The Magicians

The Magicians, Book 1

By: Lev Grossman

Narrated by: Mark Bramhall

In a secret world of forbidden knowledge, power comes at a terrible price....

Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton, he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a path very different from any he'd ever imagined.

The envelope, and the mysterious manuscript it contains, leads to a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power; and, for a while, it's a world that seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last - and when it's finally shattered, Quentin is drawn into something darker and far more dangerous than anything he could ever have expected....

©2016 Lev Grossman (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Amazing!

Got hooked up after the show. Can't wait to get ahead to the next ones.

Tediously captivating

A wonderful performance of the embodiment of tedium and chasing happiness beyond the horizon. Annoyingly depressing and yet the story sucks you in and along the dark and gloomy alley towards the blackness at the end.

The Show was better

It was a bit of a struggle to get through at times. I like the way the show revealed some information about characters better than the book which just sort of haphazardly plopped things in.

Nice Adult Magicians Story

I found The Magicians through a search of stories similar to Harry Potter and I found it quite entertaining.

It’s not Harry Potter but it has magic in it, it’s not Narnia but it has different realms in it.

It’s all of that combined with lots of swearing, lots of wine and some sex!

The story is well written and the performance is very good!

Can’t wait to start the second book!

Fine, but don't let the tag line fool you

This isn't anything like 'Harry Potter for adults' if you're looking for anything more than Magic performed by ignorant young men with drinking problems.

The world building isn't on par. The story could use some heavy editing. There are too many unnecessary references to irrelevant other big franchises. The sex and alcohol is plentily available but random and forced and also very unnecessary to aid the story.

If it didn't try to harp onto Harry Potter fame it would have been great fun, but in the forced comparison it doesn't hold up.

The narration however is perfect.