jethrien

Title:The Magician King
Author: Lev Grossman
Genre: World-walking semi-urban fantasy (second in trilogy)
Thingummies: 4

Synopsis: Being king in a knock-off Narnia isn't enough for Quentin, but when his harmless adventure dumps him back on Earth, he might end up losing more than he bargained for.

Thoughts: The first book of this series, The Magicians, speculated on the results of dumping cynical, overly bright American teenagers first in Hogwarts and then in Narnia. It's a book for adults, far darker than Harry Potter ever could be. At the same time, it's achingly beautiful in its longing. It's a book for all those grown-up teenagers who were too smart for their own surroundings, desperately yearned for a world that was more than just what we see, cynically admitted that fairy tales were for children, and secretly hoped they were wrong. It's a book about discovering that getting what you want won't actually fix what's wrong with you. Which is why I found the ending so disappointing--after seeming disappointment, Quentin got his heart's desire, quite abruptly, and without having truly grown.

Three years later, and he still hasn't grown up. But he has found that the message of the last book was in fact true--getting his heart's desire did not mend the holes in his soul. His restlessness kicks off a series of events that repeatedly nearly loses him his place in Fillory. He never fully appreciates what he has until it's out of his grasp.

At the same time, a parallel storyline tells us what happened to Julia after she failed to get into the magic school. It's obviously going to be a tragedy, but that makes it no less shocking.

The ending here is once more abrupt. But it feels far more thematically consistent, and the fact that there is a third book promised makes it work.

Quentin is still selfish and a little naive, but he wants so much to be a decent person that he's still incredibly appealing. Julia is lost, the kind of lost that happens sometimes to the brightest kids, and her attempts to find herself only make things worse. This is a literary take on fantasy, and no one is going to end up happy. But there's still the potential for them to end up kind of ok, which may be the most any of us can aspire to in the long run.

My one real objection, though, is that I don't understand the motivations of the god whose manipulations turn out to have kicked off the plot. He clearly knows the long term ramifications. He gets a short term payoff, but surely the return of the old gods will obliterate him, too? Can he really not help himself?

Lovely, thrilling, sad, and strangely hopeful.