Our entry for The Great Magician King Song Contest. More details about the contest here: http://levgrossman.com/2012/05/the-great-magician-king-song-contest/ Original version of the song by Parry Gripp is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6qYuSz0R2w&list=UULNfsUeQm6zU2eBlQbEy4tw&... The Magicians and The Magician King are novels by Lev Grossman. You should read them. Continue reading →

I’m not exactly a mad genius of self-promotion here at Magicians LLC, but I did once do something really clever: I asked Parry Gripp of Nerf Herder to write a theme song for the Magicians books. It’s called “I Wanna Be a Magician,” and it is deeply, deeply excellent. It goes like this: (I know I just broke the frame of my own blog. I suck at YouTube. And blogs.) I love that song so much. I love it as much as the books the theme song of which it is (<–professional writer!) I firmly believe that it should be played as often as possible, in as many ways as possible, by as many people as possible. So with that in mind, and in honor ... Continue reading →

I picked up Alice Hoffman's The Dovekeepers because I visited Masada* last fall. The novel is historical fiction following the stories of four Jewish women, where they came from, and what led them to the fortress. Also, I found the cover to be striking. Here's the thing: I should not be two thirds of the way through a book about Jews at Masada and think, "Finally! The Romans are here!" But that is what I thought, and here is why: 1. Alice Hoffman really Wants You To Know about Masada. She accomplishes this by having her first-person narrators constantly explain, "Among our people, we highly value [element of nature] because of its role in [sacred practice]." It feels like the action is interrupted by Wikipedia ... Continue reading →

In the Time of War, XII And the age ended, and the last deliverer died. In bed, grown idle and unhappy; they were safe: The sudden shadow of the giant's enormous calf Would fall no more at dusk across the lawn outside. They slept in peace: in marshes here and there no doubt A sterile dragon lingered to a natural death, But in a year the spoor had vanished from the heath; The kobold's knocking in the mountain petered out. Only the sculptors and the poets were half sad, And the pert retinue from the magician's house Grumbled and went elsewhere. The vanished powers were glad To be invisible and free: without remorse Struck down the sons who strayed their course, And ravished the daughters, ... Continue reading →

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 Magician King Paperback Launch Party WORD Bookstore 126 Franklin Street Brooklyn, NY 7:00 P.M.More information Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 Panel on young adult literature The New York Public Library Fifth Avenue and 42nd St. Room 73 New York, NY Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 Reading, Talking, Signing Newtonville Books 296 Walnut St. Newton, MA 7:00 P.M.More information Saturday, June 16th, 2012 Science Fiction Reading Series 1459 18th St. #183 San Francisco, CAMore information Monday, June 18th, 2012 Reading, Blathering, Signing Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley 578 Valley Way Milipitas, CAMore information Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 Reading, Talking, Signing Books Inc. 1501 Vermont St. San Francisco, CAMore information Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 Reading, Talking, Signing Rakestraw Books 522 Hartz Ave. Danville, CAMore information ... Continue reading →

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(Lev Grossman writes about books here on Wednesdays. Subscribe to his RSS feed.) This post is by way of a reply to Arthur Krystal’s “Easy Writers,” a thoroughly thought-provoking piece about the relationship between genre fiction and literary fiction that ran in the New Yorker this week. I was happy to see the New Yorker weighing in on this, because I think it’s an important part of what’s going on in fiction right now. I think about it a lot. So naturally if anybody says anything about it anywhere, the world urgently requires my response. [I want to be clear, by the way, that this is a response in the sense of a (probably one-sided) critical conversation. There’s been some umbrage in the genre world ... Continue reading →