The Magician's Land (The Magicians, #3)

by Lev Grossman

[Lianne]

I won an ARC of this novel courtesy of the GoodReads First Reads programme. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/08/27/review-the-magicians-land/

I found The Magician’s Land more interesting than the previous two novels. The little heist story seemed a little out of place at first but it was interesting to catch up with Quentin and what he had been up to since the end of The Magician King. I think what I also enjoyed about the novel is that there’s a pressing sense of urgency this time around: you know something bad is going to happen to Fillory and whatnot and all of the characters are driving along to their respective endpoints. There’s direction this time, which is a good thing.

Granted, there’s still a sense of foreboding and bleakness that runs rampant as in the first two novels. However, the final message that I got upon closing this book is that despite of how stark and vicious the world can be, you can make a difference one way or the other, through your intentions and with what you are capable of doing.

But a major reason why I also enjoyed this story a lot more than its previous two installments is because of Quentin himself: he’s a lot mellowed out compared to when readers were first introduced to him. This time around he is able to purposefully work towards a solution without feeling as held back as in the second novel. Sure, he’s still sort of drifting and still lacking some purpose and direction in life, but at least he’s more self-aware and aware of the people and things around him, which is more positive than in previous installments.

The other characters were a bit of a hit-and-miss as the previous volumes. We got to learn a lot more about Janet this time, which was great because she seemed the least developed prior to this book. I’m not sure where that takes her moving forward, but at least we got a sense of why she is the way that she is now. Other characters remained more or less the same…unlike The Magician King, new characters like Plum were interesting, and not as depressed or angry as some of the other characters (Plum might be one of the few characters lacking a sort of angsty backstory, to be honest).

Overall, The Magician’s Land felt like a fairly good conclusion to the trilogy, capping on Quentin & his friends’ journeys over the course of three novels.