the Magicians/the Magician King

Granted, they're not young adult books, but Grossman does utilise a lot of ya and child fantasy tropes, even drawing from popular series to create his genre-bending masterpiece. I'm in the midst of the Magician King at the moment, and am wondering if any of the members here have read the books and what they thought?

I couldn't get through The Magicians. I just couldn't see where it was going, so I lost interest midway through.

I have read both books at least twice. I think I read The Magicians three times. I'm eagerly awaiting the third and final book.

The Brakebills South chapter of The Magicians is possibly my single favorite chapter of fiction ever. That doesn't make the whole book my all-time favorite book, but that chapter... Wow! And the overall book is way up there for me.

I do think of them as the opposite of YA, though. To me, they're all about the disillusionment of adulthood. Quentin seems to keep having to re-learn lessons over and over.....

I read and liked The Magicians, and thought about reading the sequel, but for one reason or another I haven't yet. When the third book comes out, maybe I will find the time to read all three.

To me they're masterworks. I grew up reading Narnia so much most of the books in my set fell apart. I was much like Quentin in that as a kid I always wanted to find the doorway to Narnia and later get a letter of admittance to Hogwarts.

I love the books because they are a realistic portrayal of a mature coming to terms with reality. Quentin dreams of finding his way into his Narnia, of going to his version of Hogwarts. Both of these dreams come true, but not remotely in a way he thought they would. Instead of being disillusioned and trying to go back to reality the way it was, he is disillusioned and learns to live in his new reality, bloody and dark as it is. I also enjoy the dry humor.

^ Yes, what DeusExLibrus said.

I think these books are highly underrated. I mean, the people who love them LOVE them, but I think they are deserving of wider attention. In my mind, they go beyond the magic elements and really speak universally about accepting life for what it is, instead of always wanting something different/more. But the magic elements make it even more wonderful, and the author's grasp of what reading was like for many of us when we were very young.

I read The Magicians. I thought the writing itself was very good. Unfortunately, I really didn't care about most of the characters or the "Oh, let's study our magical fannies off at a mystical Ivy-League-equivalent and then spend our lives getting sloshed like the oh-so-angsty-and-alienated youths that we are!" story.

SPOILER

Again, the writing itself was good, so maybe I'd have continued with the next book if only Grossman hadn't killed off the only character who wasn't a worthless buttnugget.

Honestly, I'm not sure whether I'm going to read the last one with how he ended the second. the ending just felt like the author giving the main character and the reader the middle finger.

I trust the third will somehow bring things full circle.

SPOILER

I actually thought it made sense. The dragon asked Quentin "are you ready to be a hero" -- not "to be celebrated as a hero". Big difference, and the former involves making sacrifices that you might not even be able to imagine. Quentin said "I don't have anything to lose" and boy oh boy was he wrong, which the dragon knew.

That's why it worked so well for me. I'm on Q's side and rooting for him, but he was incredibly arrogant in thinking he was heroic without ever have done anything heroic.