The Magician's Land

May 12, 2014
Grossman’s final entry in the Magicians Trilogy (following The Magician King) brings Quentin Coldwater’s story to a satisfying conclusion. After Quentin is banished from his beloved magical land of Fillory and fired from the Brakebills school of magic, he joins a wizardly heist masterminded by a talking bird. The target: a relic from one of the first children to visit Fillory, whose adventures were immortalized in a series of Narnia-like children’s novels. During this mission, Quentin must confront his past mistakes and his role in the dying Fillory’s future. Just as Quentin achieves a new maturity, so Grossman’s trilogy becomes more than a sex-and-swearing satire of Harry Potter and Narnia. Grossman still can’t resist winking at his novels’ antecedents, as when a character uses the Harry Potter catchphrase “Mischief managed.” Though the tone is occasionally too ironic, and Quentin’s victories overly easy—such as a reconciliation with a key character from the first novel—this novel serves as an elegantly written third act to Quentin’s bildungsroman, in which he at last learns responsibility and to not simply put childish things aside but understand them—and himself—anew. Fans of the trilogy will be pleased at how neatly it all resolves. Agent: Tina Bennett, WME.

Narrator Mark Bramhall latches onto this winding, fragmented fairy tale for adults with vigor. Magician Quentin Coldwater is adjusting to a quiet life as a professor after being dethroned as king of Fillory, a fantasy realm for grown-ups. He soon finds those from his past will have a great need for him in the most unexpected ways. Bramhall's even tone, steady volume, and crisp enunciation help the listener keep up with the intricately moving parts of the story, and he deftly brings forth the wry humor that Grossman so often uses. Bramhall enhances the tale with his wide-range accents--from clipped British to the lyrical tones of Hindu. E.E. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine