The Magicians
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. He’s a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he’s still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless.
Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he thought it would.
Then after graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real.
The Magicians was a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. You can order it at any of these online bookstores:
You can buy official Magicians t-shirts and other merchandise here.
Praise for The Magicians from Critics:
“Exuberant and inventive … Fresh and compellling … The Magicians is a great fairy tale.”
—The Washington Post
“Lev Grossman’s novel The Magicians may just be the most subversive, gripping and enchanting fantasy novel I’ve read this century.”
—Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
“This is my ideal escapist fantasy read, a Harry Potter book for grown-ups … I can’t imagine any lover of well-written classic fantasy, from C. S. Lewis’s Narnia books to the works of Diana Wynne Jones, who won’t absolutely adore it.”
—Lisa Tuttle, The London Times
“The Magicians is the best urban fantasy in years.”
—The Onion AV Club
“This gripping novel draws on the conventions of contemporary and classic fantasy novels in order to upend them, and tell a darkly cunning story about the power of imagination itself … An unexpectedly moving coming-of-age story.”
—The New Yorker
“Funny, suspenseful and sad, The Magicians ranks as one of the year’s best fantasy novels.”
—The San Francisco Chronicle
“Upon reading The Magicians, the first thing you want to do is shake Grossman’s hand and congratulate him for his courage … The Magicians blooms with grace and wit and imaginative brio. Grossman has a sense of humor as well as a sense of wonder.”
—The Chicago Tribune
“The Magicians is Harry Potter as it might have been written by John Crowley…This is one of the best fantasies I’ve read in ages.”
—Elizabeth Hand, Fantasy & Science Fiction
“The Magicians by Lev Grossman is a very entertaining book; one of those summer page-turners that you wish went on for another six volumes … Grossman is at the height of his powers.”
—The Chicago Sun-Times
“Long ago, while in high school, I read two coming-of-age novels that stayed with me for the rest of my life … I’d not found another voice so rich in describing the adventure and confusion that is growing up in America until now. THE MAGICIANS, like those earlier books, tells that same journey; only its route is one of magic and fantasy.”
—Ron Fortier, The Denver Times
“Sly and lyrical … The Magicians is an homage to both J.K. Rowling and C.S. Lewis, as well as an exploration of what might happen if troubled kids were let loose in the supernatural realms they grew up reading about. Grossman captures the magic of childhood and the sobering years beyond.”
—Jeff Giles, Entertainment Weekly
“The Magicians is a triumph. It’s the real deal, guaranteed.”
—Michelle Kerns, The Examiner
“The Magicians is angst-ridden, bleak, occasionally joyous and gloriously readable. Forget Hogwarts: this is where the magic really is.”
—Jayne Nelson, SFX, 5 star review.
“I felt like I was doing peyote buttons with J.K. Rowling.”
—Mickey Rapkin, GQ
“For readers who have long since finished their seven years at Hogwarts, The Magicians is where higher education starts.”
—The Miami Herald
Praise forThe Magicians from other authors:
“These days any novel about young sorcerers at wizard school inevitably invites comparison to Harry Potter. Lev Grossman meets the challenge head on… and very successfully. The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. Solidly rooted in the traditions of both fantasy and mainstream literary fiction, the novel tips its hat to Oz and Narnia as well to Harry, but don’t mistake this for a children’s book. Grossman’s sensibilities are thoroughly adult, his narrative dark and dangerous and full of twists. Hogwart’s was never like this.”
—George R. R. Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series
“Stirring, complex, adventurous … from the life of Quentin Coldwater, his slacker Park Slope Harry Potter, Lev Grossman delivers superb coming of age fantasy.”
—Junot Díaz, author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“The Magicians ought to be required reading for anyone who has ever fallen in love with a fantasy series, or wished they went to a school for wizards.”
—Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen
“Remember the last time you ran home to finish a book? This is it, folks. The Magicians is the most dazzling, erudite and thoughtful fantasy novel to date. You’ll be bedazzled by the magic but also brought short by what it has to say about the world we live in.”
—Gary Shteyngart, author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook and Absurdistan
“Grossman explores the boundaries between fiction and reality with great imagination … This is a dark, well-written book that takes the wizard genre into thoughtful places.”
—Audrey Niffenegger, author of the The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry
“The Magicians brilliantly explores the hidden underbelly of fantasy and easy magic, taking what’s simple on the surface and turning it over to show us the complicated writhing mess beneath. It’s like seeing the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter through a 3-D magnifying glass.”
—Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series
“Absolutely wonderful. Honestly. Do yerself a favour.”
—Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series
“The Magicians is a spellbinding, fast-moving, dark fantasy book for grownups that feels like an instant classic. I read it in a niffin-blue blaze of page turning, enthralled by Grossman’s verbal and imaginative wizardry, his complex characters and most of all, his superb, brilliant inquiry into the wondrous, dangerous world of magic.”
—Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure’s Lament and The Great Man
“Anyone who grew up reading about magical wardrobes and unicorns and talking trees before graduating to Less Than Zero and The Secret History and Bright Lights, Big City will immediately feel right at home with this smart, beautifully written book by Lev Grossman. The Magicians is fantastic, in all senses of the word. It’s strange, fanciful, extravagant, eccentric, and truly remarkable–a great story, masterfully told.”
—Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan and The Ruins
The artist Roland Chambers has prepared this map of Fillory, showing the country’s major landmarks:
(CLICK IMAGE FOR A LARGER VERSION)
