Bak does, however, deserve praise for keeping character appearances and various scenes very faithful to Grossman’s descriptions.
Artist Steve Morris drew that and it's drastically different from the art in the book-which is unfortunate because photo-realism and attention to tiny details would work so well for this story. Adding to the disappointment is the fact that the photo-realistic cover illustration hints at how gorgeous Alice’s Story could be. Most figures, especially when drawn naked, look creepily emaciated. The drawings look a bit unfinished and are weirdly inconsistent from panel to panel-sometimes Alice looks twelve other times she looks twenty. Grossman’s book has a strong magical feel as the world of his imagining is alive with a (mostly) sinister beauty, but although illustrator Pius Bak drew characters with a lot of expression, his style is too sharp and angular to be beautiful. Readers coming to this without having read book one will be totally lost, not to mention unable to understand why anyone could be an uberfan of The Magicians. One funny, lovable character at first appears to be totally forgotten but then suddenly pops up about halfway through-only to barely say anything from that point on. The small group of characters, who are as close as family in the actual book, here relate to each other indifferently, if that. Flow is also poor, with few smooth transitions between major plot points. On the most basic level, understanding what’s happening in Alice’s Story is sometimes difficult, and understanding the why is even more difficult. The source material is dense with story, and the challenge of condensing it intelligibly shows in a few ways. It’s only for those who read The Magicians, and, because a forgiving spirit is needed, it’s also only for those who adored the book. In this graphic novel, a few token personal musings are thrown in, but Alice's first-person viewpoint never probes her backstory and beyond.
There's nothing new here to further flesh out Alice, an intriguing character who also manages to retain a lot of mystery by the trilogy's end. Adapter Lilah Sturges only watered down an intelligent and creative work, one that features the complexity of a very detailed story within another very detailed story. Unfortunately, Alice’s Story isn’t an enhancement. Lots of novels have gotten the graphic-novel treatment, and when done well, such adaptations enhance the source material. It’s instead a mediocre retelling of book one-just told from the first-person perspective of main character Alice Quinn. Despite being titled Alice’s Story, this addition to Lev Grossman’s bold Magicians trilogy is not, in fact, Alice’s story.
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