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The Magicians

The Magicians, Book 1

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The Magicians

By: Lev Grossman
Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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About this listen

In a secret world of forbidden knowledge, power comes at a terrible price....

Quentin Coldwater's life is changed forever by an apparently chance encounter: when he turns up for his entrance interview to Princeton, he finds his interviewer dead - but a strange envelope bearing Quentin's name leads him down a path very different from any he'd ever imagined.

The envelope, and the mysterious manuscript it contains, leads to a secret world of obsession and privilege, a world of freedom and power; and, for a while, it's a world that seems to answer all Quentin's desires. But the idyll cannot last - and when it's finally shattered, Quentin is drawn into something darker and far more dangerous than anything he could ever have expected....

©2016 Lev Grossman (P)2016 Penguin Audio Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Paranormal
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really enjoyed this. wish it had a better or different ending. a good escape from "mundane" life!!

forget about Harry Potter and give it a try

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I absolutely loved this audio book…I chose it after watching all the series on TV (the book is usually better!) and decided not to let the negative reviews put me off. The story is both completely different and yet also startlingly similar to the Prime series and I found the similarities and differences both worked well. I didn’t find the characters dis-likeable or depressing but maybe my familiarity with the good and bad bits of their personalities helped. I found myself listening at every opportunity and now can’t wait to download the next book immediately and get started…

Maybe it helps if you’ve watched the TV series?

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not bad bit boring in places and when it picked up it dies quite quickly. reminds me of my uni days maybe if I was still at uni I would have found it better

hmmm not sure

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This first instalment gives heavy nods to both Narnia and Harry Potter, but has neither the moral fibre of the former nor the engaging characters, delicious word play or even the simple joyfulness of the latter.
It is largely a wallow in the psyche of solipsistic, entitled and fairly unpleasant middle class white kids

Average fare

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Really good, different enough from the TV series to make it worth checking out. Also gives us something to listen to whilst we wait for the series to return.

Came here on the back of the TV series

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