Once, when I picked up a book from the local library, the librarian asked to tell her what I thought about the book when I would bring it back. Well, why not write a few lines about all the books I read so everybody could see what I thought about it? I'm often also happy to have friends recommend a certain book or tell me this and that is not really worth reading. I won't comment about the tons of books I have read so far, but about books I read from now on.
| highly recommended | sehr empfohlen | |
| good reading | gutes lesematerial | |
| average | durchschnittlich | |
| not too interesting | nicht allzu interessant | |
| recommended not to read it | empfehlung das buch nicht zu lesen |
 |
|
|---|---|
| title | The Magicians |
| author | Lev Grossman |
| ISBN-10 | 1-529-10216-2 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-529-10216-1 |
| ASIN | |
| rating | |
| date | 2022-Nov-05 |
Quentin Coldwater is a very talented young student and on his way to an entrance interview to Princeton. But everything turns out completely different than expected and before long Quentin finds himself sitting in an entry exam for a hidden, magical school.
The story has aspects of both, the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter. But contrary to those stories, it definitely is no book suitable for children; there is too much sex, alcohol, drugs, depression, relationship problems etc. Even though the basic idea of the book is good and certainly could be turned into an interesting and capturing story, this book is far from it. Too much gloominess, too much self-inflicted trouble. While the first part of the book is still more or less OK (even though it certainly could be better), the part after graduation quickly deteriorates and has more the feel of the story of some junkie going down the drain slowly, despite the fact that there is somebody by his side who is tremendously patient and would love to help, if only help was accepted.
A warning to readers who are not native English speakers. The vocabulary is quite extensive. If you have a good grasp of English, you'll do fine, but don't expect to understand all the words. If you are looking for some lecture to see lots of less commonly used words in action, this book certainly does have it.
