It wasn't the Fellowship of the Ring, but then again he wasn't trying to save the world from Sauron, he was attempting to perform a tax audit on a bunch of hick islanders. He had a psychotically effective swordsman and an enigmatic witch-queen. On the pretext of needing to collect overdue taxes from one of Fillory's far-flung island territories, Quentin refurbishes a ship, the Muntjac, and sets out to sea, accompanied by an exceedingly motley crew: "Quentin had an obsolete sailing ship that had been raised from the dead. Shouldn't being a ruler of a magic kingdom be more exciting, more meaningful? He pulls away at the last moment, but a tragic turn of events causes him to reconsider the comfort and complacency that have crept into his life. Riding with his fellow royalty through a field, Quentin stumbles across a manifestation of magic that feels deliciously dangerous and forbidden. This time, the knowing, self-referential tone is the same, but Grossman drives his characters from their postcollegiate shallows toward the rocky shores of genuine adulthood. Now in the follow-up, "The Magician King," Grossman continues Quentin's adventures, taking him from the cozy monotony of his kingship at Castle Whitespire to a sea voyage to the End of the World and back. Grossman, author of "Codex" and a book critic for Time magazine, put a postmodern spin on heroic fantasy and dramatized the dangerous attraction of children's literature. Lev Grossman's 2009 novel, "The Magicians," introduced readers to wizard-in-training Quentin Coldwater, his classmates at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy and the fantastic land of Fillory, home to talking animals and demigods, a mix of Oz, Narnia and Dungeons and Dragons. By Lev Grossman (Viking 400 pages $26.95)
0 kommentar(er)
