The Magician'S Land

Oh boy, I have finally finished this series. I had a complicated relationship with the two books prior to this one, so it was entirely expected when I had complicated feelings about this one. As per usual, I'm writing this right as I finished reading.

For the positives, I can say that this book had a far more interesting start. I really enjoyed following Quentin after he was kicked out of Fillory. I actually found myself enjoying his character, which I was thoroughly surprised by. Plum was an interesting addition, too; I didn't necessarily love her, but she did add some interesting aspects to the plot. The whole bit with breaking the incorporate bond was my favorite part of the book, specifically. I really loved learning more about Mayakovsky and I honestly wish we had learned more about him throughout the book series. I wanted to know more about his background and upbringing as a magician and what he learned while bound to Breakbills south. It's understandable we couldn't go into that level of detail though.

For negatives, I really didn't like the Fillory bits in the beginning. Elliot was not what I expected character-wise, but that one's on me since I created my own ideas of what he was like from prior brief interactions. I feel like we never got to really experience Elliot, which is a shame. I feel like he could've been a really interesting addition to the plot. The bit at the end where Quentin finally understands the spell for turning magic back into matter felt rushed, and so did Quentin becoming god. I logically understand why those events needed to take place and how they make logical sense in-universe, I just wished we spent more time with Quentin where he slowly started piecing things together. I do like, however, that some growth was shown in Quentin's character when he relinquished control. For my last remark, there was just so much "I am 14 and this is deep" in these books. It never really calmed down as the series continued, and a lot of the time it was only worthy of an eye-roll.

Overall, I liked it better than the other books, but I didn't like it enough to give it a 4/5. I still have a lot of complicated feelings about the series, and honestly I felt like I was in a toxic relationship with it at times, but I made it far enough to read all of them. That's a feat within itself. So bravo, Lev Grossman, for making me read all 3. Glad to be able to ruminate on this series with the plot resolved.