Grossman’s book was not only a cracking yarn but also an exploration of the way fantasy entices the reader - especially the teenage reader - with visions of a majestic alternate future, a place where meaningful quests are handed out to those otherwise at sea. The Brakebills kids had also read their Tolkien - and Harry Potter, of course, to which “The Magicians” (wherein sorcery, far from solving its unhappy heroes’ problems, often seems to make things worse) sometimes seemed a direct rebuttal. Fillory isn’t Narnia, quite, but it’s not not Narnia, either. And that was before a small group of Brakebills grads, including Quentin, found their way into Fillory, which they had previously encountered only in a popular series of English fantasy novels. Admission to Brakebills College, a school of magic in upstate New York, proved it. One of the pleasures of “The Magicians” was seeing the standard devices of the fantasy story (talking beasts, magical spells, swordplay) through the eyes of its pop-savvy characters, believable teenagers who read comics, used the Internet, drank to excess - and learned to their delight that they were, indeed, exactly as special as they’d always believed. “One minute you’re Prince Valiant, the next you’re Henry VIII.”

“No wonder kings looked so fat in pictures,” he thinks, reflecting on his days spent reclining on pillows and his nights spent drinking to unconsciousness.

While out riding with his fellow royals through the enchanted woods, Quentin chafes against the luxurious boredom of their two-year reign and wishes for an adventure.

Now Grossman has written a sequel, “The Magician King,” and as it opens, His Royal Highness King Quentin Coldwater is getting a bit of a paunch. But what about the Fillory 15?įillory is the enchanted land Lev Grossman introduced in his 2009 fantasy novel, 'The Magicians,' about a Brooklyn teenager who learned that magic was real, and went on to claim one of the four Fillorian thrones.

Lev grossman the magician king