The Magicians
#7733.73 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 3 books Status Complete 2009–2014 Reading commitment Medium Lev Grossman Last reviewed 2026-08-11
Overview
The Magicians is Lev Grossman's trilogy comprising The Magicians (2009), The Magician King (2011), and The Magician's Land (2014). It follows Quentin Coldwater, a disillusioned, brilliant Brooklyn teenager admitted to Brakebills, a secret college of magic in upstate New York, who later finds his way into Fillory, the very Narnia-esque fictional kingdom he grew up reading about as a child. Blending the trappings of a magic-school story with a darker, more adult sensibility, the series was described by the New York Times as injecting mature themes into portal fantasy, and by one critic as evoking "the sad dream of what it means to want something badly and never fully reach it." The first novel won the 2010 Alex Award, recognizing adult books with strong appeal to teenage readers, and Grossman won the 2011 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. A television adaptation ran on Syfy beginning in 2015, and Grossman also wrote two tie-in comic-book stories set in the same world.
Portal fantasy, Dark fantasy · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (3 works) counts toward ranking
The Magicians Trilogy Lev Grossman
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | The Magicians | 2009 | 1 | core | 3.53 (282,757 ratings) |
 | The Magician King | 2011 | 2 | core | 3.93 (107,234 ratings) |
 | The Magician's Land | 2014 | 3 | core | 4.14 (83,855 ratings) |
Completed trilogy (2009-2014).
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Magicians? The Magicians's Core Canon is 3 books.
- What is the reading order for The Magicians? Publication order, starting with The Magicians. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Magicians finished? Complete (2009–2014).
- How much reading does The Magicians take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 3 Core Canon books · ~1,236 pages).
- How is The Magicians ranked? #773 in this site's official ranking, based on 473,846 reader ratings across 3 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #773?
Ranked #773 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 3.73 across 3 core books.
- Backed by 474k reader ratings.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.53 to 4.14.
- Less than 0.01 behind #772, Among Others (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Modestly rated · 3 books · Complete · 474k ratings · Ranks #773 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length portal fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (3 Core Canon books)
- The Magicians (2009)
- The Magician King (2011)
- The Magician's Land (2014)
Documented internal/story chronology is recorded for every Core Canon book here, and matches publication order exactly, with no divergence to show separately.
Awards (verified)
- Alex Award, 2010: won: The Magicians
Related universes
- Same author The Bright Sword: Both by Lev Grossman, confirmed separate settings/casts (The Magicians' Brakebills/Fillory vs. The Bright Sword's post-Arthurian Britain); see.
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Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 3.73 across 473,846 ratings on 3 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Admit The Magicians (Lev Grossman) as a new single-author universe accepted 2026-08-11
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Related universes: see the Related universes section above.
Last reviewed: 2026-08-11
Rule: Core = the completed 3-novel trilogy (2009-2014).