The Magician King by Lev Grossman

The Magician King is a 416 page fantasy novel. It is the sequel to The Magicians, the middle book in The Magicians trilogy. I bought this quite a while ago, and decided to pick it up to continue the story of Quentin, Julia, Eliot, and Janet.

This story is mostly set in Fillory, the magical meta-world in the series that is featured in a series of novels that Quentin is obsessed with that pretty closely resemble the tales of Narnia. The other parts of the novel take place in Italy, Brooklyn, and an odd assortment of other towns that Quentin and Julia visit. The main plot is much shorter than the first book, which was a bit of a breath of fresh air. The story starts out with the four rulers of Fillory and their lackluster adventures. Quentin is dying for something a little more exciting, and he unwittingly gets it when he travels to Outer Island and finds a key that kicks him out of Fillory and back into real life. The rest of the story centers around
Quentin and Julia trying to get back to Fillory.

My favorite part of the book was another large plot line, which was a woven narrative from the perspective of Julia previous to meeting Eliot and Janet, after Quentin had left for magic college. Julia was supposed to forget that she attended the Brakebills College magical exam, but they couldn’t keep her memories away. She fell into depression and quit caring about school and family. She was desperate to find magic — she would go to safehouses and learn magic from some pretty seedy types. It was her refreshing active roll that balanced Quentin’s angsty inaction and kept the book moving. Julia went from being a character I cared very little about to one of my top three favorites. Quentin, however, remained in the bottom of my favorites. He is still exceedingly angsty and quite selfish, though not as much as in the first novel, thankfully.

While this novel holds less of the Harry Potter/Narnia feeling that The Magicians did, it had a lot better paced plot and kept me more engaged. The first third of the book was what seemed a continuation of The Magicians, but once it broke free of that, The Magician King’s story soared. I finished the rest of the novel in one day. In particular, Julia’s POV was incredibly dark and intriguing. Once she gets into a good group of magicians, they explore unknown and dangerous territory, which fascinates me.

If there was one thing I did not like, besides Quentin’s horrible post-teen angst, it was how Grossman drew attention to Julia’s oddness. Mentioning that Julia never spoke with contractions was jarring–mentioning when she broke character and started using them was just annoying. Although that part seemed unnecessary, Grossman clearly has fun with breaking the fourth wall in this novel. More than just bringing up pop cultural references, he refers to Fillory in a Harry Potter/Narnia sense in the novel. It made the story feel very modern and fun, which allowed for a little forgiveness in mentioning certain peoples’ character flaws.

Overall, The Magician King is a solid sequel to The Magicians. Though I would never have guessed it from how the story ended, the final page in the book had an advert for the next book in what is planned to be a trilogy. After doing a bit of researching, I found that the name of the next and final book in the trilogy is (quite probably) The Magician’s Land. After enjoying The Magician King, I know I will pick the third book up and read it when it comes out. If you haven’t ventured into the magic world that Grossman created, and you enjoyed the similar series (HP, Narnia), I would recommend starting out with The Magicians. It was a perfect disillusioned story after finishing the epic Harry Potter adventure of my youth.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

When I was desperately in need of some well done fantasy, I went looking for a new author. Peter V Brett led me to Brent Weeks, and I tried out The Black Prism on a whim. It is a 629 page sort of epic science fantasy novel, the first in a planned four book deal known as the Lightbringer series.

Before I detail the plot and characters, I want to give a little description of the magic system which centers around light and the ability to “draft” physical objects from it. Each drafter can draft different colors — each color has certain strengths and weaknesses; green can be incredibly durable, but will also weigh you down and can induce mania, superviolet may be invisible to most, but it can be used in secret messaging, and so on. When someone can draft, which not everyone can, they can be a monochrome (one color), bichrome (two colors), polychrome (3+ colors, usually in successions: red-orange-yellow), or if they can draft every color, they are known as the Prism.

Only one person can be the Prism at a time. They last for years in increments of 7 — they die out after 7, 14, or if they’re lucky, 21 years. Gavin Guile is the Prism at present. Unfortunately, due to unknown circumstances, his younger brother Dazen was also granted prismatic drafting abilities. This spawned the Prism’s War (or the False Prism’s War, if you were on Dazen’s side). Gavin won the war 16 years ago, and has been the religious figurehead, sort of emperor, and High Luxlord Prism of the Chromeria ever since. The Chromeria is a neat, sort of oppressive ruling body and elite school where anyone who can draft, and can afford it or earn a sponsor, goes to learn the magical craft.

The Black Prism follows Gavin and a few other key characters, like his bastard son, Kip, his prisoner and brother, Dazen, his ex-fiance Karris, a general who fought on Dazen’s side in the False Prism’s War, Corvan Danavis, and Corvan’s daughter, Liv. I honestly can’t talk too much about plot without giving away a huge spoiler that happens about 1/3 of the way into the book. Though I will say that watching Kip and Liv, both from the same town originally, learn and grow so differently based on how the Chomeria affects them when they go there was a great dynamic.

Spoilers aside, the plot focuses on Gavin’s great purposes that he sets out to accomplish before his final 7-year span finishes and how each of the other characters eventually help or hinder him. In the land, there are seven satrapies (sort of territories/countries) that are loyal to the Chromeria. Unfortunately, one of them–Tyrea, has had their head satrap (diplomatic leader) go rogue and insist he is the King of Tyrea. Gavin has to enlist the help of everyone to try to figure out why this occurred–aside from the fact that Tyrea suffered major losses 16 years ago in the (False) Prism’s War–and how they can put an end to the senseless massacres of innocent citizens.

I loved this book, and the magic system was incredibly fun to learn about. Of course, once you think you have a handle on it, Weeks throws in some curveballs that the characters don’t even understand, but that just adds to the whole mystery of chromaturgy (drafting powers). The only real complaint I have about the book is Kip’s POV. Even from the beginning of the novel, I wasn’t a huge fan of his sections. At first, I thought he was a boring weakling, but even after he started becoming more powerful, he was just awkward. It was obvious that it was part of his appeal, but I didn’t find it that appealing. The shifts from third person narration to first person in his sections was a little jarring at times, and sometimes just felt unnatural. Fortunately, it was a rare occurrence that the rest of the brilliant narrative easily makes up for. Balancing his incredibly awkward teen vibe, Gavin Guile absolutely shines in the book as a debonair, clever, handsome, and extremely powerful ruler who is actually wily and more humble than he likes to admit. His character was incredibly fun to read as a POV and I am excited to get more of him in the next book, The Blinding Knife.

With The Black Prism, Brent Weeks spins an incredible tale of secrecy, intrigue, loyalty, and questionable faith. If you enjoy high/epic fantasy with incredibly intricate and clever magic systems, I highly recommend The Black Prism. It’s through the magic and worldbuilding that the book really shines. With plenty of character growth in the second half of the novel, the Lightbringer series is a promising one.

The Desert Spear by Peter V. Brett

The Desert Spear is a 583 page fantasy novel. It is the second book in The Demon Cycle. After reading The Warded Man (first of the series), I immediately picked up the Desert Spear and continued the journey of Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer. Along with the familiar characters, Peter V. Brett added in a few new perspectives, like that of Jardir (Ahmann asu Hoshkamin am’Jardir am’Kaji) from Krasia.

The first 200 pages detail Jardir’s life from childhood to the approximate present that The Warded Man brought us to. Jardir, being a male, was basically taken from his family at age 9 and put into intense training called Hannu Pash. Through this training, almost all the boys of Krasia are trained in order to fight alagai’sharak every night. During this, they use spears, nets, and teamwork to trap and kill corelings, the demons that rise from the core of the Earth every evening as the sun sets. It was fun to get a deep back story and understanding of Krasian culture and history as a precursor to the events in the rest of the novel. We also get a new view of Arlen here, as he manages to travel to Krasia and befriend Jardir.

Although I really enjoyed Jardir’s point of view, I think I would have liked it more if it was spread throughout the book rather than condensed into the first 200 pages. It felt as if his story was just playing catch-up to the other characters, and didn’t really fit into any major plot other than back story for a main character.

Along with Jardir, the second primary point of view comes from Renna Tanner, a young woman on a farm just outside of Tibbet’s Brook. When she was young, she and Arlen were promised (basically an arranged marriage agreement). Renna has it rough living with her family and rather disturbing and backwards father. Her viewpoint was an exciting way to get back into the hamlets without reliving the stories from the first novel. She eventually travels with Arlen, and it was nice to see him return to his human side after thinking absorbing Core magic was turning him into a demon.

Arlen, Leesha, and Rojer are returning POVs in The Desert Spear. In this book, I think Leesha’s view was my favorite. It was really fun to see her going on adventures. Other than that, I feel not too much changed from the first book that wasn’t natural progression. Aside from the regular human perspectives, this book actually brings in one of the more intelligent demon breeds — a mind demon — and gives a little hint into their thought process. In the face of this demon and the other corelings, humanity is desperate for the return of the Deliverer, a prophet foretold by both the Ejevah (Krasian holy text) and the Canon of the northern cities, to save them from the darkness. Krasia claims the deliverer is Jardir, and the northern cities and hamlets claim Arlen for role. It is this that sparks such tension between characters in this novel.

The book moved quickly, as it felt like something completely different from The Warded Man. The additional POVs really brought some spice to what could have been a simple continuation of The Warded Man. It was fascinating to see Krasia, a civilization that actively fights the corelings every night, rather than just hiding behind wards. Arlen’s explorations into various worldly places was one of the best things Brett could have done for the series to expand the world in a believable and understandable way. The exploration of previous POVs was interesting, and the new ones really brought a fresh feel to this book. If you liked The Warded Man, you should not miss The Desert Spear.

Found: Book Sale Bookmark

I found this bookmark from a book that a friend gave me. I actually don’t recall if they placed it in the book, or if it was already there (I believe they got the book from a garage sale or something similar). It’s an advertisement for a Planned Parenthood of the Heartland Book sale that took place almost a year ago on the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

The book that my friend gave me is Smoke and Mirrors, which is a collection of “short fictions and illusions” by Neil Gaiman. I intend to read the book at some point, because I’ve had pretty good experiences with his works in the past. The bookmark was just sitting in between the cover and first page.

Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese

Mercury Falls was one of the first books I started reading when I got my Kindle — over a year ago! It is a 370 page humor/fantasy/magical-realism piece. It’s actually a little hard to pinpoint the genre, because the book does so many things.  There are a few other books in the series, which has no true intended order. I believe I got this book for free, which is why I read it first.

Mercury Falls centers around the coming Armageddon and certain PAIs (Persons of Apocalyptic Interest). The two big main characters are Mercury, a wayward angel who does pretty much what he wants when he wants for reasons only he knows about; and Christine, a journalist working for a reputable newspaper, traveling the USA and writing about end-of-the-world cults and their doomsday predictions. Her boss and owner of The Banner, Harry, has had the lifelong ambition to be the first newspaper to correctly document the pending apocalypse. This is why Christine has been sent to interview most anyone who claims they know the date of Armageddon.

The novel follows Christine’s travels around the US, and eventually to the Middle East, and all the attempts to either support or negate Armageddon made by humans, angels, and demons alike. Her plans go astray when Karl Grissom, a 37-year-old who still lives with his mom, is named the Antichrist by a competition based on a popular young adult series. Hilarity and fast-paced calamity ensue.

Though it took me an insane amount of time to read this book (I started it in early 2012), it was actually pretty enjoyable. Kroese portrays Heaven as a huge bureaucracy that in order to get anything done has to step on so many toes in its other departments that nothing ever gets done. None of the angels really know who “the big guy upstairs” is, where humans go when they die, or what the plan after Armageddon is. Half the fun of the story comes from the fact that disgruntled angels act pretty much like humans.

My favorite character is Mercury himself, the best–and really only–anti-establishment angel out there. I could never really guess his motives or which side he was on, whether it was pro- or anti-Armageddon, as the book calls it. He really throws everyone for a loop when he starts building snowmen instead of ushering in Armageddon like he’s supposed to be doing. Although the plot did move along quickly in this book, it was really the unique characters and creative Heaven that Kroese created (portals, a planeport limbo) that made the book so much fun to read.

Once I got over the initial push, about the first 100 pages, it got interesting and amusing and hard to put down. The contrasts of Christine’s apathy towards religion, Harry’s fanaticism, and Mercury’s mischief of minor miracles make this semi-religious book extremely lighthearted. Once I got into it, Mercury Falls was an easy, quick read. I’d recommend it if you want a humorous look on Armageddon.