"Doing magic was like finally finding the words you'd been groping for your whole life." This was the third book in a series I didn't want to end. I know that this is a problem of mine when it comes to reading habits, and that's why I've made a list this year of the various series I need to finish. There's only one left on my list after this one, but The Magicians may be one of my favorite book series I've ever read. I know I've featured it before and I don't want to give up parts of the story line because you should read it, seriously. Read the trilogy, it's excellent. It is the adult solution to the Harry Potter longings of youth and to the endless and renewing world of Narnia left behind for more grown up lands. It's a magical boarding school crossed with a mystic hidden universe crossed with horrific loss, murder and abuse. It's like Stephen King got a whiff of the most delightful sides of magic and put his little hands in there and scrambled everything up and it is SO GOOD. Lev Grossman knows how to write despicable characters, lovable characters, flawed characters and utterly pitiable characters, sometimes fixing this all within the one individual. Quentin Coldwater, the essential protagonist of the series if often seen to be a pathetic idiot, but his arc is an interesting one. In the final installment, Quentin is once again rudderless and uninspired and we're waiting to see what he makes from the ruins of his life, trying to figure out why he's even been giving the gift of magic in the first place. He does come to find that he has a particular magical discipline, though he's rather underwhelmed by it initially. "Give Quentin a broken object and in his hands it woke up, as if from an unhappy dream, and remembered that it had once been whole." One of the things I appreciate most about Grossmans' writing style is that I still have to look up words occasionally. There's nothing like being an avid reader and stretching your memory banks to see if you've heard the word before, or if you can figure out what it means. These days, unless I'm reading some science fiction and it's some sort of technological or engineering term I'm pretty good with comprehension, but Lev's got my back yo, he's here to help me learn. Tranche - this is a French word meaning slice or portion. "A long, heavy tranche of cloud lay above the horizon, utterly still, its outline etched finely against the sky, like the silhouette of a breaking wave cut out of paper." Sangfroid - composure or coolness shown in danger or trying circumstances. "He wanted to play the game the way she had, but he had nowhere near the necessary reserves of sarcasm and sangfroid, so he wound up being honest." Quentin is trying to reconcile his ideas of the world with reality, yet again. He's in a constant state of flux, confusion and readjusting his expectations throughout the series and setback after setback seems to befall the poor guy. Mostly he reacts how you'd expect any socially petrified, intelligent loner to react - he's all over the place, he lashes out or freezes completely, behaves like a total idiot and a coward. If you're a human, you can relate. The series essentially follows along his journey of his growth or lack thereof, but you don't realise how important and all encompassing this is until very close to the end. He's been working towards it, and yes, he does figure out his place in the universe, he does figure out what he's good at and what he wants from his life. What he doesn't figure out is what the hell magic is for. "I still have no idea what magic is for. Maybe you just have to decide for yourself. But you definitely have to decide. It's not for sitting on my ass, which I know because I've tried that." "It was funny about magic, how messy and imperfect it was. When people said something worked like magic they meant that it cost nothing and did exactly what you wanted it to. But even with the things it could do, it didn't always do them right, and it always, always cost something... It was inefficient. The system was never air tight, it always leaked. Magic was decided imperfect. But the funny thing was that if it were perfect, it wouldn't be so beautiful." I found his personal journey to figure out who the hell he is incredibly interesting. Mind you, I'm not going to tell you what happens and I'm not going to assure you that he figures everything out, but he does get to a point where he figures out enough. He does enough, he makes up for some of his mistakes and carves himself out a comfortable niche in his universe that makes sense. Quentin is not the most typical hero, and that is what makes him such a great character. His flaws don't immediately make him likable, he makes dumb mistakes and is a selfish, childish man with no idea just how much of a whiny bitch he is but when he realises, he does as much as he can to make up for it, to make things right and never make the same mistakes again. Such a realistic expression of humanity is what I appreciate in a book, I don't feel like I'm reading a total lie... Apart from you know, the magic thing, which isn't real... But the people, yes. Mate, 10 out of 10 - do read if you like fantasy, magic, a bit of sci-fi, and not being sheltered from the harshness of reality. Title: The Magicians Land (Book 3) Author: Lev Grossman Published: 2014 Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 401 Finish Date: 10/07/2017
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