The magic is back.
This month, Lev Grossman releases “The Magician King,” the Clinton Hill writer’s anticipated follow-up to the bestselling 2009 novel “The Magicians.”
There wasn’t supposed to be a sequel to Grossman’s enthralling, modern fantasy about Quentin Coldwater, a brilliant Park Slope teen who finds that magic is real when he is accepted into an exclusive college of magic in upstate New York.
“You get to the end of the book and think, ‘That’s it, I just tied off every last little thread, and the characters all changed and grown and come of age or whatever it is they’re supposed to do,’ ” said Grossman, who’s been hailed as the modern C.S. Lewis. “I figured I could then spike it or write a sequel, and I ended up writing a sequel.”
“The Magician King” picks up five years after the end of the first novel. Coldwater and his friends have become royalty in the fantasy world of Fillory, when he embarks on a dark quest to ease his royal boredom, only to wind up in his parent’s depressing hometown of Chesterton, Mass., and must find his way back to Fillory with the help of some dark arts.
“In this one, the characters have come of age, and they have a whole bunch of other problems to deal with,” said Grossman. “It’s more epic.”
Lev Grossman at Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383-0096], Aug. 9 at 7 pm. Free. For info, visit www.wordbrooklyn.com.
