The Magician King does a bit of that. Well, it does if you can understand my mixed bag of examples and poor choices of illustration. In this particular book Quintin seems to thirst for a true adventure and, wow, boy does he get one. It certainly isn't the one he probably thought of when he just had the itch to have one, mind you. I'm sure that this book isn't quite what Grossman had in mind when he set out to continue this story, even.
You never know where adventures will take you.
In this particular instance (though I realize i haven't told you much of the plot or much of anything else other than the general mood of this novel … which should be enough, I am sure) Lev Grossman's The Magician King takes readers to a place both unfamiliar and welcome all at once. From the very first turn of the page you are comfortably in the grasp of a truly capable writer and story-teller and you get this sense — this wonderful sense — that you are going to be drawn into a story bigger than should be able to fit within its covers. And, you are … you are … You are also drawn to the sights and sounds of characters living their lives and making choices — some of them awful — which you cannot influence no matter how much you shout at the pages.
That I actually cared about these choices as well as the characters making them is the largest endorsement that I can ever hope to make of this book and of this writer. The Magician King by Lev Grossman is a wonderful book. It's not a perfect book, but it's perfectly enjoyable. Don't believe me? Read it and prove me wrong…
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