Thanks for the review! You’ve added several significant things to my stockpile of things to muse on.

Having said all that, I just have to quibble with two of your points in particular. First, that this is the book Rowling probably wishes she could have written. WHY??? I can’t for the life of me fathom why Rowling, whose work was brimming over with rich, complex characters and purpose, would want to write a book with such pathetic, one-dimensional characters. For one example, I could never even figure out why Quentin was so miserable with his home and his parents. Because they were boring? Doesn’t seem like much of a motivation for a wasted life. We see almost nothing of Quentin’s home life, but his one specific memory that I recall is of him playing with his parents in the snow. Harry Potter, on the other hand—I know exactly why his childhood was miserable, and what he longs for because I see it in the Weasleys. If you really think Rowling’s next book will be more like The Magicians, that just fills me with gloom. I need more to uplift and inspire. I can find reasons to fall into depression about the meaninglessness of life all on my own, thank you very much.

Also, I don’t think The Magicians is what would result if you made Neville Longbottom or Eustace Scrubb the star of their stories. Neville may have been timid and incompetent in early life, but he was always full of passion and belief, and he eventually developed the boldness and confidence to become a true hero. Same of Eustace. (And by the way, Eustace was the hero of the story in one of the books—The Silver Chair, I believe. And he performed quite admirably.) Saying this is what they would have been like IF they had the perspective of Holden Caulfield just makes them completely different people—you could just as well say IF Neville had really been a Death-Eater and decided to help Volemort kill Harry.

In Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Eustace is turned into a dragon through his own fault, he learns from the experience and becomes a better person. I can’t help but think that Quentin would have just whined and moped about why these things happen to him and why it’s really so boring to be a dragon when it always sounded so wonderful. And his friends would have whined about how unfair the god of that world was to put temptation in people’s paths and then punish them by turning them into a dragon when they yielded.

Sorry for going on like this. But can you tell, I really disliked this book! As Izhilzha said, I seldom enjoy any postmodern novels, so I suppose that’s the problem.

In fact, reading this book and your review has clarified for me why I almost never enjoy modern novels but devour all kinds of “true” fantasy: the modern novels reflect only the psychological image of human nature, and make me feel afraid of the world inside me, inside us, or seem too shallow, as if something is missing; while fantasy, even those not as obviously faith-driven, click with my experience of the spiritual and seem complete and insightful in a way that modern novels never are.

Thank you.

Yours
Odd