The Magician King

I almost never keep a book from the library longer than the checkout period. If I haven't finished it and it is due, I'll return it and wait my turn to get it back. For example, I have one novel by Carrie Vaughn and one by Joe R. Lansdale due later in the week and I probably won't finish either. As I was re-reading THE MAGICIANS, the book moved very quickly and I thought that this one would be the same. I had four days to read it and while on night shift, would have plenty of time. The the due date came and went. I didn't want to take it back because I was thoroughly ensconced in story and know I would be number 258 in the queue to get it back again. Besides, the library has a grace period of a week for books and I would surely be able to finish it in that time. But true reading time never really materialized. I made progress, but slowly. Now the grace period was past and I would start to accumulate fines. I had to finish this book. Finally a week and a half after the due date, I was done.

THE MAGICIAN KING picks up where the last book left off. Quentin Coldwater is one of the kings of Fillory and living the high life. With him are his Brakebills classmates Eliot and Janet and his former flame Julia. Julia didn't go to the magic academy but is still a powerful witch. Over time, Quentin grows bored and goes on a quest. Julia joins him and they learn more about the nature of magic than they should. Into this narrative, the reader learns about Julia and how she became the woman she is now. In not quite alternating chapters, we follow the twin plot lines and see how Quentin and Julia evolve. Unlike the last book, Quentin is quite literally the hero and the story takes a very Campbellian tour through the hero myth from the quest to the encounters to the sacrifice. If I had any complaint about Quentin it would be his use of magic. At the end of the first book, Quentin becomes quite proficient in his spell casting. In this story, he has moments of greatness, but also can be a bit of a oaf. To use another books characters for comparison, at one moment he's Ron and then another Hermione. (Whereas Julia is always competent.)

Lev Grossman pulls together many genre standards and blends them into an excellent read. I'm not sure that I liked this book better than THE MAGICIANS, but I certainly enjoyed reading it more - even if I have to pay my fine for keeping it overdue.