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The Magicians - Lev Grossman The rating here reflects purely my subjective level of like for the book, not any attempt at an objective rating of objective "quality".

There were certainly things I could appreciate here. There was imagination. And on some level, I could even appreciate what I think the author was trying to do. Or the apparent desire to avoid the general hero-quest thing with positive heroes and what not. Certainly, a lot of general clichés got subverted here and all that.

It's just that... well, I really didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it. I found Quentin thoroughly dislikeable as a protagonist, and the whole "Narnia meets Brideshead Revisited, as acted by exceptionally whiny middle-class modern American brats wallowing in existential angst; with added sex and drugs and booze to make sure this is an adult book, not one for kids" thing... it just didn't work for me, on any level at all.

Plus almost the entire cast was full of rather unpleasant whiny young people. Well, I guess I might have liked Alice, if we'd actually, like, learned more about her.

(Also, and this is a purely subjective complaint, a "crooked, gypsy-like language" that's supposed to be Estonian? WTF? No. Just no.)