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Joe Abercrombie reviews Lev Grossman’s The Magicians

Lev Grossman’s The Magicians was Fantasy Book Review’s Book of the Month for May 2009. We loved it and last week fantasy author Joe Abercrombie (The First Law Trilogy, Best Served Cold) gave his thoughts on the Time critic’s novel:

“It’s a beautiful looking hardcover on which serious design effort has been expended, with the deckled edges, and the author’s initials stamped into the book under the dustjacket, and a lavish map not printed craply across two pages but on proper end sheets and what have you. It also begins with a quote from one of my favourite speeches from Shakespeare, so we were off to a good start, I can tell you.”

Abercrombie goes on the say: “I guess you could say – if you were fond of incompetently describing things by likening them to things it’s only superficially like, which, of course, I am – that there’s a Harry Potter meets Narnia meets Catcher in the Rye vibe about it. I’m not sure if it’s fair to say that Grossman is trying to do with Harry Potter and Narnia something not entirely unlike what I’m trying to do with Lord of the Rings and the Belgariad, that is to present a story that is self-consciously classic with a grittier, more realistic, more morally ambiguous spin and a slightly ironic raised eyebrow at its source material.”

And in conclusion “The depictions of magic were often fascinating, but they didn’t have the ring of truth about them (how could they, they’re magic), the depictions of depression, of boredom, of ennui definitely did, and it was the honesty of those that really made this book work for me…”

It looks like Abercrombie enjoyed the book as much as we did. To read the interview in full, visit http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2009/08/magicians.html

About the authors
In 2002 Joe Abercrombie began the writing of a fantasy trilogy based around the adventures of Logan Ninefingers. Completed with the help and the support of his family in 2004, and after initial rejections, The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged and Last Argument of Kings) was taken onboard by Gillian Redfearn at Gollancz in 2005. It has since been published in eight countries, seven languages and with seven different titles.

Joe Abercrombie book reviews on Fantasy Book Review

Lev Grossman worked for a string a dot-coms while writing freelance articles about books, technology and culture in general for numerous magazines, newspapers and websites, until he was hired by Time in 2002 and became the magazine’s book critic as well as one of its lead technology writers.

Lev Grossman book review on Fantasy Book Review

The Magicians book review

Have you read Lev Grossman’s The Magicians? What did you think? Do you agree with Joe Abercrombie’s comments? Let us know by posting a comment of your own below.

Posted: August 25th, 2009
Author: Lee
Categories: Joe Abercrombie

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