 432 pages
Collections:Removed 2017
Rating:
Tags:fantasy

Work Information

The Magician King by Lev Grossman

  1. 00
    The Voodoo Killings by Kristi Charish (charlie68)
    charlie68: Same sort of magic teenage vibe.
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» See also 178 mentions

English (195)  French (1)  All languages (196)
Showing 1-5 of 195 (next | show all)
Meh. I just kind of lost interest in this about 2/3 through. Might go back and finish it later, might not. ( )
  ledonnelly | Mar 11, 2024 |
Harry Potter for adults indeed. Hubby came in the room just as the narrator used the f word and had to stop, lol. He didn't think audiobooks 'did' that.

Anyway, I liked this one better than the 1st. The author has hit his stride. ( )
  jazzbird61 | Feb 29, 2024 |
Sigh. I had trouble with Quentin in The Magicians, just didn't like him, so I left this first a long time. When I did dig in, I was surprised to find myself sort of liking the knob. Far less whiny and entitled. I found the ending frustrating though. Argh. ( )
  GordCampbell | Dec 20, 2023 |
Quentin and Julia are some kind of king and queen of “Fillory”. They seem to be travelling a lot and casting spells. And running into old friends from magician school?

This is book 2 in what I believe is a trilogy. The first was touted as an adult Harry Potter. From vague recollection, it was ok, but since I’m not a big fantasy fan… Ok, well it looks like I liked it, but it sounds like it was more urban fantasy (than this 2nd book is), which is more my “thing” except toward the end of the book. I shouldn’t have bothered continuing the series. The second book seemed to lose the urban part of the fantasy, likely the part that made the first book likable for me. ( )
  LibraryCin | Dec 1, 2023 |
I can't say enough about this series. If you are a dreamer, an adventurer, if you feel stuck, if you're looking for more in this life, read these books. Lev Grossman gets it, and he's not afraid to remind us that every story has its light and darkness. ( )
  feralcreature | Oct 31, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 195 (next | show all)
“Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story,” Quentin declares, framing the novel’s theme in neat miniature. But by the end of “The Magician King,” he comes to realize that he just might not be. It’s a harsh lesson, and one that, in keeping with the preoccupations and innovations of this serious, heartfelt novel, turns the machinery of fantasy inside out.
added by melmore | editNew York Times, Dan Kois (Aug 26, 2011)
 
...a spellbinding stereograph, a literary adventure novel that is also about privilege, power and the limits of being human. The Magician King is a triumphant sequel, surpassing, I think, the original. I can't wait for the next one.
 
Echoes from The Chronicles of Narnia [...] continue to reverberate, but Grossman’s psychologically complex characters and grim reckoning with tragic sacrifice far surpass anything in C.S. Lewis’ pat Christian allegory.
added by melmore | editKirkus Review (Jun 28, 2011)
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Lev Grossmanprimary authorall editionscalculated
Bramhall, MarkNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sámi, LászlóTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schäfer, StefanieTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
We shall now seek that which we shall not find.
—Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte D'Arthur
Dedication
For Sophie
First words
Quentin rode a gray horse with white socks named Dauntless.
Quotations
This would be his quest: collecting taxes from a bunch of backwater yokels. He had skipped the adventure of the broken tree, and that was fine. He would have this one instead.
Quentin had an obsolete sailing ship that had been raised from the dead. He had a psychotically effective swordsman and an enigmatic witch-queen. It wasn’t the Fellowship of the Ring, but then again he wasn’t trying to save the world from Sauron, he was attempting to perform a tax audit on a bunch of hick islanders. It would definitely do.
That water must be ninety percent E. coli, and the rest was probably diesel fuel. This was not a body of water intended for swimming in.
Fortunately Poppy turned out to be excellent at this kind of cross-country dead-reckoning navigation. At first they thought she must be using some kind of advanced geographical magic until Josh noticed that she had an iPhone in her lap. “Yeah, but I used magic to jailbreak it,” she said.
When you get to that level of power and knowledge and perfection, the question of what you should do next gets increasingly obvious. Everything is very rule-governed. All you can ever do in any given situation is the most gloriously perfect thing, and there’s only one of them. Finally there aren’t any choices left to make at all.” “You’re saying the gods don’t have free will.” “The power to make mistakes,” Penny said. “Only we have that. Mortals.”
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Quentin and his friends are now the kings and queens of Fillory, but the days and nights of royal luxury are starting to pall. After a morning hunt takes a sinister turn, Quentin and his old friend Julia charter a magical sailing ship and set out on an errand to the wild outer reaches of their kingdom. Their pleasure cruise becomes an adventure when the two are unceremoniously dumped back into the last place Quentin ever wants to see: his parent's house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. And only the black, twisted magic that Julia learned on the streets can save them.

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Book description
Haiku summary
The boy is now king
Happily ever after?
Fate has other plans(Jannes)
How much would you want

to give up after a quest

to be a hero?

(legallypuzzled)

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