I’ve never been a big Atlantis conspiracy theorist. But after reading Andy McDermott’s debut novel, THE HUNT FOR ATLANTIS, I might jump on the bus. It’s a fast-paced and exciting read. I couldn’t put this book down, and when I did, my wife snatched it away. (Thankfully, I was finished.)
The two main characters, archeologist Nina Wilde and ex-SAS operative Eddie Chase, make a great team — the best such pairing since Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK or Jack Colton and Joan Wilder in ROMANCING THE STONE.
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With THE MAGICIANS‘ main plot boiled down to “student goes to exclusive school, learns magic,” comparisons to HARRY POTTER are inevitable. Except that in Lev Grossman’s novel, the boy conjurer gets laid and ingests drugs.
No, it’s not for kids, although its roots spur from classic young-adult fantasy literature, from C.S. Lewis to J.K. Rowling. Grossman takes the wide-eyed wonder that children can find in books, bottles it, shakes it up, and lets the contents loose on an anything-goes landscape. The result is among the year’s finest novels. There’s magic in it, in more ways than one.
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