The Magicians
Sep. 17th, 2019 07:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThe Magicians series by Lev Grossman is a favourite of several people I know. So, I did my best, I really did. The audiobook narrator was good, which helped. But I have to admit I struggled to become invested in the story. Quentin, the protagonist, finds himself mysteriously at a school that's outside of normal time, taking a weird exam to see if he has magical potential. He then speeds through four years of college, which still takes about 300 pages, and only faces any real conflict or peril right at the end of the book.
I guess the author felt he needed to start with the introduction to the magic school, but then didn't want to waste too much time following Quentin through all his schooling. But what that meant was that we got isolated incidents with months skipped between them, making the story very disjointed and difficult to connect to.
And pretty much nothing actually happened until the last 150 pages or so, by which time I just didn't care. There were also lots of inconsistencies with regard to how things worked or were organised that were very irritating. I would get really confused about something, and then a wonky explanation would be crowbarred in with much hand-waving, which made it feel as if the author hadn't really thought a lot of it through before starting.
I only really liked one of the characters (Alice) and she doesn't really have a very good time of it overall, especially during a sexual encounter where her level of consent is very much in question...
So, unfortunately, I have to declare this one a failure for me, I'm afraid.
I guess the author felt he needed to start with the introduction to the magic school, but then didn't want to waste too much time following Quentin through all his schooling. But what that meant was that we got isolated incidents with months skipped between them, making the story very disjointed and difficult to connect to.
And pretty much nothing actually happened until the last 150 pages or so, by which time I just didn't care. There were also lots of inconsistencies with regard to how things worked or were organised that were very irritating. I would get really confused about something, and then a wonky explanation would be crowbarred in with much hand-waving, which made it feel as if the author hadn't really thought a lot of it through before starting.
I only really liked one of the characters (Alice) and she doesn't really have a very good time of it overall, especially during a sexual encounter where her level of consent is very much in question...
So, unfortunately, I have to declare this one a failure for me, I'm afraid.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-18 07:56 pm (UTC)