The Magicians
A Novel
by Lev Grossman · first published 2009
57% recommend35% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
Fantasy that deconstructs magic-school and YA tropes, with clean, show-don't-tell prose and a solid magic system. Suits fantasy fans tired of orcs and Harry Potter-style stories, and readers who like introspective leads.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A thrilling and original coming-of- age novel about a young man practicing magic in the real worldQuentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, boo
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…Bryson - The Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan - The Enigma of Reason by Hugo Mercier Fiction: - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - The Magicians by Lev Grossman The non-fiction books were all incredible and highly recommended. I especially appreciate The War on Science as it is highly relevant in today's polarized and emotional political climate.…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗The Magicians is a lovely book; I actually interviewed Grossman when the first one came out, in 2010: https://jakeseliger.com/2010/10/14/an-interview-with-lev-gro.... If you like it, try Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials…
on “YC’s Summer Reading” ↗…fiction. http://www.hpmor.com/ - Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0 Book 1) by Scott Meyer | Reality is defined in a text file, making the protagonist a wizard when he discovers it while hacking a company. - The Magicians (series) by Lev Grossman
on “Ask HN: Read any good books lately?” ↗Most urban fantasy isn't very good (at least what I've read so far: Justine Musk, Mike Carey, some others). But if you get a chance, read Lev Grossman's The Magicians: http://jseliger.com/2009/08/28/the-magicians-lev-grossman . Although it's more straight-up fantasy than urban fantasy, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is also excellent.
on “Getting a Divorce from a VC” ↗Definitely good stuff. In terms of Orc-free pseudo-fantasy stuff, for those that liked Rothfuss and somewhat weird stuff (i.e. Ready Player One - though writing wasn't as good in that IMHO), Lev Grossman's Magicians series is possibly worth checking out. Anyway, I really liked it. http://www.amazon.com/The-Magicians-Novel-Trilogy/dp/0670020...
on “Sci-Fi Novels You Should Read” ↗Anecdote: I switched back from a kindle after 2 years. My kindle broke in the middle of a thrilling novel (The Magicians by Lev Grossman, highly recommended), and I decided to buy it hardback. Soon enough, I decided to not bother getting my kindle fixed -- paper books felt so much more focused, more visceral, and more engrossing.…
on “Print books are on the rise again in the US” ↗A bunch of books: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (as well as several of the sequels), American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, and a bunch of others.
on “Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?” ↗Lives of the Great Composers by Harold Schoenberg The merry adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle The Magicians Book #1 by Lev Grossman Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
on “Ask HN: What books do you want to read over again?” ↗…review" is to be expected. But that's already the case (if you want substantiating evidence just read my Amazon or Goodreads one-star reviews). As somebody who really enjoyed Lev Grossman's book The Magicians, I remember being somewhat perplexed by the bizarrely high number of one-star reviews on Goodreads until I realized that the predominant reason for the poor reviews was because the protagonist is self-destructive,…
on “They don't make readers like they used to” ↗…question that animals exceed our knowledge in specific domains, a bird who can fly must be vastly more knowledgeable about variable wind conditions than we are. There's a great scene in Lev Grossman's The Magicians where they speak to a talking bear, but all the bear wants to talk about is caves, and area in which his knowledge is so complete that the humans cannot really even talk to him. But our definition of…
on “Orcas are breaking rudders off boats in Europe” ↗Yeah, this is a common problem in genre fiction unfortunately. The best one I've read is "The Magicians" series by Lev Grossman. The writing is clean, concise, everything is shown and nothing told. The series is a great deconstruction of a lot of classic YA fantasy tropes and has a solid magic system. Can't…
on “Harper Lee has died” ↗"The Magicians", "The Magician King", "The Magician's Land" - Lev Grossman. 4/5 "Inside Job" - Connie Willis. 4/5 "Norwegian Wood (Tokio Blues)" - Haruki Murakami. 4/5 "Old Man's War" - John Scalzi. 5/5 "Persepolis"…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗Wow, that's interesting. We must have approached Grossman from completely different perspectives. Last year (2017) I read the entire Magicians series and thoroughly enjoyed them because they made me uncomfortable. I was trash, in the same way that Quentin was trash, so following his arc was introspective. At the time I contrasted it to the optimism…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗As a fan if Fantasy, this article reminds me of Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It comes from very similar experiences the author had going to an Ivy League school. It is probably the best deconstruction of the magical school (think Harry Potter) subgenre because it touches on such…
on “Why do Ivy League students self-sabotage?” ↗I used to think that between Lord of the Rings, Earthsea, and Narnia, all of fantasy was tapped out. Harry Potter did nothing to dispel this idea. Only Grossman's The Magicians has proved my thinking wrong.
on “The Earthsea Trilogy (2003)” ↗