Comments on: The Big Idea: Lev Grossman

By: M.K.

M.K. — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:47:56 +0000

I stayed up late to finish this and have turned around and recommended it to others. I’d read the sample chapter months ago without feeling a real need to continue reading it – I’m really glad I decided to buy it and keep going. It takes the books I cut my teeth on and the tabletop RPGs I played in high school and used them as a jumping-off that I found very satisfying. The world-crafting in the Harry Potter books, for example, just doesn’t really work for me and makes it a little harder for me to fall into the storytelling (although, FWIW, I’ve read all the books in the series, some more than once). The Magicians more realistic and more cohesive take on it is more satisfying on that level, and if anything, has me wanting to re-read the Narnia books again.

The Magicians falls into the same category as A.S. Byatt’s ‘The Children’s Book’ – I love seeing the grittier realism – but I’m not going to pick it up if I’m feeling a little low. There are sections I want to hide from, when it gets a little too real.

By: Susan Brasseux

Susan Brasseux — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:19:36 +0000

Definitely one of the best books I’ve read in many years! I am a librarian. I read a few Narnia’s back when I was young and read a couple of the Potter books with my kids. I agree this is different, a grownup novel about real grownup ideas and conflicts. I don’t usually like coming of age stories anymore (how many times do you want to relive that?) but this one was grand. My book intake is well above average but I rarely get chills and gasp out loud like I did when reaching the end of this. All I can say is, “When is the sequel–please??”

By: Lanna Lee Maheux-Quinn

Lanna Lee Maheux-Quinn — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:02:21 +0000

Reading this book now and I love it!

Read the sample yesterday afternoon, and bought the full version on my Kindle for $9.99.

Stayed up way too late last night and finished Book 1. Can’t wait until work is over this afternoon so I can go home and finish reading it!

By: Michael B Sullivan

Michael B Sullivan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:27:26 +0000

I find the cover picture of this book eerily compelling. It doesn’t seem like a natural fit for the ostensible subject, but somewhow, it’s incredibly intriguing to me.

So, uh, author guy, your publisher did well in designing your cover, at least in my case.

By: Fade Manley

Fade Manley — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:40:41 +0000

hope, upon closer reading, I see that you’re right. The point that put me in an uncharitable mood right from the start wasn’t from the author of the book, but from a completely different author entirely. I saw the snide “weak tea” analogy, skimmed down the post, and what next caught my eye was complaining about Narnia and Harry Potter being too “safe.” More context and a more careful examination of the text does indeed show that the author is not calling either of those properties bad, but pointing out this book is taking a different approach to similar premises.

So while I’m now feeling somewhat grumpy at George R.R. Martin, I am no longer irate at Lev Grossman, and can cheerfully add this book to my wishlist. Sweet. (And you’d think that after all these years, I would have learned to actually re-read things more closely before getting grumpy at them.)

By: hope

hope — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:14:39 +0000

I don’t see where Grossman said that there was anything the matter with either of his two source books. He said they both followed certain conventions and that he wanted to write a book with a similar premise that deliberately did not follow those conventions. I don’t see where he suggested fucking Harry Potter, frankly.

By: ajay

ajay — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:24:24 +0000

After all, who in their right mind would send a bunch of children to intervene in a civil war in a magical foreign country, where they know nothing about the laws and the culture and the history?

George W Bush?
Oops, sorry, bit of politics there.

By: sirperry

sirperry — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:59:23 +0000

I just finished it myself and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was a good change of pace from typical fantasy novels. I hope he writes more.

By: Alan Kellogg

Alan Kellogg — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:25:39 +0000

About this magic thing; how do they keep it secret?

By: gottacook

gottacook — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:16:38 +0000

Thanks for the link to the LA Times story, where I learned that Grossman is the son of Allen Grossman, whom I was lucky to have as a professor in the mid-1970s; the course was “The Representation of Experience” and covered the Gilgamesh myth, the Aeneid, and lots more. He was simply all anyone could ask for in a humanities teacher (and, outside of that classroom, an accessible and interesting poet as well; not many of those).