The Magician's Land

Executive Summary: An excellent, but not perfect end to what ended up being a rather enjoyable series. Just a few minor complaints keep me from giving it a 5 star rating. 4.5 stars.

Audio book: Mark Bramhall again does an excellent job that makes this a series I think is best done in audio. I will have to be on the lookout for other books he reads for in the future.

Full Review
This book almost made it to the end to secure one of my rare 5-star ratings. I always hated to stop listening, and found myself coming up with things to do so I could get in some extra listening time each day.

Unfortunately what seems to be Mr. Grossman's need to remind us that life is never fair and far from perfect at places, that I'm frankly sick of. I read to escape from reality, and while I'm not looking for everything to always work out, the negativity of this series wore on me at points.

Thankfully the amount of it seemed to lessen with each book. I think that largely has to do with Quentin's development. He has gone from a character I was indifferent towards, to one I didn't like, back to largely indifference in the last book, but at this point in the series I found myself finally liking him.

I find it hard to read a book where I don't like at least some of the characters. It's no wonder to me why so many people are turned away from the series by the first book.

The world building and the story is what kept me going until suddenly I realized I had actually become fond of these characters. Who would have guessed that?

This is one of those books that doesn't tie up every loose end. I think this keeps in line with Mr. Grossman's frequent injections of “reality” into the series.

I don't need all the loose ends to be tied up to find an ending satisfying, and this was definitely that for me. I'd love to see more stories in this world. If not with Quentin as his friends, then maybe with other students at Brakebills. Preferably ones I like much sooner.

I found Plumb a nice addition to the series, much as I did Poppy in the last book. It was nice to see that much like the real world, not everyone is so depressed and cynical all the time.

Overall I've found this an enjoyable series, which is likely obvious from how quickly I tore through it. I'm cautiously optimistic about the SyFy adaptation based on early details. Here's to hoping they get to tell the whole story, and maybe some other ones beyond it.