The Magician King by Lev Grossman, B+
I read The Magician King for three reasons: 1. I liked the first book in the series enough to want to continue reading about that fictional world, 2. I’ve been grooving on books with “magician” in the title lately (it’s a sort of reading theme for the year), and 3. I recently watched the TV adaptation of the series and enjoyed it.
While I also enjoyed reading The Magician King, I thought it was underdeveloped (spoilers ahead), which is especially noticeable when compared against the television adaptation. The main action of the novel–a quest to find the seven keys that are needed to keep magic from disappearing from the world–is handled better in the TV series. In the book, there’s a legend about the keys that is barely touched upon. The characters sail around randomly until they find the keys, only two of which require much effort to attain. In the TV series, there is a magical book that provides clues to finding the keys, each key requires its own mini quest, and each key has its own particular power. There’s a beautiful episode in which two characters grow old and die in their quest to find one of the keys. Kudos to the writers of the TV show for adding so much great detail.
The other focus of the novel is how one of the characters came into her magical powers and how her experiences, including a brutal rape, affected her. Her story in the TV show follows similar lines, but it too is handled better. In the book, the rape itself literally empowers her (i.e., gives her more magic). In the TV series, she earns the extra magic through her actions in the wake of that terrible experience. Big difference.
So, I expect that readers will find a lot that is interesting in The Magician King and be able to enjoy the book for that reason, while also feeling that it doesn’t quite live up to its potential. I will read the final book of the series (The Magician’s Land), but mostly to see how it differs from the TV show. As for the show, I recommend it to those who enjoy dark humor and don’t mind a little violence, gore, and debauchery.