Comments on: Book Review: The Magicians by Lev Grossman

By: sportske

sportske — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:16:31 +0000

Normally I do not read post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very forced me to try and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, very nice post.

By: Sammi and Ronnie were sweethearts « Make Tea Not War

Sammi and Ronnie were sweethearts « Make Tea Not War — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 05:00:33 +0000

[...] outgrow the disastrous haircut and unfortunate highlights of last year, and I just finished reading a depressing book I really hated I’ve also been working much harder than I like at work recently so instead of spending my [...]

By: Fantasy Book News » Blog Archive » Fantasy Blogosphere: December 6, 2009

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:34:37 +0000

[...] Review: The Magicians by Lev Grossman @ The Book Smugglers [...]

By: Bittercup

Bittercup — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:33:51 +0000

I just finished this book and I’m so glad to see that I’m not alone in how much I dislike it. Holden = Quentin = entitled. I read it to the end as well but it felt like the book that would never end–I kept counting how many pages I had left.

And yes, Alice was great.

By: A review of Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS « The Magic Echo Chamber

A review of Lev Grossman’s THE MAGICIANS « The Magic Echo Chamber — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:14:49 +0000

[...] wouldn’t I like The Magicians, you ask? Well, there was this review from Ana at The Book Smuggler. I stumbled upon it and it made me think this might not be a book for [...]

By: An Aside | ‘The Magician King’ by Lev Grossman announced, sequel to ‘The Magicians’ | A Dribble of Ink

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:36:41 +0000

[...] – and had a similarly mixed reception. Critics seemed to either love it or hate it. I fell firmly into the ‘love it’ camp, naming it my favourite book published in 2009. [...]

By: Cinderella

Cinderella — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:59:08 +0000

Dear Smuggler! I’m writing to you from a Spanish blog so sorry for my bad English :’(

I’m so happy to see that I’m not the only one who seems to “hate” this book. I got The Magicians as a Christmas present and I was excited because I love fantasy literature. When I begun reading it I felt depressed and I searched for reviews in other blogs. I couldn’t understand why such a book, published by a very important Publisher (here in Spain), hadn’t any review about it. Only few Spanish blogs talked about the strange front page and a little resume of the story (the same you can read everywhere), but no one wrote from the experience of reading it. So I googled in English and I found many, plenty, hundreds of reviews and, more or less, everyone told the same: they disliked deeply the book. I was specially happy with your review because it’s so complete! It says everything I thought about the book so I could finish it (as you did: only to get every single information about it to criticize it without leaving things unsaid). I took some paragraphs from your review to post them on my blog because you told perfectly what I would say about it (I hope you don’t mind. Of course I put a link to your review! See on: http://seshatevneib.blogspot.com/2010/01/los-magos-de-lev-grossman-una-broma-del.html).

I can’t stand this book. I can’t understand how the writer can use stories and things from writers such as Rowling, Carrol, Lewis or Tolkien, to make a big “joke” of their works, creations of writers who received (and continue receiving) a big recognition. Never mind, I hope Grossman didn’t hat that purpose in mind. As I said in my review, I hope teenagers won’t read that book because plenty of them are easily influenced and they could learn by reading this to live a desperate live without hopes or dreams. On the other hand, I can’t understand how someone like Grossman, can commit “mistakes” such as presenting characters without a past live, without explaining why they are as they are, why they live without hope… Never mind, I only want to say that I liked very much your review and that I’m 100% in agreement with you. Good job!

By: JVjr

JVjr — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:23:19 +0000

I, too, hated Holden Caulfield so I’m glad I’m not alone; but one of the reasons was that he (or perhaps the author in the 50es) didn’t even have guts to have sex Seeing this polarization (the not-too-bright book reviewer of the leading Czech newspaper disliked it, there were some good responses from not-too-bright genre reviewers) intrigued me enough to want to read The Magicians for myself.

By: Rambling – On The Magicians by Lev Grossman « Dazed Rambling

Rambling – On The Magicians by Lev Grossman « Dazed Rambling — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:59:31 +0000

[...] In the past few weeks, as more reviews and commentary have begun to appear on forums and a few blogs, I have once again been drawn back into thinking about the book and my position on it. I am more [...]

By: SonomaLass

SonomaLass — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:44:07 +0000

@MimsySnark: Thanks for correcting the mistaken impression (NOT in the original review, but in some of the comments) that Grossman does not understand or hates fantasy. This book clearly elicits some strong reactions at both ends of the spectrum, but Grossman himself has said that this is a tribute to the fantasy genre he loves, so I don’t think impugning his motivation is legitimate.