The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman (The Magicians series: Book 3)

9/10

"The final part of the outstanding Magicians trilogy ... Lev Grossman manipulates fantasy genres with skill ... The Magician's Land glitters with wit, but the warp and weft of the story is shot through with emotional rawness and a sense of peril." (Daily Mail)

"Richly imagined and continually surprising … The strongest book in Grossman’s series. It not only offers a satisfying conclusion to Quentin Coldwater’s quests, earthly and otherwise, but also considers complex questions about identity and selfhood as profound as they are entertaining … This is a gifted writer, and his gifts are at their apex in The Magician’s Land." (Edan Lepucki New York Times Book Review)

"[A] wonderful trilogy ... If the Narnia books were like catnip for a certain kind of kid, these books are like crack for a certain kind of adult ... Brakebills graduates can have a hard time adjusting to life outside ... Readers of Mr. Grossman’s mesmerizing trilogy might experience the same kind of withdrawal upon finishing The Magician’s Land. Short of wishing that a fourth book could suddenly appear by magic, there’s not much we can do about it." (Sarah Lyall New York Times)

"A wholly satisfying and stirring conclusion to this weird and wonderful tale ... Relentlessly subversive and inventive ... [Grossman] reminds us that good writing can beguile the senses, imagination and intellect. The door at the back of the book is still there, and we can go back to those magical lands, older and wiser, eager for the re-enchantment." (Washington Post)

"The Magician’s Land ... does all the things you want in a third book: winding up everyone's stories, tying up the loose ends - and giving you a bit more than you bargained for ... Starting very early in Magician's Land, Grossman kicks off a series of escalating magical battles, each more fantastic, taut, and brutal than the last ... At the same time, Grossman never loses sight of the idea of magic as unknowable and unsystematized, a thread of Borgesian Big Weird that culminates in a beautiful tribute to Borges himself. It's this welding together of adventure-fiction plotstuff and introspective, moody characterization that makes this book, and the trilogy it concludes, so worthy of your reading time, and your re-reading time." (Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing)

"Grossman makes it clear in the deepening complexity and widening scope of each volume that he understands the pleasures and perils of stories and believing in them ... The Magician's Land triumphantly answers the essential questions at the heart of the series, about whether magic belongs to childhood alone, whether reality trumps fantasy, even whether we have the power to shape our own lives in an indifferent universe." (Gwenda Bond Los Angeles Times)

"The strength of the trilogy lies ... in the characters, whose inner lives and frailties Grossman renders with care and empathy ... Quentin[’s] ... magical journey is deeply human." (New Yorker)

"The world of Grossman's ‘Magicians’ series is arrestingly original, joyful and messy. It's so vividly rendered that it's almost disappointing to remember that it doesn't, after all, exist. The overall effect is ― well, there's really only one word for it: It's magical." (Chicago Tribune)

"When read straight through, the Magicians trilogy reveals its lovely shape. The world of the books wraps around itself, exposing most everything necessary by its conclusion, but occluding operations that we'll never need to see. There's still a series of mysteries and untold tales left unknown deep inside the books." (Choire Sicha Slate Book Review)

"The last (and IOHO, best) book in the hit Magicians trilogy. Savor every word." (Cosmopolitan)