The Magicians by Lev Grossman (book reviewer for Time magazine) is a must-read. It has a urban fantasy feel to it, and provides an interesting counterpoint to Rowling, Lewis and the like. I highly recommend it.
It’s out on paperback, so bump for reconsideration.
Also, Lev is going to tour again to promote it. I may make it down to DC for the K Street talk/signing. Possible meetup?
Bump to ensure consideration in the June vote.
I’m going to try to make it to the signing in DC on Monday evening.
So cool, the signing… too bad I’m close enough to seriously consider going, but it’s not really close enough for it to be realistic for me 
I just picked this book up today and I’m looking forward to diving in tonight when I get off work.
This has been on my reading list for a while, It’d be nice to have a reason for moving it to the top 
Bump for Nov/Dec.
C’mon people! Harry Potter with a drinking problem!
This does sound intriguing, I’d give it try.
I finished reading this a few months back. Really good book. Loved the parallels to Potter and the Narnia books. Hilariously unlikable characters. I had to vote for it this month.
Finished this book late last week. It was, yeah, it was as marketed. Harry Potter with booze, drugs and poo-tang, with some Narnia thrown in for the mix.
Me liked it, although I did get annoyed with how new things got introduced every now and then with the protagonist having been completely unaware of said new things. Umm, as in “The Thingamajing? I’ve never heard of the Thingamajing before!” “Oh? Well, it’s this thing that does the majing, every magician knows that. Duh.” Then again, I think HP does that stuff as well (which is motived by Harry being basically a complete outside to the magic community before he starts at Hogswarth).
But nevermind that, I liked it. Bump or whatever.
But that’s rather the point of both of them. They’re being inducted into a magical world that neither we or they know anything about.
Quentin gets to resort to something harder than butterbeer, is all the difference.
Yeah, it’s not a dealbreaker in any way, it’s just a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I understand it’s necessary for narrative reasons, some way or another the author needs to inject new stuff into the world as the story unfolds. But it always makes me go “Don’t these people have any sort of orientation week?! What kind of educational institution is this?” 
That is a great review and sums up far better then I the strengths and weaknesses in the book. I will say I also found the last half really boring and hard to slog through. Cheers Pike!
Huh. I sorta get what you’re on about, but that was where it got interesting to me. Sort of where it departed from the YA Fantasy that it was based in.
I am about 2/3 done with this book. I thought the first part kind of slow, but now I think it has gotten really interesting! I wish there had been more detail about their time in school though. That section seemed too short.
I saw it in the MIT bookstore Monday and picked it up, but started to feel guilty about all the other books in the pile by my bed, and put it back down again… now I’m regretting it. :mad:
Nooooo! Go back. Get it. You’ll love it, I promise.
I finished this about a week ago, and really liked it! I was not sure what was going to happen at the end, but it was obviously set up for a sequel.
He’s working on it now. Manuscript is due shortly (possibly late already.)