Quentin Coldwater. Wataguy.

The Magicians

The Magicians was a good read. It took fantasy like Harry Potter, Narnia and others of the genre and tossed them together in a blender. What I liked most about the story was the existential nature of Magic.

            The story follows a unique protagonist. Quentin Coldwater, who is a depressed and social spacious teenager. This was an interesting take on the hero as the closest book I’ve read to The Magicians is the Harry Potter series. I guess I’m just used to the “glass half full,” type of heroes.  Quentin however is anything but that. He is more real, more relatable.  Even the spark of magic disappears and becomes monotony as training becomes laborious.

            He is never satisfied. That is why I love him so much as a character. This constant search for more power manifests itself as depression, as sullenness. You see this a lot in the real world as well. For example when I was a boy I remember my brother doing a kick-flip on a skateboard. I couldn’t and I was jealous. I’d try and try and try for hours every day and couldn’t do it. Eventually I got so upset I picked up the skateboard and slammed it onto the pavement, shattering the tip. The point is, I feel your pain, Quentin.

            Quentin grows as a character throughout the story. All characters in all stories do, but I think it’s pretty forefront in this novel.  Even in the first few chapters you start to see a transition of character. His unrequited love for Julia transforms into a ember of what it once was. His contacts change, his mind changes and his attitude changes.

            This story can be seen as the last ‘coming of age,’ story. It’s a great story about transitioning from the last shell of child life into adulthood, even if it’s in Fillory. 

Night Circus isn’t so black and white, in fact it’s grey.

Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was a breath of fresh air. Its interesting and contemporary take on what good vs. evil really is was enjoyable to read. When you think fantasy novel. You think of a young hero embarking on or having an epic quest thrust upon them. They overcome some great evil and the world is tossed back into normality thanks to their interference. It’s not a great piece of literature, nor is it groundbreaking. It’s just a pretty interesting book.

When first starting this book I thought to myself, “A love story with magicians? How droll,” but as I slothed through the pages I found myself intrigued with many aspects of the novel.  Primarily, I found the vagueness of good vs evil interesting. I think that contemporary issues often force their way into works of art, either knowingly or subtly.

For the past 11 years, America has been on a war against terrorism. The solider who shoots a woman and child on the suspicion of being terrorists is just as much to blame as the man strapped to the bomb. But are either of them really to blame? The solider was following orders. The bomber, brainwashed. These two wars America has been in have had very cloudy depictions of what is good and what is evil.

In the story, two young magicians, bound by a magically force, serve as proxies for an ageless feud between two magicians. Even the two puppeteers aren’t all that evil.  I must admit that I haven’t finished the novel yet. I plan to go back to it after the course is over. There are books I am more excited about reading for my speculative literature class. 

-Jack

The Hobbit, Real Talk

The Hobbit is a quintessential fantasy novel by the great J.R.R Tolkien. Its episodic storytelling style makes it a great coffee table book for any fantasy enthusiast.  Tonight’s blog post will be a little different. It isn’t about The Hobbit; it’s about how this book in particular affected my life as a reader.

            Let’s dive in shall we? I have dyslexia. To this day I still can't spell my way out of a paper bag. I attribute all my spelling success to the red squiggles that help keep me in check. You would be horrified at the amount of red squiggles on the screen right now. I’ll fix those in a bit. Regardless, I love reading. (I read about 1 book every week and a half.) When I was a kid I vehemently despised reading.  This book flipped my perspective.

            As a child, I had a tutor who would come on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours. I’d scatter like a spotted cockroach every time I heard the ominous ring of the doorbell. After 5 or so minutes of fruitless struggling, I’d be seated in the kitchen with her and we would crack open a book. One day she looked at me with a sly grin,

            “Jack, I have a new book for today’s lesson that I think you’ll enjoy,” she says.

I grunt.  Reading fun? How could reading ever be fun? I think. She reaches into her worn leather purse and pulls out a book. This book was stained with use.  Its pages were worn and flimsy. The book had been smashed, bent, mangled, spilled on and yet it still functioned.  Intrigued by its aesthetics, I took a peak at the book laid before me. The Hobbit, was written across the cover.

            As soon as we started reading it together I was enchanted. I have always been a gamer and this was the perfect book for a young geek. When we finished the novel I became obsessed with Lord of the Rings.  It had such a huge impact on me that during my senior year of high school I wrote a 40-page paper about the allegorical themes surrounding Tolkien’s universe.

            I couldn’t be more grateful, it opened the door to R.A Salvatore, Stephen King, Greg Keyes, and a whole spectrum of other great writers.  Cheers!!! :)

-Jack