The Magicians - Grossman

The Magicians

Lev Grossman

Life is a chore for Quieten, what with his advanced classes at his Brooklyn private school, his best friend dating the love of his life and the nerve-racking Ivy Le age interviews he has to prepare for. The one thing that comforts Quinten is magic, and novels about his favorite fantasy land - Filroy.  He's great with magic, well the stage variety at least, but when given the opportunity to go to the exclusive Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy Quientins life is changed forever. Here he learn, love and lives until the real world comes to take him back, but is that the only option? 

The Magicians is often called the "adult" Harry Potter. It's easy to see why, schools dedicated to magic, a slightly neglected male protagonist and a good deal about friendship and relationships are all areas that overlap in both works, but if you've come to Grossman's first novel about the magic of Filroy (The Magician King came out earlier this month) hoping to find a Potter replica you'll be disappointed. Don't let that dissuade you from jumping into Quentin's head, though, because The Magicians is still a fantastic book. 

Possibly the most interesting part of Grossman's version of "the magician" is how complex magic is. There are specific hand motions for each spells, along with different conjugations depending on the weather, the sun and various other things. Where as in many other fantasy novels the magic just pours out of the characters the students at Brakesbill have to work very hard to perfect their skill.

The only issue I had with The Magicians lies mostly with Quentin and his friends, while they're all interesting and happy go lucky and all of that they can air on the side of petulant. This is especially true once Quentin and company graduate and are allowed to live in New York work free, drinking and screwing and generally ruining their lives and their relationships. Though necessary to progress the plot I found this section to just be long (it really wasn't that long, it just dragged) and irritating. While most of the Physics Kids were in the same boat as Quentin, Alice and Penny became some of my favorite characters here.

Regardless of Quentin's sometimes trying demeanor I'm excited to pick up The Magician King and see where Quentin and his remaining friends go.  Definitely a good, light fantasy read.

Stardust - Gaiman

Stardust

Neil Gaiman

Thristran Thorn doesn't belong in his small hometown of Wall, and when a promise to retrieve a fallen Star in the promise of love from Victoria leads him through the hole in the wall (in Wall, kinda how it got its name) into the land of Faerie he finds adventures bigger and more perilous then he could ever imagine. When he finally reaches his fallen star he is surprised to find it is actually a woman, and with that he changes the course of his life forever!

I'm a big fan of what I like to call Adult Fairytales, and Stardust easily fits into this category. Gaiman has a knack for creating really interesting 'other' worlds. After reading The Graveyard Book last year I'd been really interested in trying something else by Neil. I was really impressed with Stardust. I saw the film when it came out several years ago and remembered liking it, but very little about the story.

Overall I really enjoyed Stardust. The story was solid, with enough suspense to propel the plot forward, and really interesting scenario's. I mean people turned into animals? Magical glass flowers? Ships in the sky? It was nice to see a fresh fairytale. My only real problem was with minor characters. I remember watching the film years ago that the old witches were really fantastic, and the caption of the sky ship hilarious, and really, most of the people Thristran encountered were full characters. In the novel they fall flat. Thristran is a fully developed character, as is his star counterpart, but other then that people, or animals come and go, and they have no existence outside of the story. It would have been nice, especially with three intersecting stories to see more of the potential Stormhold Earls or of the Witches. Even with this complaint I would wholeheartedly recommend Stardust. It was a quick read, and really drew me in.

So, I guess that's my short review of Stardust. I've got my second to last day of classes for the semester today! I'm super excited to get back to really reading, because I've been slacking these past few months

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Katerine Howe

Connie Goodwin has just completed her orals and as her PhD in sight. If only she didn't have to spend the summer cleaning out her grandmothers old house. The house, covered with vines and mostly hidden, contained many secrets. The first which is discovered is the name Deliverance Dane and a key inside of an old bible. Connie. Connie's research leads her to the Salem Witch Trials and to meet Sam, a church restoration specialist with a tough side. Connie's quest to find out more about Deliverance turns into an obsession with the book she left behind, but she isn't the only one who wants it. Told from alternating perspectives of Connie and Deliverance (and sometimes her children), Howe offers a new perspective on the Salem Witch Trials.

I was intrigued by the story being told here. It seemed fresh and interesting. The further in I got the writing style and all of the unnecessarily long interludes sections where Deliverance and her children live made it difficult to stay interested. Connie's story is more interesting, she has several important historic discoveries and is an all around likable character. The introduction of real magic is a bit much, given the academic background the story originally had. Other than that, the villain was the most transparent character I have read in ages, but the rest of the supporting, modern, cast is delightful.

I really wanted to like this book, and was willing to overlook some of the weirder aspects of it. However it didn't live up to my expectations, and was really a bit of a disappointment.

My rating
3/5