...marvelous ... Grossman’s triumph is that he treats these magical worlds of childhood seriously ... Plenty of fantasies have traded on the ground broken by J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien, but The Magicians is one of the few to really ponder the psychology of a talking bear ... What makes the book so terrific is Grossman’s large, varied cast of characters ... Magicians is episodic by nature, which may throw some readers off. But Grossman creates a spine that gives it life by depicting its protagonist’s attempts to resist depression.
...an interesting read for fantasy fans, because it involves a clever meta-fictional twist ... While the Harry Potter comparison is obvious (and, again, totally understandable from a marketing perspective), I think it’s also appropriate to compare The Magicians to a more adult version of The Neverending Story ... Lev Grossman is doing more than just telling a story here. Indirectly, he’s having a conversation with fantasy readers about what it’s like to be a fan of stories that involve magic and alternate realities ... It’s funny and a bit gimmicky, but it also highlights again the dissonance between fiction and reality that the more intelligent characters in the novel experience ... I approached The Magicians expecting a gimmicky 'adult Harry Potter' story, and was very pleasantly surprised ... That The Magicians manages to remain highly accessible, readable and entertaining while delivering all of this is simply amazing.
Fantasy novels involve magic and are a little bit like magic themselves ... Lev Grossman’s third novel is a homage to that early wonderment ... Grossman has written what could crudely be labeled a Harry Potter for adults. He takes the rudiments of that story — an alternate society of magicians bumpily coexists with our own — and injects mature themes ... Grossman’s story is most entertaining when documenting life at Brakebills. The school has a cantankerous dean whom I particularly liked ... It’s the original magic — storytelling — that occasionally trips Grossman up. Though the plot turns new tricks by the chapter, the characters have a fixed, 'Not Another Teen Movie' quality ... It’s similar to inviting everyone to a rave for your 40th-birthday party. Sounds like fun, but aren’t we a little old for this?
Lev Grossman’s third novel, The Magicians, pulls liberally from a grab bag of very familiar fantasy tropes ... Grossman has a light, pleasant prose style, and he can occasionally be very funny ... The Magicians never quite reaches that level of transcendence. Much of the problem is tonal: Grossman has written both an adult coming-of-age tale—rife with vivid scenes of sex, drugs, and heartbreak—and a whimsical yarn about forest creatures. The subjects aren’t mutually exclusive, and yet when stirred together so haphazardly, the effect is jarring. More damaging still is the plot, which takes about 150 pages to gain any steam.
...stupendous ... I am far from the first to call The Magicians and The Magician King Harry Potter for grown-ups. Deconstructing the Potter mythos is so clearly part of Lev Grossman's intent that it is hard not to make the obvious, but also inaccurate, comparison. In fact, it would be fairer to say that The Magicians is a book for the generation who grew up loving Harry Potter, but are experiencing the crushing disappointment of outgrowing their fantasies ... Lev Grossman twists from her story a clever metaphor for the core conundrum of the Millennial generation. We've been brought up to believe we can all be Harry Potters of a kind ... Lev Grossman's fantasy novels are about the ones who keep fighting to find their own magic. To judge by their growing success, that's more of us than ever before.
...[a] derivative fantasy thriller ... Genre fans will easily pick up the many nods to J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, not to mention J.R.R. Tolkien in the climactic battle between the bad guy and a magician.
The novel’s climax includes some spectacular magical battles to complement the complex emotional entanglements Grossman has deftly sketched in earlier chapters ... Very dark and very scary, with no simple answers provided—fantasy for grown-ups, in other words, and very satisfying indeed.
