The Magicians

I picked up this book after reading a review here.

Let's just say it's... interesting. Let's go with that.

The Magicians is a seeming cross of like Harry Potter & the Chronicles of Narnia, but more adultish (drinking, smoking, sex, etc.). The main character is a complete jackass (to be nice) and you don't really feel for him until maybe the final 15/20 pages.

You follow the main character as he ends up leaving behind his "life" for a magical school, with his parents being told he's in a special school (they're not magicians). He ends up spending some time at the school, making friends, enemies & a girlfriend while learning magic. And on it goes. Eventually they get out of school, and end up traveling to a "foreign" land from a book that actually exists and was found way back when when someone climbed into a grandfather clock to hide. They get involved with the war there, flashing them with the realities that is life.

The book ends up going where Harry Potter refused to go, both with regards to adult feelings and with what happens at the end of "book three". While I didn't much like the end of the HP series, I much prefer it would've gone where this book did at the end.

Anyhow, back to The Magicians... it's a nice read, I guess. But not something I can pick up and read just on a whim when bored. It's... strong. Harsh. Graphic. And on and on. Let's just say... if you though JK Rowling should've killed off a main character (as I did), this book is for you. It's even got the stupid epilogue-type thing that HP7 had... though not all "warm & loving" as HP7.