The Magicians
1977 • 428 pages

Ratings550

Average rating3.4

15

This was my second attempt at reading this book. The premise is so good, and I've wanted to read it for so long that I decided to give it another go. A magic college? Yes, please! However, the characters were kind of miserable to follow around (and I can deal with an unlikeable character), but none more so than the MC. Everything exciting happened either off the page or was told at such a distance that it felt more like a lecture. Even the magic and the magic school felt mundane and were almost painfully tedious. It's as though the author tried to write a grown-up Harry Potter (which is more or less what this book is billed as) and in the process sucked all the joy and magic out of it. It actually makes me a little sad, because this could have been so amazing if done well.