|
''The Magicians'' is a fantasy novel by the American author Lev Grossman, published in 2009 by Viking Press. It tells the story of Quentin Coldwater, a young man who discovers and attends a college of magic in New York. The novel received critical acclaim, and was followed by ''The Magician King'' (2011)〔(''The Magician King'' ) at Lev Grossman's website〕 and ''The Magician's Land'' (2014). It is to be adapted as a television series by SyFy. ==Plot== The book follows Quentin Coldwater, a high-school student from Brooklyn with far above-average intelligence and below-average social skills, as he is accepted to Brakebills Academy, an exclusive (and secret) college for magicians, where he finds that the realization of his fantasy does not mean the resolution of all his problems; he must deal with his own sullenness, anti-social behavior, and self-centeredness while dealing with his peers' similar issues. Magic, it turns out, is boring and tedious to learn. Quentin enters a community garden and finds himself in Upstate New York. He does not know what is going on, but finds approximately 200 other teenagers there as well. They are given an exam but not told why or what it is for, and students who don't pass simply vanish. Quentin is one of only two students who passes, and later finds that there are only 20 students per class. As magic in the book is highly correlated to intelligence, all of his peers are brilliant and tend to regard each other as competition. Even in this setting Quentin stands out, and he and two peers are offered the chance to advance a year if they can pass the exams. Quentin and one of the peers pass, and he is assaulted by the student who fails. During one class, a strange otherworldly horror enters Brakebills and eats a student before being driven back to wherever it came from. The creature becomes known as The Beast. Quentin and his crush, Alice, are placed in The Physical Kids, a group of student magicians whose magical discipline involves manipulation of physical forces. There, they become friends with cynical older students Eliot and Janet, and happier and better-adjusted Josh. Although Quentin and Alice had been presumed to be a couple by many since they skipped a year together, in fact they finally get together during a semester abroad at a satellite campus in Antarctica where students have to focus on the most difficult aspects of magical scholarship with absolutely no outside distractions. Upon graduation, Quentin and the other Physical Kids spend their days and nights in hedonistic pursuits, apparently a common theme for magicians who have it very easy in this world. While still looking for a purpose, Quentin discovers that Fillory, a fanciful land featured in books he read as a child, is real. He and his friends travel there, and discover that the books – which tell the story of the Chatwin children, who pass through various portals to and from Fillory on their adventures – are based on true stories, and not the fantasy tales the world believes them to be. The group finds magical wonders in Fillory, but they eventually discover The Beast, who is revealed to be Martin Chatwin. The eldest child from the Fillory books sacrificed his humanity in order to stay in the magical world forever. After a brutal fight, Alice sacrifices herself to kill Martin, Penny loses both of his hands and chooses to remain in the empty city between the worlds, and a gravely injured Quentin is left to the care of a group of centaurs when the others fear that he will never awaken from his coma. Upon awakening, Quentin becomes depressed and disillusioned, especially when Jane, the youngest Chatwin, reveals herself to have been pulling the strings throughout her siblings' and Quentin's stories. She had used a magical time-traveling device to try again and again to kill Martin, finally succeeding via Quentin and his friends. Quentin leaves Fillory after some time and, via connections in the magical community, takes a high-paying (and non-magical) job in an investment firm where he spends his time playing video games. The book ends with Quentin eternally unsatisfied with his lot, returning to Fillory with Eliot, Janet and Julia (a high school friend who had independently learned magic on her own outside of Brakebills) in the hope of finally finding something fulfilling. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Magicians (Grossman novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|