I stumbled across a lovely essay in the NYT by Lev Grossman just before I left for some recent travel.  And I’d just watched him win the Campbell Award for best new writer – and graciously accept the tiara and wear it well.  Since I hadn’t read any of his fiction, I decided to buy The Magician King.  Well, then I discovered that was the SECOND book and had to head out to ebook land and pick up The Magicians which started the whole thing.

I liked these a lot.  Be warned:  On the surface, they are kind of Harry Potter copycat books.  However, they are so readable I loved them in spite of that.  They are very literary for fantasy, and I found the characters complex and darkly interesting.  Even better, I liked The Magician King most.  It’s always a treat when the second book is richer than a first book in a promising series.