“The novel manages a literary magic trick: it’s both an enchantingly written fantasy and a moving deconstruction of enchantingly realized fantasies.” Rowling when I was reading Lev Grossman’s new novel The Magicians.…I couldn’t put it down.” “I felt like I was poppin’ peyote buttons with J. Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “Stirring, complex, adventurous…from the life of Quentin Coldwater, his slacker Park Slope Harry Potter, Lev Grossman delivers superb coming of age fantasy.” Martin, bestselling author of A Game of Thrones
Grossman’s sensibilities are thoroughly adult, his narrative dark and dangerous and full of twists. 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. “ The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. “Lev Grossman’s playful fantasy novel The Magicians pays homage to a variety of sources…with such verve and ease that you quickly forget the references and lose yourself in the story.” “ The Magicians is original…slyly funny.”
“Fresh and compelling… The Magicians is a great fairy tale, written for grown-ups but appealing to our most basic desires for stories to bring about some re-enchantment with the world, where monsters lurk but where a young man with a little magic may prevail.” “Fans of The Magicians will find this sequel a feast and will be delighted that a jaw-dropping denouement surely promises a third volume to come.” “Fabulous fantasy spiked with bitter adult wisdom-not to be missed.” “In this page-turning follow-up to his bestselling 2009 novel The Magicians, Grossman takes another dark, sarcastically sinister stab at fantasy, set in the Narnia-esque realm of Fillory.” “Lev Grossman’s The Magician King is a fresh take on the fantasy-quest novel-dark, austere, featuring characters with considerable psychological complexity, a collection of idiosyncratic talking animals (a sloth who knows the path to the underworld, a dragon in the Grand Canal), and splendid set pieces in Venice, Provence, Cornwall, and Brooklyn.”
“Now that Harry Potter is through in books and films, grown-up fans of the boy wizard might want to give this nimble fantasy series a try.” “ The Magician King, the immensely entertaining new novel by Lev Grossman, manages to be both deep and deeply enjoyable.” “Grossman expands his magical world into a boundless enchanted universe, and his lively characters navigate it with aplomb.” “Grossman has devised an enchanted milieu brimming with possibility, and his sly authorial voice gives it a literary life that positions The Magician King well above the standard fantasy fare.” “ The Magician King is a rare achievement, a book that simultaneously criticizes and celebrates our deep desire for fantasy.” Grossman has created a rare, strange, and scintillating novel.” “ is The Catcher in the Rye for devotees of alternative universes. The Magician King is a triumphant sequel.” “A spellbinding stereograph, a literary adventure novel that is also about privilege, power, and the limits of being human. “ serious, heartfelt novel turns the machinery of fantasy inside out.”