Books of 2018: Quarter 2

Umm... books?



Without Fail by Lee Child

Scene: Reacher is talking with the father of a dead Secret Service agent and explaining that he means to kill the ones who killed the agent. Reacher asks if the man is comfortable with Reacher getting revenge.
"Do you have a child?" he asked.
"No," Reacher said. "I don't."
"Neither do I," the old man said. "Not anymore. So I'm comfortable with it."

Another Jack Reacher novel. In this story, Reacher is recruited by a Secret Service agent to kill the Vice President. It all starts as an exercise until the threat proves real and Reacher must now help to keep the politician safe and figure out who is the would-be assassin. So, this makes the 6th Jack Reacher novel I've read and the second or third that I've written a review (I'm too lazy to go through old posts to count). Plus there's been 2 Tom Cruise movies already. If you don't know about these stories yet, well I really don't feel like going into a lot of detail anymore. There's really nothing that I could write that would be any different than what I've said about the other ones. Basically, it's all pretty formulaic: Reacher will drift into town, trouble will present itself, and Reacher, being the biggest and baddest guy in the room (in the books, he's supposed to be an ex-military cop/investigator standing at over 6ft tall and built like a wall) will solve the problem typically with all the bad guys dead, and then drift away down the road. And that's the main appeal of it all, which I think makes the books great. It's got that old spaghetti-western feel to it, like Pale Rider or ... movies like Pale Rider. So, if you like those types of stories, well, these are definitely for you. Some back story is required as the book does allude to characters from the first novel, but I think you could probably read this one as a stand-alone without any other prior information. Child does a good job of filling in some blanks if you're jumping into the Reacher stories for the first time.


The Magicians by Lev Grossman

"'For the true magician there is no very clear line between what lies inside the mind and what lies outside it. If you desire something, it will become substance. If you despise it, you will see it destroyed. A master magician is not much different from a child or a madman in that respect.'"

"'Can a man who can cast a spell ever really grow up?'"

Quentin Coldwater is a genius high school senior. He should be happy, he believes he should be happy, but he isn't. Not having outgrown his love for a particular series of children's books depicting the adventures of the Chatwin children in the fantastical realm of Fillory, he is ecstatic when he is invited to a secret magic college. At Brakebills, though, he'll learn that magic is nothing like he thought, and, eventually, that Fillory itself is a much darker place than depicted in the stories. If you've been watching the TV show, this book covers Quentin's magical schooling, post-graduation life, and their first trip into Fillory. Set in today's society (rather than in another realm or in entirely separate society), Grossman is able to make full use of other fantastical literature that has come before, characters making references to Dungeons and Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and, of course, the Harry Potter series. One of the issues I think readers might have with the book is that, since it's told from Quentin's point-of-view (he's the main character after all), he does come off as sometimes whiny which might get on people's nerves. He's basically how he is depicted on The Magicians TV show on Syfy. So, whiny or, as other friends who watch the show have called him, "he's a bitch." I thought it was alright, as that's his character, he knows that what he has should make him happy, but there's something missing, or that he's always expecting it all to be swept away from him in an instant and he's just waiting for that moment he loses it all. But, I do agree, if the main character is an issue, it might be hard to get through the book.

I'm not sure how I picked this book up, but I'm guessing I was wandering around Barnes and Nobles one day and this just randomly stood out. After reading the back cover, I probably did think it was going to be like another Harry Potter copycat, which wouldn't be too bad. I was completely wrong. First off, just think of the differences between your teenage self, and your college self and you're beginning to understand the nature of this story. And though I've read and reread each book in this series, I've probably read this one about 4 or 5 times already. I really liked how magic was hard, that it was something to learn and practice, that it went into more detail than just saying a few words and flicking a wand, that it even depended upon things like phases of the moon and the weather. It kinda grounded it all into a more realistic fantasy (if that makes any sense).


The Magician King by Lev Grossman

'"There are things that a man must do, that a god may not. He who completes a quest does not merely find something. He becomes something.'
'What's that? What does he become?'
'A hero, Quentin.'"

"Julia squatted down on her haunches on the sidewalk, like a toddler, and put her head in her hands and laughed and cried at the same time. She felt like she was going to pass out or throw up or go insane. She had tried to walk away from the disaster, to run away from it, she really, truly had. She'd broken her staff and drowned her book and sworn off magic forever. She'd moved on and left no forwarding address. But it hadn't been enough. Magic had come looking for her."

As new Kings and Queens of Fillory, Quentin Coldwater and the gang set out on a quest to gather 7 magical keys for a purpose unknown, but entirely necessary to their very survival. Set roughly two years after the events of The Magicians, Quentin has settled into his life as king of Fillory and this has had a positive effect on his personality. He is more upbeat, hopefully, and that tone carries into his narration as they search for the keys, as well as a way back to Fillory when they are accidentally sent back to Earth. This time, Quentin knows what he has to do, which is be a hero, but this quest will teach him what a hero truly is. His newfound positive personality provides an excellent foil to the other half of the book, which is Julia's own magical journey to becoming a magician as well as Queen of Fillory after failing the Brakebills entrance exam in The Magicians. If you watched the TV show, trust me, it is so much more depressing and manic in the book. Unlike the other characters, Julia doesn't get the safe schooling route through Brakebills, but instead finds her own way through the underground magic scene, full of frauds and scarce information and magical entities preying on unsuspecting magicians. She's alone in the world chasing an entitlement that was unjustly denied to her. It's a completely different trek than the first book gave Quentin, and it's an interesting glimpse into what the magical world would probably look like in regular society: tucked away for only the truly determined to find, and the truly devout to obtain.

In an interview, Grossman mentioned that the character he felt most sorry for in the Harry Potter books was Dudley because he is so, so close to magic but knows that it will never be his. He asked J.K. Rowling if she felt the same way and her response was, "Oh, grow up." Although I can't agree with him on the Dudley comment, I do see how he extended that to Julia's character. Though the quest for the keys was a great adventure, I couldn't help but feel more drawn to Julia's journey to become the magician we find her to be at the end of The Magicians. We only get a glimpse of her as Quentin's unrequited love interest in The Magicians but in The Magician King, we get to learn about Julia in her own words.


The Magician's Land by Lev Grossman

'"I still have no idea what magic is for. Maybe you just have to decide for yourself. But you definitely have to decide. It's not for sitting on my ass, which I know because I've tried that"'

Kicked out of Fillory and back on Earth, Quentin Coldwater looks for a place to call his own. With nowhere else to go though, he finds himself crawling back to Brakebills. However, demons from his past come looking for him and once again, he finds himself on a quest to set things right. Back in Fillory, Eliot and Janet embark on their own quest to again save a crumbling Fillory. Their quests align and the group is once again whole on again on an epic journey. They'll travel through familiar places and eventually return again to Fillory, all the while revisiting old characters and meeting new ones as well. Since the story is clearly separated by the events on Earth and Fillory, Grossman provides several other characters to use as Point-of-View narrators. On Earth, an older, almost 30 year old Quentin now provides a sense of maturity and knowledge to the situation, while a newcomer, Plum, a recently expelled Brakebills student, provides the sense of wonder and asks the questions the reader wants answered. In Fillory, Eliot and Janet provide their own sense of wit and cutting side commentary to the situations they find themselves in. If you're watching the TV show, Eliot and Margo are exactly how they are in the books, so you know what I mean.

Just from the way The Magician King ended, I bought it at Barnes and Nobles the week the book was released. In hardcover. HARDCOVER. I can't even remember the last book I bought in hardcover. Actually, it might've been the last Harry Potter book, but even that one, I waited a couple weeks thinking that maybe I could survive until the paperback version came out. But for this book, I wanted it, needed it immediately, and it did not disappoint. The first part of the book gives an interesting glimpse into the illicit magical scene. Quentin, needing to get his hands on some money fast, signs onto a job with other magicians to steal a briefcase from a couple of other magicians. Like a heist scenario, all the members have a part to play and it's an interesting glimpse into what the magical society might refer to as "illegal" (we never actually meet any magical law enforcement agency, so technically it's never revealed what behavior/action is "actually" illegal). I also enjoyed that, being the last book in the series, all of the main characters we've been with from the beginning (Quentin, Julia, Eliot, Janet, Josh, even Penny) all get some sort of resolution made on their characters, whether finally healing from a past wound or growing into the person s/he was meant to become.



Also, as you might've noticed, I think I'm now going to start putting a quote or two from the book, something that I hope will either give a bit more information or that just sets the tone or is just a quote I really, really liked, in the hopes that it will give you a more intimate description, because, let's be honest, I really do suck at describing things. Hopefully it will get you to read the book, maybe just a book, get you to start reading again, and then drive you to reading my crap when you've got free time, or bored at work, or whenever. And yes, if you've figured it out, I do try to post/share new stories during the working day because that's when I'm typically bored and I assume everyone else is bored too.