cleverpun’s 2019 Reading Journal: July · 6:04am Aug 2nd, 2019
The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman
This is the sequel to The Magicians, which I read back in January, and The Magician King, which I read last month. Spoilers all three books follow.
After the events of the last book, Quentin has been expelled from Fillory. He starts the book taking a rather suspicious job. A job to steal something, a job to make money. Money he plans to use to try and helping a character from the first book. But like so many things in fiction, this job—the thing to be stolen and the job itself—are much more than they appear.
In between preparing for the job, the book also explains How We Got Here; after being expelled from Fillory, Quentin went back to Brakebills, the magic college that started it all. He gets a job as a professor, but is fired when he encounters Alice—his girlfriend from the first book who became a Niffin; a being of pure energy.
There’s a lot going on here. Even this much description is giving away some of the twists of the book, and there’s plenty more developments. As usual, there’s another world-threatening adventure to be had, with plenty of layers and characters and even fights to be had.
This story asks a lot of questions. It asks what power means, in particular what it means to be a god. It builds on an idea presented in the previous book; if magic allows you to bend reality, then what are gods but very powerful magicians?
I won’t spoil any more, but this question and others are definitely well-asked. The characters are all well-written, and there is plenty of adventure and character development and twists. I finally hated Ember as much as the other characters, and Umber is a character who is very enjoyable to dislike. Janet even finally gets some character development, although I still don’t like Julia as a character.
If this story has a problem, it’s a bit of a simple one. The entire story hinges on the idea that Fillory is a magical place that is worth saving. But Fillory isn’t really that great. This book and the previous ones point that out, and even show it outright at a few points. A major point of Quentin’s character development is learning that he can live without Fillory—both the ideal of it and the place itself. The story is what presents this theme, but it also tries to present the opposite; that Fillory is actually ideal and people need it. The latter point doesn’t really hold up against the former.
I’d still recommend this series. The first book is the best one, and there are some thematic and characterizations missteps littered throughout them all. But overall, I’m glad I read them. There are some fantastic and interesting scenes and ideas spread across all three books, and it’s a journey I enjoyed taking. I’m not sure all the author’s story beats and themes had the intended reactions, and some left a strange taste afterward. But I enjoyed them in spite of that.
Next time: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
I agree.