History Literature / TheMagicians

* MasculineGirlFeminineBoy: Janet and Eliot. She's the [[BrutalHonesty blunt]], [[DeadpanSnarker caustic]], [[GoGetterGirl ambitious]], and [[ReallyGetsArond promiscuous]] girl to his [[TheDandy vain]], [[BrilliantButLazy lazy]], emotionally reserved, and... equally promiscuous boy. For all their differences, they're as [[NotSoDifferent similar as they are unalike]] and pretty much best friends.

* AntiHero: Quentin. Many of his fellow students as well.

** Subverted later in the book when Quentin looks back with nostalgia on the transformation. The simple mindset of geese was a relief compared to his borderline abusive training.
** Oddly enough, the first time [[spoiler:Quentin sleeps with Alice is when their class is temporarily transformed into Arctic foxes. It takes them awhile after that to actually do it in human form.]]
* BattleCouple: Anaïs and Dint (briefly).

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Fillory was always expected to be this but it was much more dangerous than they bargained for.

* OneHourWorkWeek: Magicians that leave the magical world tend to find employment in businesses that are enchanted to diguise the fact that none of them actually do anything. [[{{Hypocrite}} Emily Greenstreet]] is one of these types, as is Quentin at the end of the novel—before [[spoiler: his friends invite him back to Fillory.]]

--> “Listen, I don’t want to pry,” Quentin said,“but I’m assuming you have some secret magical way of dealing with the negative health effects of all those cigarettes.
--> “It’s kind of you to ask. I sacrifice a virgin schoolgirl every other fortnight be the light of a gibbous moon, using a silver scalpel forged by Swiss albinos. Who are also virgins. Clears my little right up.”

* PettingZooPeople: [[spoiler: Reynard the Fox]]. The effect in an otherwise non-furry real world is [[EldritchAbomination horrifying...]]

Quentin Coldwater probably wasn't expecting much more from his day than an entrance interview to Princeton and an awful lot of boredom and amateur magic tricks, with perhaps a few daydreams about the world of Fillory, a magical kingdom from the books he read as a child. However, things take a turn for the strange when his interviewer turns up dead, and one of the paramedics at the scene decides to hand over some of the deceased's belongings to Quentin; this leads him quite abruptly onto the grounds of the WizardingSchool Brakebills, which, after an especially arduous examination, accepts him as a student. After five long years at Brakebills, our hero drifts in Manhattan as a fully-fledged magician with far too much time on his hands... up until he discovers that Fillory, the world he always dreamed of visiting, is very real—and within reach.

* AndIMustScream: A class gets magically paralyzed by a yet-unfamiliar villain for a while. This trope especially applies to [[spoiler:the girl he eats alive]].
* AntiHero: Quentin. Many of his fellow students as well.

* ''Literature/LordOfTheRings'': Josh wants to see if he can find Middle Earth at the end of the first book.

* TheKingdom: The realm of Fillory: two kings and two queens.

* ''{{Discworld}}'' and ''{{Ringworld}}'' are both explicitly mentioned by Josh in the second book as examples of worlds he found or was looking for via the Button.

* ''Discworld'' and ''Ringworld'' are both explicitly mentioned by Josh in the second book as examples of worlds he found or was looking for via the Button.

* ''{{Narnia}}'': The basis of the magical world of Fillory. [[spoiler: Though the real Fillory (and all the counterpart characters) turn out to be a cynical, worst-case-scenario version of a Narnia-type setting.]]

* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: [[WordOfGod Word of God]] says [[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/08/a-brief-guide-to-the-hidden-allusions-in-the-magicians here]] that everything (including Literature/HarryPotter books) that exists in real life exists in the Magiciansverse apart from TheChroniclesOfNarnia and C. S. Lewis which are replaced by "Fillory and Further" and Christopher Plover.

* BrokenBird: Julia is seriously messed up. When we find out why, it's understandable.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Alice becomes a niffin to destroy Martin.]]

* PoopsGold: Fillory's Outer Island has Gold Beetles that eat dirt and poop gold.

* SolarSail: They find a magic sail on board the Muntjac that collects sunlight as well as wind.

* RapeLeadsToInsanity: Justified. [[spoiler: Julia goes completely bonkers after Reynard the Fox rapes her, but that has as much to do with him stealing her soul in the process as the rape itself.]]

* RefusedByTheCall: Julia.

* MundaneAfterlife: Fillory's afterlife is a giant school gym hall where the dead play board games for all eternity.

* SeriesContinuityError: In the first book Quentin can use magic to steal money from [=ATM=]s and the narration mentions that this is really easy for a magician to do but in this book Julia has to show him how to do it.