Lev Grossman
Author of The Magicians
About the Author
Lev Grossman was born on June 26, 1969. He received a degree in literature from Harvard University in 1991. He spent three years in the Ph.D. program in comparative literature at Yale University, but left before completing his dissertation. In 2002, he became a book reviewer and one of the lead show more technology writers for Time magazine. He has written for Salon, The Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, The Believer, Lingua Franca, and the New York Times. His first novel, Warp, was published in 1997. His other novels include Codex, The Magicians, which won a 2010 Alex Award, The Magician King and The Magician's Land. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: By Larry D. Moore, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17326275
Series
Works by Lev Grossman
The Magicians Trilogy Boxed Set: The Magicians; The Magician King; The Magician's Land (2014) — Author — 386 copies, 2 reviews
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things [2021 film] — Author — 5 copies
Buyucu Kral 2 copies
Endgame 2 copies
Sir Ranolph Wykeham-rackham 2 copies
The Girl in the Mirror [short story] 2 copies
Buyuculer 2 copies
The Seven Golden Keys 1 copy
Świetlisty miecz 1 copy
estacion central 1 copy
placeres prohibidos 1 copy
The Magicians Short Stories 1 copy
The Bright Sword 1 1 copy
Lev Grossman Magicians Trilogy 3 Books Collection Set (The Magicians, The Magician King, The Magician's Land) (2021) 1 copy
Coming into the country 1 copy
Magicienii. 1.Magicienii 1 copy
Associated Works
The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities: Exhibits, Oddities, Images, and Stories from Top Authors and Artists (2011) — Contributor — 492 copies, 17 reviews
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process (2017) — Contributor — 167 copies, 5 reviews
Lost Transmissions: The Secret History of Science Fiction and Fantasy (2019) — Contributor — 154 copies, 5 reviews
Eat Joy: Stories and Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers (2019) — Contributor — 84 copies, 3 reviews
The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook: A Collection of Stories with Recipes (2016) — Contributor — 19 copies
The Magicians #2 — Creator — 5 copies
The Magicians #3 — Creator — 2 copies
The PaulandStormonomicon — Contributor — 2 copies
The Magicians #5 — Creator — 1 copy
Locus, July 2011 (606) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969-06-26
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Lexington High School
Harvard University (BA|1991)
Yale University - Organizations
- Time
- Awards and honors
- Alex Award (2010)
Tolkien Lecture (2015)
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (2011) - Relationships
- Grossman, Austin (twin brother)
Grossman, Allen R. (father)
Grossman, Judith (mother)
Gee, Sophie (wife)
Grossman, Bathsheba (sister) - Short biography
- Lev Grossman is an American novelist and journalist. He was the book critic and lead technology writer at Time magazine from 2002 to 2016.
Grossman was born on June 26, 1969 in Concord, Massachusetts. He is the twin brother of video game designer and novelist Austin Grossman, brother of sculptor Bathsheba Grossman, and son of the poet Allen Grossman and the novelist Judith Grossman. He is an alumnus of Lexington High School and Harvard College. He graduated from Harvard in 1991 with a degree in literature. Grossman then attended a Ph.D. program in comparative literature for three years at Yale University, but dropped out before completing his dissertation. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Concord, Massachusetts, USA
- Places of residence
- Lexington, Massachusetts, USA
New York, New York, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- Massachusetts, USA
Members
Discussions
The Magicians - Lev Grossman in FantasyFans (April 2019)
Reviews
As an adult, the type of children's books I enjoy are the ones that don't talk down to the reader, but are still accessible to a younger audience. This one does that perfectly. The heavy messaging around animal extinction, habitat loss, and ecological stewardship evolve naturally out of the fantastical adventure story, and accompanied by a healthy dose of "coming of ageness." The overall message is lifted straight from Rabbi Tarfun's famous quote [Pirkei Avot 2:16] about how we are not show more required to complete The Work, but nor are we free to abandon it.
Grossman manages to balance the delight of childhood imagination with the sober realities of 21st century responsibilities, excitement and danger with sober reflection, sadness and hope, education and frivolity. And if you don't tear up at least a little bit at thebaby pangolin getting off the train you're a terrible person and should question your life choices. show less
Grossman manages to balance the delight of childhood imagination with the sober realities of 21st century responsibilities, excitement and danger with sober reflection, sadness and hope, education and frivolity. And if you don't tear up at least a little bit at the
All that being said, I think my favorite scene(s) in this book is where we get to see the horrible destruction and withering of Fillory through the eyes of Janet. I will admit that this series didn't really speak to me until this point. It actually hurt to see this wonderful, strange world die while its inhabitants turned on each other. I was cheering for Quentin when he became a god (temporarily) to save it. I have a love for Hogwarts so I think the destruction scenes really struck a chord with me.
One last point: how awesome is Janet? That girl is one funny badass.
After reading this, I felt like a bully had just wrecked my favorite toys. Grossman took the sense of wonder out of Hogwarts and turned it into the tedium of Brakebills. He took the talking animals and mythical creatures from Narnia and made them all murderous, stupid or indifferent. The Aslan equivalents were a couple of jerks who were defeated and dismissed with no apparent effort. Even the "good" centaurs had a herd of sex slaves. The character of the beloved children's author was, of show more course, a pedophile.
I don't understand his point in writing this. I was either angry or bored through most of it. Was that the reaction he was trying to get? Was it a "take that, fantasy-lovers" kind of thing?
I've read a few reviewers say he was showing a more realistic version of Hogwarts and Narnia, or that his point was that most people aren't heroic or exceedingly noble.
But why? I don't read fantasy to get a dose of reality. I read fantasy to escape into another world. And honestly, the ratio of self-involved pricks to noble characters (or character, actually)in this book wasn't that realistic anyway.
This book had some interesting ideas and a couple of good twists, but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. show less
I don't understand his point in writing this. I was either angry or bored through most of it. Was that the reaction he was trying to get? Was it a "take that, fantasy-lovers" kind of thing?
I've read a few reviewers say he was showing a more realistic version of Hogwarts and Narnia, or that his point was that most people aren't heroic or exceedingly noble.
But why? I don't read fantasy to get a dose of reality. I read fantasy to escape into another world. And honestly, the ratio of self-involved pricks to noble characters (or character, actually)in this book wasn't that realistic anyway.
This book had some interesting ideas and a couple of good twists, but I can't say I enjoyed reading it. show less
Okay.
So I LOVED the start of this book. I didn't "Like" it. I was madly, passionately, insanely, throw-out-all-the-other-books-I-own-to-make-room-for-more-copies-of-this-book obsessed with it. This was my life (if I was a wizard). It was a dark gritty adult Harry Potter reboot on crack. It made me imagine that magic might be real, made me crave it, drove me insane. In short it was the single best book I had ever read.
Then I got to the second half... and it was all downhill from there.
Without show more a quest, or purpose, or any focus, the beautiful (flawed, real) world that Lev Grossman had built came crumbling down. The characters who had been so interesting a few pages ago descended into a bland existence that only evokes ennui in the reader. And leaves you thinking "Wait! What?". Then we're off to Narnia for no discernible reason. This is exactly what you would expect if you took a dark gritty reboot of Harry Potter for adults and then put those characters in Narnia-- it feels like the movie "Who framed Roger Rabbit" except you have real characters walking through a cartoon world. And not in a good way.
It sucks. And that actually pains me to say it because it had more potential than any other book I've ever read. I actually read [b:The Magician King|10819920|The Magician King (The Magicians #2)|Lev Grossman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388189203s/10819920.jpg|13362064] on the off-chance that it would get better. It did not (spoiler: not even as good as the first one). Hell, I'll probably even buy the third one, and that's just because the first half of the first book was so good.
Read the first half. Stop. Imagine what could come next. But for the love of god don't finish it because you will be dissapointed. show less
So I LOVED the start of this book. I didn't "Like" it. I was madly, passionately, insanely, throw-out-all-the-other-books-I-own-to-make-room-for-more-copies-of-this-book obsessed with it. This was my life (if I was a wizard). It was a dark gritty adult Harry Potter reboot on crack. It made me imagine that magic might be real, made me crave it, drove me insane. In short it was the single best book I had ever read.
Then I got to the second half... and it was all downhill from there.
Without show more a quest, or purpose, or any focus, the beautiful (flawed, real) world that Lev Grossman had built came crumbling down. The characters who had been so interesting a few pages ago descended into a bland existence that only evokes ennui in the reader. And leaves you thinking "Wait! What?". Then we're off to Narnia for no discernible reason. This is exactly what you would expect if you took a dark gritty reboot of Harry Potter for adults and then put those characters in Narnia-- it feels like the movie "Who framed Roger Rabbit" except you have real characters walking through a cartoon world. And not in a good way.
It sucks. And that actually pains me to say it because it had more potential than any other book I've ever read. I actually read [b:The Magician King|10819920|The Magician King (The Magicians #2)|Lev Grossman|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388189203s/10819920.jpg|13362064] on the off-chance that it would get better. It did not (spoiler: not even as good as the first one). Hell, I'll probably even buy the third one, and that's just because the first half of the first book was so good.
Read the first half. Stop. Imagine what could come next. But for the love of god don't finish it because you will be dissapointed. show less
Lists
Parallel Novels (1)
READ in 2024 (1)
Overdue Podcast (1)
Antiheroes (1)
2010s (2)
To Read (2)
Magic schools (1)
Magic Realism (1)
Witchy Fiction (1)
Winter Books (1)
Wilson (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 37
- Also by
- 30
- Members
- 24,926
- Popularity
- #845
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 1,226
- ISBNs
- 233
- Languages
- 16
- Favorited
- 30
