THE MAGICIANS

I am determined to finish at least the first book, even though I hate it. Actually, maybe it's because I hate it. I don't like to rate or review books I haven't finished, but I feel compelled to talk about how terrible this book is. The author is a frequent offender on r/menwritingwomen, and for good reason. He claims all the misogyny (among other things) is intentional, because the story is "filtered through the mind & eyes of a 17 year old boy". That's a pretty dubious claim on its face, and it doesn't really explain why all the other characters do and say what they do. Maybe I'll flesh this out more when I finish it.

On the other hand, generally the writing itself is decent enough, even if it gets a little purple prose at times. Just watch the show, it's 1000% better than the source material.

EDIT: I finally finished it, which was not really worth doing. I think I would mostly describe this book as "Dresden Files but longer for no reason", except at least Harry is poor in that series. Q is equally as misogynistic and then incredibly wealthy to boot. Oh, and the author's justification turns out to fall extra flat because by the end of the book, he is very much not 17 anymore, but still very much an incel.

I would have liked to like this book more than I did, but the protagonist and his 'friends' are so toxic that the thought of them contaminating not just Fillory but actual Narnia (or any other of a thousand cherished portal-accessible worlds) with the consequences of their narcissism and emotional pollution puts me on edge. Nevertheless, it is competently written and the worldbuilding (especially that of the Neitherlands, which may or may not be C. S. Lewis's Wood between the Worlds paved over) seems better thought out than that of J. K. Rowling's Potterverse, which this is more or less the grownup version of. I do commend Grossman for exploring the question of what kind of people an elite magical academy would turn out in real life, in an adult setting. That said, adult does not have to mean unlikeable, but then again, given the kind of adults that elite mundane academies turn out in real life, maybe this comes uncomfortably close to the truth.

At just over halfway through, I've given this a 4 out of 5. It's strange. It's not at all what I was expecting. That is, it's not (yet?) a typical story with a good guy and a bad guy, where everything predictably leads to a climax. It very well could, but I really have no idea what's going to happen next. It seems more like I'm watching bits and pieces of a young magician's life. I really can't explain what I think of it other than to say that I'm getting quite attached to the book and don't want it to end yet!

EDIT: I've finished the book. I'm happy with giving it 4 stars. It would have been 5 if I actually liked the main character (he was a one-dimensional drama queen). The story itself was extremely readable and full of surprises.

EDIT 2: I was wrong to take off a star becausee I didn't like the main character. In fact, I should have given the book extra stars for making me love he book despite having aa main character that I don't like.
I haven't been able to get this book out of my mind. I have changed my review to 5 stars.