by Lev Grossman Publishers Weekly 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. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved Library Journal When he's not reviewing books for Time, Grossman writes engrossing fantasy that has won him the 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best New Writer from the World Science Fiction Society. Here's the conclusion to a trilogy that started off by sending Quentin Coldwater to Fillory, the magical land he thought existed only in his childhood books. Now he's back at Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic, having been expelled from Fillory, and with Brakebills undergraduate Plum goes on a mission that unearths old friends, new secrets, and a spell that could create a newer, better Fillory. In our dreams! With an eight-city tour. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Book list *Starred Review* The third and concluding volume in Grossman's epic Magicians trilogy finds former High King Quentin ejected from the magical kingdom of Fillory and, in short order, given the boot from a too-brief teaching stint at his old alma mater, Brakebills. What is Quentin to do? At loose ends, he joins a ragtag group of magicians including Plum, an expelled Brakebills student on a quest to find a mysterious case, contents unknown but presumed to be invaluable. Meanwhile, it appears, amid intimations of apocalypse, that Fillory is coming to an end, and the novel's action begins bouncing back and forth between the kingdom and the real world, where Quentin and Plum are now living in a New York town house, with Quentin determined to use an arcane spell to create a new magician's land. At this point, Quentin's former inamorata Alice shows up; but wait! Isn't she dead? Hmm . . . there is much more to the story, but suffice it to say that it is endlessly fascinating and always proceeds apace. In sum, this is an absolutely brilliant fantasy filled with memorable characters old and new and prodigious feats of imagination. At one point, Quentin muses, Magic and books: there aren't many things more important than that. The Magician's Land is ineffable proof of that claim. Fantasy fans will rejoice at its publication.--Cart, Michael Copyright 2010 Booklist From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission. Library Journal Banished from the magical land of -Fillory at the end of 2011's The Magician King, Quentin Coldwater plans to settle into a quiet life teaching at his magical alma mater, Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. His past is not so easily set aside, however, and when he is drawn into a shadowy conspiracy to steal an object that cannot be stolen, of course, it all leads back to -his homeland. -Quentin will need to seek out former mentors, old friends, and even his lost love if he is going to achieve his goals and save his kingdom. VERDICT From the trilogy's beginnings as a coming-of-age story, it is perhaps inevitable that Quentin will finally have to grow into his own as the series closes. Luckily that doesn't mean we don't get to spend quality time in the marvelous land of make-believe made real, Fillory. While Grossman consciously leans heavily on -Narnia and Hogwarts to create a frame of reference, this series taken as a whole brings new life and energy to the fantasy genre. The final volume will please fans looking for action, emotion, and, ultimately, closure. [See Prepub Alert, 2/10/14.] (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. |
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