![]() ![]() Jake Seliger: I first read about The Magicians on John Scalzi’s blog, “Whatever.” I don’t know if you’ve met him or not, but he wrote about it and I thought “That’s exactly the book I want to read.” The following is an edited transcript, and any links were added by me after the interview: The Magicians is a surprise and delight: its language is not overly showy and yet often contains an unexpected surprise, especially at the ends of sentences, as this early description shows: “Quentin was thin and tall, though he habitually hunched his shoulders in a vain attempt to brace himself against whatever blow was coming from the heavens, and which would logically hit the tall people first.” Until the last clause, one could be reading any novel, fantasy or otherwise, but saying that a blow from heaven would hit the tall first gives us Quentin’s personality in a single line, and yet its ideas are spun coherently across the entire novel. Unlike Hogwarts, however, classes are a grind, students are filled with angst, and sexual politics are everywhere. In the novel, Quentin Coldwater is a bright and unhappy high school student searching for meaning, happiness, and a place in the world-which he thinks he’ll find when he receives an invitation to Brakebills, a college for magic. ![]() ![]() Lev Grossman’s book tour is just about finished, and I caught up with him at Changing Hands in Phoenix on June 10 to talk about The Magicians. ![]()
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