Lev GrossmanThe Magicians Trilogy Boxed Set

I loved this series and especially the box set!

Totally satisfied with the delivery and the packing of the books, finally got my hands on this trilogy, completely satisfied.

It is beautiful

The Magiciansby Lev GrossmanAudience: AdultGenre: Human interest/magicRating: 4 stars out of 5ReviewThis book is about a mixed group of young adults who are selected to a secret university that teaches real magic. Magic and fantasy are peripheral to the book; the theme is the evolution of their lives, as seen from the perspective of a single protagonist, Quentin.Quentin has a dream of going to an imaginary world described in a series of fantasy storybooks. His dream comes true but not exactly in the way that he hoped.Somebody who is reading the book straight off the shelf will wonder where the book is going; completing 250 pages into the 400 page book still provides no clarity about what the point of the book is. Only in the last third, or so, of the book does a sense of direction emerge.The book is intense, introspective, deeply brooding, disturbing, and radiates unhappiness. There is far more drunkenness and prurience than the plot needs. Nevertheless, the book is very well written and holds the attention; at no time is the reader tempted to quit.This is the first book in a trilogy. I have no intention of reading the other two.

Lev Grossman has reinvigorated the genre of fantasy with his "Magician" novels, merging traditional tropes of heroic fantasy with the elements and techniques associated with contemporary mainstream Anglo-American literary fiction, and creating what have to be regarded as instant classics in the genre of fantasy fiction. "The Magicians" is the first great fantasy novel of this century; a riveting coming-of-age tale about an intellectually gifted teenager, one Quentin Coldwater, eventually, a magician who learns that possession of great magical powers can come at a most terrible price. Paying homage to such illustrious writers as C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, T. H. White, and Ursula K. Le Guin, while also acknowledging a most respectful nod or two to J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" saga, Grossman has wrought a fantasy tale steeped in realism unlike any other, one in which reasonable, sound choices are those that can be expected and the usage of magic itself can not alter the past nor the present. An unexpected chain of events takes Coldwater from the streets of his Park Slope, Brooklyn home to the Brakebills College of Magical Pedagogy, whose idyllic grounds overlook the Hudson River, even as he dreams of Fillory, the magical realm depicted in his favorite fantasy novels. A passion that consumes him even as a young adult recently graduated from Brakebills, until, by accident, he learns that Fillory is indeed a real realm located in another plain of existence. Journeying with his college friends, Quentin makes a perilous trip there, finding it not the realm of his dreams, but instead, one that is far more dangerous than he could ever have possibly imagined, and uncovering a terrible secret whose discovery will cause great harm and emotional anguish to Quentin and his friends. Much to my astonishment, Grossman has written a most compelling dark fantasy novel for adults that merges the emotions, wants and desires of twenty-something adults within the tropes of heroic fantasy; it would be an understatement to say that this is a "Harry Potter" novel for adults; it is much more, an epic fantasy worthy of comparison with the finest written from the likes of Homer to Lewis and Tolkien, and one that considerably raises the standard for writing epic fantasy tales, by merging it successfully within the genre of mainstream literary fiction. Without a doubt, "The Magicians" will be remembered as one of the great fantasy novels of our time, and it and its sequels as the first great fantasy saga of the 21st Century and one worthy of recognition as among the finest ever conceived.Magic is disappearing from Fillory, and the Neitherlands - the realm that is the "door" to Fillory from Earth - lies in ruins. To save Fillory, Quentin Coldwater, a Magician King of this realm, must embark upon a quest to save it and to save magic forever, searching for a set of golden keys that will rescue both from the dark fate awaiting them. An epic quest that will thrust him back to Earth, on a globe-trekking journey from his parents Chesterton, Massachusetts home to the canals of Venice, searching for a means to return to Fillory after being sent unexpectedly back to Earth. However, "The Magician King" is not just an epic fantasy novel about Quentin embarking on a hero's quest. It is also chronicles how Quentin's high school friend Julia became a magician in her own right, after flunking the Brakebills College entrance examination. "The Magician King" is as much her story as it is Quentin's. How she undertakes her own personal perilous journey to master magic, a dark form that she learns in a house inhabited by self-taught magicians in the urban jungle that is the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. A perilous journey that will also lead her to Venice, where she and her friends undertake a ritual to summon the old gods with disastrous consequences for all. Lev Grossman has written a darker, psychologically, intense sequel to "The Magicians", and one that literally overturns the notion that the hero earns his rewards at the very end. "The Magician King" demonstrates that Grossman has become the true heir to C. S. Lewis and his "Narnia" fantasy saga, but a heir who demonstrates confident mastery of both mainstream literary fiction and fantasy tropes, in crafting a sequel to "The Magicians" that may be a far more intense, emotionally and psychologically riveting tale than its predecessor. Without a doubt, Grossman demonstrates in "The Magician King" that he deserves ample recognition, along with Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, China Mieville and Catherynne Valente, among others, as one of the great fantasy writers of our time.With the debut of "The Magicians", Lev Grossman introduced readers to a new form of heroic epic fantasy, one in which the rules of magic existed with ample realism; a heroic epic fantasy novel that had more in common with Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy than anything written by the likes of Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin, or J. K. Rowling, especially when Grossman's "Magician" novels have been dubbed "Harry Potter for adults". "The Magician's Land" is the most "adult" of the "Magician" novels, and yet, one which will dazzle readers with more feats of magic and heroic fantasy quests, than in the prior "Magician" novels. One of the greatest - I would say even guilty - pleasures in reading the work of a most gifted and thoughtful writer, Lev Grossman, has been watching the development of a great cast of memorable characters, of whom Quentin Coldwater, the main protagonist in the "Magician" novels, may be the most complicated hero ever envisioned within the genre of heroic epic fantasy. Indeed Quentin's ongoing struggles to understand his magical powers, and to deal with his personal crises, clearly has struck a nerve with many of Grossman's younger, often twenty-something, readers, making him a realistic figure far more sympathetic and intriguing than Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins or the wizard Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien's "Middle-Earth" novels and tales.While one doesn't have to read the other two novels in the "Magicians" trilogy to get ample pleasure reading the latest exploits of Quentin and his friends, readers who are familiar with the earlier novels will understand the great emotional arcs undertaken by them, showing great capacities for personal growth both here, in the real world, and in the magical realm of Fillory. We're introduced to Quentin as part of a team of magicians planning a most spectacular heist, before we are treated to an engrossing back story regarding his all too brief tenure as a new Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic professor, and his unexpected encounter with brilliant, and exceptionally talented, Brakebills student Plum; an encounter that will take them on an epic quest that will lead them to a most powerful spell, and eventually, even Fillory itself. A Fillory whose future seems dark, as its rulers, Eliot and Janet, old friends of Quentin's, try saving it. Grossman's superb gifts as both a fine prose stylist and engrossing storyteller are in ample abundance in "The Magician's Land", and, even more than its predecessors, yielded a novel so compellingly readable that I found it impossible to put down. It is no mere understatement to note that "The Magician's Land" is a spectacular conclusion to the best fantasy series published so far in this century, and one that will be remembered as one of the greatest fantasy sagas of all time.