(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Quentin Coldwater has lost everything. He has been cast out of the secret magical land of Fillory and now, friendless and broke, he returns to where his story began: Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But Quentin’s past soon catches up with him...
Meanwhile, Fillory’s magical barriers are failing, and barbarians from the north have invaded. To save their beloved world from extinction, Eliot and Janet, High King and Queen of Fillory, must embark on a final, dangerous quest.
Quentin’s adventure takes him from Antarctica to the enchanted Neitherlands, where he finds old friends. But all roads lead back to Fillory, where Quentin must put things right, or die trying.

The final book in the Magician's series - something that I was both excited for and dreading at the same time...

...but it delivered in a way that I had hoped for!

The basics were again very strong: world building, characters and plot. The strength of Grossman's work is in those three things. None of the three books in this series have failed in any of those criteria.

But the best thing about this book was the ability of the author to keep surprising me. Obviously, we need new things in each book otherwise it would be boring - but I felt like I was being shown new and more interesting parts of Fillory, new adventures within that world that shocked me, excited me and pleased me no end. To do that in the third book of a series is impressive.

However, my big issue with this book is the ending. After such a dramatic build-up, the ending was such an anti-climax. I don't really know what word to use - 'trope' is probably best - but I couldn't have thought of a worse way to finish the story, except maybe "It was all a dream..."


Paul
ARH

It took me while to get round to reading this because i had to read the first two books in the trilogy first and it wasn't quite what i expected. however, I did enjoy it immensely and would recommend it to fantasy readers. I became immersed in the world of gnomes and various mythical creatures and enjoyed the twists and turns along the way. An enjoyable read that took me outside my reading comfort zone.