The Magician King: A Novel - Lev Grossman

Date Started: 2/9/2012
Date Finished: 2/18/12

One-Word Summary: Disappointing

A note before we get into this summary: this is the sequel to The Magicians: A Novel, which I previously reviewed here. I knew I would get around to reading this sequel, despite some of my earlier misgivings about the first book. I just went back and re-read my review of the first book and found it surprising how insightful some of my questions were - the questions about Julia and Penny were both addressed in the sequel. Anyhow, onward with this review...

Why did I choose 'disappointing' as the word for this book? Because as hard as I tried to come up with another word that encapsulated my feelings about this book, this was the one that kept coming to mind. So lets get into the reasons why:


1. What about Alice? She is mentioned repeatedly and we all know that she became a niffin at the end of the first book, sacrificing her life to save her friends. Quentin is clearly still harboring feelings for her - he even hopes to see her when he ventures to Fillory's underworld to visit the deceased Benedict - and yet she never appears and we never learn anything more about what her becoming a niffin meant for her. Maybe we were supposed to learn all we needed in the first book, but I felt like this was left somewhat unresolved and could have been addressed.


2. Julia. I thought she was one of the more interesting characters in the first book despite her brief appearance there, and to my delight she featured strongly in this sequel. In fact, most of the book alternates between a flash-back of her coming to magic with current events from Quentin's point of view. And truth be told I found her story fascinating. But the ending? She becomes a demigoddess because she finally "lets go" of returning to her former self and the "Goddess" (Our Lady Underground) grants her this transformation (which also saves them from the underworld)? And then she descents to Fillory's other side because she can hear her tree calling to her from there. I don't know - this felt - empty somehow. Like all that she went through got her to this place where we are clearly supposed to believe that she is happy. But her happiness seemed shallow to me. Maybe that was just me though. 


3. Penny. So he is now a part of this elite group of magicians who are trying to find a way to save magic and he exists in the Neitherlands and knows all of its secrets. Yet we never find out how he got there or how he formed this affiliation with the elite magicians he references. We learn nothing of his journey and it seems like it would have been an interesting one to learn about. Maybe book three? 


4. The set-up for a sequel. Clearly there will have to be a third book. We conclude with Josh and Poppy deciding to stay in Fillory and replace Quentin (who, in taking on Julia's punishment for unleashing the Gods in the first place is forced to leave) and Julia (who, as mentioned above, goes to Fillory's other side, never to return (?)). So what will become of Quentin now that he is back on Earth and has no friends? We are left to imagine - or wait until the next book comes out. 

I know all of this sounds harsh, and I actually liked the book, probably more than this summary shows. In fact, I was more into this book than I was the first one. It's all action and big theories. Then again, the sequel continues the in-your-face stand against everything The Chronicles of Narnia stood for - this time really taking it to C.S. Lewis with the religion bit. I don't know - at best I'm conflicted and for me that was disappointing.

That's all the energy I have to spend on this one. For a more detailed review, I liked this one titled "Magician King: Enduring the Loss of Eden" from a site called Christ and Pop Culture.