Welcome back to Book Brawl, in which we throw two books into the ring to watch them fight it out for the coveted title of literary champion. Today's pugilist publications are the first books in two different series about seemingly average boys being sent to magical schools: J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (1997) and Lev Grossman's The Magicians (2009).
We're going to do things a little differently around Book Brawl this month, as it's come to my attention that this battle of the books is far too significant to rest in the hands of one fickle reader. I know LitReactor readers will make highly qualified, unbiased judges, so I am opening up the judging to the comment section! I'll announce the rounds, and I'll give my picks in the comments. You guys speak up in the comments and tell me who you think should win each round, and then I'll tally the votes and announce the winners. Be gentle on our competitors. Book Brawl is a harsh, harsh mistress and the fate of two gentle tomes rests in your capable hands.
Round One: By Any Other Name
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, depending on where you live, are both titles with a lilting cadence that indicates a charming fairy tale and a bit of mystery. The titles give you just enough information to leave you curious about the rest. Rowling's superpower, after all, is clever, catchy naming of things and people. If only she could have shared that talent with poor, besieged Suzanne Collins. (Katniss Everdeen? Really?)
The Magicians is certainly a straightforward title. There are magicians in the book, to be sure. So it's honest.
Round Two: A Book By Its Cover
Harry Potter's first book features the boy wonder flying through the air on his Quidditch broom, arm outstretched for the golden snitch. A unicorn gallops through the background, a three-headed dog snarls menacingly, Hogwarts looms in the distance, there's a diamond pattern at the bottom, and the now-iconic font is large and eye-catching. There's a lot happening on this cover.
The Magicians' cover is a bit more subdued and elegant, as is fitting with the more adult themes in the novel. A gnarled tree is reflected in a mossy pool. More trees rest in the receding fog. The title and author's name are bold and simple. It's quite fetching.
Round Three: What A Lovely Language
Rowling wrote Harry Potter for children, and as Harry grows, so does the series, so later books are written in a more mature and refined manner. The first novel, however, is written in a sweet, simple style that can be read in one easy sitting.
It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.
Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered. . . . Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast.
Lev Grossman's language is quite striking. It isn't flowery or superlative, yet it's poetic. It's occasionally bleak and always memorable.
In the window a single red leaf flapped crazily in the wind on the end of a bare branch, having hung on longer into the fall than any of its fellows. Quentin watched it. The wind flailed the leaf back and forth on the end of its stem. It seemed like the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. All he wanted was to go on looking at it for one minute longer. He would give anything for that, just one more minute with his little red leaf.
Round Four: The Magician
Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived, a brave 11-year-old left orphaned by his parents and raised by bitter and uptight in-laws. He is destined to defeat Voldemort, the most terrifying dark wizard who ever lived, but mostly he just wants to play sports, make friends and do well in school. He's pretty sassy but unquestionably loyal.
Quentin Coldwater is a brilliant high school senior who's a bit of an outsider due to his all-consuming obsession with the Fillory books, a children's series about a magical land similar to Narnia. He's snarky and skeptical and deeply intelligent, and when he discovers he's been recruited to a magical school, he rolls with the punches and adapts very quickly. He's as much of an over-achiever at magic as he ever was at differential equations.
Round Five: The School
Hogwarts is the school for wizards in Harry's world, a seven-year residential establishment that recruits students at the age of 11. Rowling goes into immense detail regarding the curriculum - which grows ever more challenging and specific over the years - as well as the standardized tests: NEWTS for the younger students and OWLS for the older kids. The character arcs of the professors are as significants as the students', with Professors McGonagall, Snape and others featuring crucially in the series. And Hogwarts has the single greatest headmaster of all time, the kindly and penetrating Dumbledore.
Quentin attends Brakebills in The Magicians, which is more like a residential college, recruiting 17- and 18-year-olds for four years before they are loosed out into the world. Two-thirds of the way into the first novel, Quentin has graduated Brakebills, so the specifics of the school, its curriculum and professors aren't as finely embellished as in Harry Potter.
Round Six: The Magic
As with the curriculum of Hogwarts, Rowling is wonderfully specific in describing the magic of Harry's world. She describes in minute - yet never tedious - detail how the students learn their spells: the words they must use, the motions they must make with their wands, how they must concentrate and why some students excel at certain kinds of magic while others do not. The spells all have names with cleverly appropriate Latin roots. Rowling clearly spent a tremendous amount of time crafting the magic behind the novels, and it's very rewarding for the reader.
And as with the curriculum, Grossman doesn't go into the details behind the magic. It's all a little frustrating, the haziness of the spells and how Quentin and his friends learn them. However, if a reader finds the comprehensive nature of Rowling's magic exhausting, The Magicians certainly never dwells on the meticulous.
Round Seven: The Villain
Voldemort. He Who Must Not Be Named. You-Know-Who. The Dark Lord. He's the most powerful and evil wizard of all time, and he is one bad motherfucker.
Martin is the villain of The Magicians, one of the Chatwin children of the Fillory books who vanished and then grew into a power-hungry dark wizard. Martin doesn't feature very significantly in The Magicians, but his two scenes are frightening and memorable.
So there you have it - seven rounds of magical combat, waiting with bated breath for your wise, objective verdict. Speak up in the comments, readers! I'll go first and tell you who I think should win each round, and then it's your turn! Also speak up about future books you'd love to see brawl. Tune back in next week to see who won!
About the author
Meredith is a writer, editor and brewpub owner living in Houston, Texas. Her four most commonly used words are, "The book was better."
