Waiting on Wednesday: Jan. 8

For the Waiting on Wednesday web meme:  Magician's Land by Lev Grossman. Grossman's first two novels, The Magicians and The Magician King, are highly intelligent riffs on the Harry Potter and Narnia novels with a strong contemporary attitude. A young man named Quentin is recruited to a school for young people with strong magical abilities, and his choices have repercussions in this world and in a world of magic he and his fellow students discover and later rule. He makes horrendous mistakes that have terrible costs, as do the other characters. What's more, the magical realm of Fillroy has its problems, too. The ending of the second book -- an exile and an explanation -- was so strong that I'm wondering where he has to go with the third book, but I'll read it eagerly when it comes out in August. Grossman makes you feel all the pain and suffering of his characters as well as the unexpected joys of being a magician.