What should I read next? - the other suggestion thread!

**nynnja** · 01-23-2017, 07:02 AM

Next up for me ... The Magicians. Magic is real, and there's a school to teach people with magical abilities. Sounds original.

**Macheath** · 01-23-2017, 09:17 AM

The books (by Lev Grossman) are amazing, some of my favorites of the last decade. I highly recommend them. And they're not massive tomes, they're all a pretty reasonable read. Much as I think Syfy did a good job with The Expanse, in this case I have a hard time believing the show lives up to the writing.

The Magicians Trilogy is available as a boxed set nowadays.

**nynnja** · 01-23-2017, 10:39 AM

Originally Posted by Macheath

The books (by Lev Grossman) are amazing,

Well that's nice to hear. The first review I saw on Goodreads was less than stellar, but hearing your review I may give them a shot. I've only watched the first episode so I don't know what to think of the show yet.

**Macheath** · 01-23-2017, 11:56 AM

Huh, that's strange, I thought they were pretty well-reviewed books. That's how I found them, via a glowing recommendation from another author I like.

Looking over the review page for book #1, the first two are (in order, paraphrased):

"Someone told me this was like Adult Harry Potter, and I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, but this isn't like Harry Potter at all!" 2 stars.
"I don't like the main character, he is too gloomy for me!" 2 stars.

In general, Goodreads is a tough crowd with... eclectic tastes. Most of the finest books ever written, according to Goodreads, are from the Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Divergent series. Half the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series have ratings in the 3-star range. Something tells me the comparisons to Potter did Lev Grossman absolutely no favors with this particular group. Note that as the Potter fans deserted the series, the number of reviews dropped and the average rating climbed:

magicians.png

So, as long as you go in with a healthy expectation that it is not Harry Potter II but merely similar in some aspects (magical school for training wizards), and prepared for the fact that it's not a cheerful book full of cheerful protagonists, you should have a better time.

I think the books mix elements from Harry Potter (magic), Narnia (parallel fantasy world), and Thomas Covenant (really nasty people) in a terrific way.

**nynnja** · 01-23-2017, 12:20 PM

Well good, I'm more excited about reading them now. Disgruntled reviewers are dumb.

I'm currently reading the second in the Pendergast series by Preston/Child. The first one was great and my friend has read the whole series and loves them. Thriller/mystery/horror genre, which I don't usually get into but this is fun so far.

**Gnorlin** · 01-23-2017, 12:42 PM

I watched about 6 episodes of The Magicians. It definitely doesn't do the book series justice. The acting is not great, especially Quentin. The restructuring of the story, while it makes sense in context of a television series, isn't what I wanted out of the series. They are doing a season 2, which I believe covers the events in the 2nd book. I'll probably give the rest a watch someday because I like seeing a world I like come to life even if it's not the best.

**Macheath** · 01-23-2017, 02:11 PM

I think we may have other book-type threads spread around, but today's talk about Lev Grossman has spurred me to create a new recommendation thread.

HERE ARE MY RECOMMENDATIONS: THE BIBLE

**Macheath** · 01-23-2017, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by Macheath

I think we may have other book-type threads spread around,

Yes indeed, and here are some of them:

There are other threads too, which focus on book/movie/TV properties (e.g. The Expanse, The Martian, Preacher, American Gods) but these are some of the ones I'd judge to be primarily book-centric.

**nynnja** · 01-23-2017, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by Gnorlin

The acting is not great, especially Quentin.

Damn. I was hoping he was just the wide-eyed new kid and it would improve. I'm only one episode in, but he's kinda lame, while other people seem better.