The Magician King was an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying sequel to the Harry Potter/Narnia crossover book of The Magicians Apprentice. Though interesting on its own right, it doesn’t capture the same, or nearly as an effective, to the strife’s of a teenager trying to find his way in the world. Granted, that is because the main character is no longer a teenager, it loses the essence of what made the first novel so great.
What makes the Magician King engrossing to read however is that it the character is extremely relatable if you are in your teens to early adult. This is because he is basically the avatar and a stereotype of a young adult, with all the ups and downs of early adulthood, put into a magical world that is resonate with many of the readers in this books demographic. When reading, it almost feels like as if you were in one of your childhood dreams, except that you are sex crazed 20 year old that doesn’t know what to do with his life.
Ultimately, what made the novel not live up the expectation and grandeur of the first is it’s story progression. There was a never a moment in the book where it felt like it picked up and the hero was thrust into a new adventure. This is due to the fact that the book slowly doles out excitement in small sugar packets that get you hyperactive for a moment, but never really gives you the energy needed to sustain you through the day. Though these sweet moments made me keep going, in hope of a giant jawbreaker size event to occur, it never really happened.
Nevertheless, Grossman did write a jewel in the rough with the history of one of the most mysterious characters in the first novel, Julia. Her account and biography on the events occurring while Quentin was in college was harrowing, disturbing, and downright amazing. Though definitely he just got a story of a cocaine addict and just threw some magic dust in there, the story was an interesting take on how the loss, or denial, of magic threw whole life into disarray.
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