While I felt the Lev Grossman’s first book, The Magicians (my review), was overrated by many people, I still found it interesting. So, when the sequel, The Magician King,  came out, I decided to give it a chance. The book follow many of the same characters in the land of Fillory and also spends much time on Earth where we get to learn about the original book’s lost character Julia (which was one of my big complaints about that book). So, let’s see what our Magician King holds for us.

In the land of Fillory, there are a two pairs of Kings and Queens: Eliot, Janet, Julia and Quentin. Our story mainly concerns the last two. Quentin, having lived his dream of making it to Fillory, is bored. He decides to go on an adventure to an island that has stopped paying its taxes to the kingdom. The taxes are very minor and the kingdom doesn’t really need the money, but Quentin decides to go and check it out just for something to do. Julia decides to go along with him as well as a magical sloth. Reaching the island, they get the taxes and go onto another island where they get a gold key. They insert the gold key into a magical lock and both of them are then dumped back onto Earth.

The book then splits into two stories. The first is how Julia came to learn magic after she failed her Brakebills test. The story details the hedge witches and the extensive network of houses and people trying their best to learn magic and the secrets. We watch Julia move through their world until she advances enough to search for the truth behind all magic. The second story is how can Julia and Quentin get back to Fillory and the riddle of the gold keys, which might have a hand in saving the universe.

The story is decent, but the characters are extremely flat. At times it only seems like the characters are just there to service the plot. I really enjoyed Julia’s journey, but it doesn’t seem like they finished it. At no point does Grossman show how (or why) she came to Fillory. And the giant mystery with the keys seemed a little silly and way to easy of a quest. There is a lot to enjoy in the book, but I can’t say that I really enjoyed it. Grossman just doesn’t engage the reader into the story as well as other writers do. Mildly recommended.