The Magicians
core novel 2009 The Magicians
Record
| First published | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.53 (282,757 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 402 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780670020553 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Magicians, published by Lev Grossman in 2009, opens the Magicians Trilogy. Quentin Coldwater is a brilliant but deeply unhappy Brooklyn high schooler, more attached to the escapist fantasy series Fillory and Further that he read as a child than to his own unremarkable life. During what he believes is a routine college interview, Quentin is unexpectedly admitted to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a hidden institution in upstate New York where he spends years training alongside classmates including Alice and Penny. As Quentin discovers that magic is real but far from the wondrous escape he imagined, a reckless bit of spellwork during his studies has consequences that begin to blur the line between the fantasy world of Fillory he grew up reading about and reality itself.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Magicians
- Series: The Magicians Trilogy core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Lev Grossman
Awards (verified)
- Alex Award, 2010: won
Notes
- From the series record (The Magicians Trilogy): Completed trilogy (2009-2014).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Magicians Trilogy: position 1 of 3: next The Magician King (2011)
Sources
← The Magicians dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.