The Magicians

George R.R. Martin says "The Magicians is to Harry Potter as a shot of Irish whiskey is to a glass of weak tea. . . . Hogwarts was never like this." Quentin Coldwater has outgrown children's fantasy novels, but he can't stop reading his favorite series about a magical world called Fillory. When he accidentally interviews Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy instead of Princeton--and gets in, he learns that magic is far more than child's play. Quentin and his friends experience a mix of "real world" college rites of passage and harrowing magical feats as they enter adulthood.