Looking Back: Favorite book of 2010 "The Magicians"

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

My persoanl rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was impressed by The Magicians. One of the quotes on the inside calls it "Harry Potter for adults." I would have to say that I agree, the novel does deal with many YA themes yet it is a cross-over novel, Quentin and crew graduate from Brakebills college about half way through.  The Magicians surprised me like Tithe surprised me, in that an urban fantasy can be nearly as rich as the traditional fantasy, though technically Grossman cheated a little by getting his characters to travel into a traditional fantasy world anyway.

Grossman's world is such that it has infinite possibilities, and though his Harvard vocabulary is showing, he still pulls off the college angst pretty well. It is interesting to see our "modern ideals and sensibilities" applied to the traditional fantasy world. He riffs on Rowling, Lewis, and Tolkien, while at the same time taking concepts made popular by those authors and making them his own.

Grossman will have a long legacy and his world is dense and full of possibilities. I would definitely recommend this for advance upper YA readers and adults. I am reading it again right now, as The Magician King is on my desk and I wanted to get back into the story. This was definitely my favorite read of 2010, and The Magician King might be my fav for 2011. We'll have to see! I have not had this kind of anticipation for a book in a long time, with the exception of my other favorite series, The Monstrumologist.

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Classroom Grade: B+ (coming of age story with upper level (adult) situations)

"My Sword Hand is Singing" the Praises of the Nook...

I have been looking forward to reading something by Marcus Sedgwick for quite a while.  A galley copy of My Sword Hand is Singing has been on the top of the "To Read" stack but I just hadn't picked it up.  Then I bought a Nook, the e-reader from Barnes & Nobles.  I decided to combine these two enterprises, and read My Sword Hand is Singing on the Nook.  What a pleasant surprise, on both fronts.  The Nook was easy to use and navigate, and after about the tenth page, I barely noticed I was reading an digital book.

I was greatly surprised and delighted at the complexity and historical accuracy of Sedgwick's novel.  The strange vampire legends that Sedgwick cobbles together make for a compelling read.  The book is fresh in this time of vampire tripe and a quick read, yet had a very grounded feel to it.  The Gothic setting and authentic atmosphere adds an element of anxiety  for the reader, and an urgency to the plot.  Frankly, it reminded me of Michael Cadnum's The Book of the Lion, in the way the fantasy/historical fiction aspect of the novel is appealing, and are not wrapped up in the tropes of the genre.