Dublin Bookworms discussion

So here's a thread for people to air their opinions of the book and also give some preferences for when we meet up to chat about it.

Overall, I was quite disappointed by The Magician. It had so much potential, it could have been great. There were parts of it and ideas there that I liked, but overall, I'd give The Magicians a Thumbs Down.

Yeah me too, Jane. I wanted to like it, so much. But I just wanted to yell at Quentin for being such a whiner. (You got the chance to go to magic school, dude, so cheer the f**k up).

Honestly, I thought there were some good concepts, like a more grown up college for wizards, and magic being an in-depth subject requiring a helluva lot of study, but even they have been done before in better ways. I liked some bits but overall I felt the "homage"-ness of it was treading too close to "ripping off" of Narnia, Harry Potter and a couple others.

It felt like I knew what was going to happen, and I didn't think any of the characters really developed at all throughout the story. And then there's things like how Penny just popped up as a device to move the story somewhere new, and the rest of the bunch were very two-dimensional.

Also, it wasn't believable the way good fantasy should be, it didn't ring true in the slightest. But yeah, I gave it two stars, which sort of says I'd have thrown it across the room if I wasn't reading it with other people :p

I kept feeling like it was trying to make a point but never quite got there. It wanted to say things about fantasy and life but ended up just wandering around for nearly 500 pages with any narrative development or conclusions.

The impression I got from the Magician was that it had a premise that could have worked well, but it got so much wrong that it never really worked.

I also didn't like the characters and was really bored by the plot that kind of goes nowhere and still manages to be really predictable.

I was never sure if it was even meant as a homage or a "look I can do this kind of fantasy way better" thing, but by the end I felt the author was trying to take the piss of Narnia/Harry Potter without really getting why those books were so popular.

The most annoying thing about this all is that there are plenty of almost good bits which suggested that the concept could have worked, if only it'd been handled better.

That's how I felt too. Asking ourselves why the kind of fantasy that's popular is popular and what would really happen if you were given the ability to do anything is interesting but this book doesn't take it anywhere. The idea is left hanging.

It wasn't helped by how much of a dick Quentin was. I enjoyed a lot about it, mainly how disillusioned and boring being a wizard turns out to be, and the first appearance of the Beast is quite frightening, but it doesn't pay off. A lot of the side characters are far more interesting.

I think that was what made me so angry. That there were some great stuff. The theme of disillusionment with magic could have been excellent. The initial scene with the Beast was great. But none of it pays off.

hey all. read de magicians as well thought it was ok.
i am readin the 2nd part now called the Magician King

its ok as well
prob better than de 1st