The City Of Invention
The book reviews of UK children's author, Brian Keaney
Wonderful, Intelligent Adult Fantasy
This wonderful, intelligent adult fantasy by Lev Grossman, Time Magazine's book critic and the author of international best-seller, Codex, is a homage to the Narnia books but much, much darker than the original with sex, drugs, alcohol, swearing and heaps of vividly realised, splendidly detailed magic. It's essentially a story of student-life but one in which the students, all ferociously high-achievers, are also magicians. Grossman's achievement is to somehow make the magic both intellectually and emotionally satisfying. Yet ultimately it's the characterisation that carries the book. It's a story about the perils of idealism, the sadness of growing up and the pain of lost love. Unputdownable.
