This is basically the account of the in-universe Fillory and Further series of novels written by retired American businessman Christopher Plover at his house in Cornwall that was in the earlier piece I did on why fans of the TV show The Magicians should read the trilogy of novels on which it is based, with a few added details from the TV show and a later graphic novel.
The novels The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land were written by Lev Grossman. The episodes of SyFy’s TV show The Magicians referenced here were written by Sera Gamble and John McNamara; Sera Gamble, John McNamara, and David Reed; and Mike Moore. The graphic novel The Magicians: Alice’s Story was written by Lilah Sturges and illustrated by Piak Bak. Lev Grossman worked as consultant on both the TV series and the graphic novel.
Fillory in Lev Grossman’s trilogy
In the trilogy, the world of Fillory is not a world in our universe, but a sole world in its own pocket universe. It is flat and two-sided. Its sun and two moons revolve around it, as do that stars in the sky, which are not gaseous giants but more like large nightlights. The nearest analogy I can think of is the cosmology of the ancient Semitic peoples such as that upon which the Tanakh (Hebrew scriptures; the Old Testament to Christians) is based.
The continent which the kingdom of Fillory occupies the largest and central part of has two mountain rages which dividing it from its neighbors, the Northern Barrier in the north, separating it from Loria, and the Copper Mountains in the south, separating it from the Wandering Desert. There is a huge Eastern Sea with several large islands and a Western Sea, at the other side of which is the western continent that never appears in Grossman’s trilogy or the in-universe heptalogy.
The population of the kingdom of Fillory is very small and fairly stable at ten thousand humans and ten thousand magical creatures, many of them human-animal hybrids, plus all the talking animals and talking trees. The magical creatures include griffins, hippogriffs, giants, dwarfs, pegasi, (hippo)centaurs, elves, minotaurs, fairies, satyrs, nymphs, dryads, fauns, manticores, sphinxes, spirits, elementals, grimlings, pangborns, cynocephali (dog-headed humanoids), reptilians, shas, vulpa (fox) centaurs, merefolk, assorted human-animal hybrids, and jinnis. There are myriad talking animals, of which Humbledrum the bear is the recognized leader at the time of the trilogy.
Loria has no magical creatures, just humans. The Wandering Desert has the “Southern Nomads” and giant talking bunnies, possibly others.
The Fillory and Further series
(that all fans of both the novels and the TV series wish they could read)
A notable difference between the TV series and the novels is that in the novels, there were five Chatwin children (versus three on TV), in descending order of age: Martin, Fiona, Rupert, Helen, and Jane. Also, their adventures in Fillory began during the Great War, also known as the First World War, not during the Second World War as portrayed in the TV series.
Having laid that out, let’s now take a look at the contents of Christopher Plover’s children’s series Fillory and Further, as described in Lev Grossman’s trilogy, The Magicians, The Magician King, and The Magician’s Land.
Fillory and Further, Book One: The World in the Walls (by Christopher Plover, January 1935)
Features Martin and Fiona, who get to Fillory through the grandfather clock at their Aunt Maude’s house in the year 1917. Aunt Maude’s house is called Dockery House, on Darrowby Lane in Fowey, Cornwall. The Chatwins are there because their father is at war iun Belgium and their mother is in an asylum. Martin opens the grandfather clock and discovers Fillory in the walls of the house. Martin becomes a master horseman and Helen a forest scout. Together Martin and Fiona look for the trees enchanted by the Watcher Woman. Martin and Jane prevent the Watcherwoman from permanently stopping time at 5 o’clock on a rainy afternoon.
In the TV show episode “The World in the Walls” (S01E04), Quentin recounts Jane encountering the Madness Maker, whose real name is Ellis Wirth-Downes, who has been cursed to be able to only practice game magic. Jane destroys his game, thereby freeing him from the curse. (Note: In the novels, the Chatwin children seem to have been the first Earthers in Fillory, though this is never stated explicitly.)
In the TV episode “Have Your Brought Me Little Cakes?” (S01E13), Quentin and Julia turn out to be the Witch and the Fool who help Jane free herself from a magical tree trap. (Note: This is out of continuity with the novel The Magicians, in which Julia only appears in one scene after the opening one and is not part of the party traveling to Fillory.)
Fillory and Further, Book Two: The Girl Who Told Time (by Christopher Plover, Fall 1936)
Features Rupert and Helen shanghaied from their respective boarding schools in the winter (with all five Chatwin children eventually in Fillory together). Their adventure crosses over with the previous adventure, with Rupert dogging Martin and Fiona in disguise as the Wood One while Helen chases the Questing Beast.
Fillory and Further, Book Three: The Flying Forest (by Christopher Plover, October 1937)
Features Rupert and Fiona get to Fillory by climbing a tree and spend most of the novel looking for the ticking which is driving their leopard friend Sir Hotspots batshit crazy. The ticking turns out to be a large clock made by dwarves in a cave, which a giant seals shut. Afterwards Rupert and Fiona go to Castle Whitespire, which is in essence a giant clockwork. Rupert trains as a deadeye archer. Martin appears toward the end, only to disappear into the Darkling Woods, never to be seen again.
Fillory and Further, Book Four: The Secret Sea (by Christopher Plover, 1938)
Features Rupert and Jane, who get to Fillory by riding a magic bicycle then stow away aboard the Swift to escape the pursuing Watcher Woman; the ship is crewed by a party of wrongly accused noblemen masquerading as pirates. Fiona, trains as a master fencer. Rupert turns twelve and is never invited back.
In the graphic novel The Magicians: Alice’s Story, Alice describes how Jane is forced to undergo a series of trials to determine if she is worthy to be a queen, in one of which she must move the city of Barion north of the Great Salt River. She gets already queen Fiona to declare that north is south and south is north. After she passes, Ember and Umber show up and congratulate her, saying they knew she would pass. When she asks then why did they make her take the test, Ember tells her that she needed to prove her worth to herself.
Fillory and Further, Book Five: The Wandering Dune (by Christopher Plover, published posthumously in late 1939)
Features Helen and Jane, who are transported to Fillory while painting in a meadow. The sisters are taken aboard the Windswept, a clipper crewed by bunnies cruising the sands of the Wandering Desert. Captain High-bound gives Helen and Jane five buttons with which they can magically travel to Fillory at any time. Helen hides them all (in a dried-up well at their aunt’s house, it later turns out) upon their return to Earth, self-righteously stating that entry into Fillory should be up to Ember and Umber.
Fillory and Further, Book Six: The Magicians (by Jane Chatwin; synopsis in the chapter “The Retreat” of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians)
Features only Jane, age 13 (which would make it the year 1925), crossing over into Fillory after a hedgehog named Pricklepump helps her find the five magic buttons. She finds Fillory beset by ferocious winds. In the Darkling Woods she finds the wounded Ember, who tells her about Martin’s transformation into the Beast. Together on the Cozy Horse, they visit the dwarves, who create for her the magical pocket watch with which to control time and create loops. Jane never returns home to Cornwall ever again.
(Note: The story in the TV series episode “A Life in the Day” (S03E05) about Jane Chatwin solving the Mosaic in the “Fillory books” because she needed the key to power the watch the dwarfs gave her so she could stop her brother could only have taken place in this book, which TV Quentin never actually read.)
The Door in the Page: My Life in Two Worlds (by Rupert Chatwin, finished in 1942, found among his belongings after his death in North Africa; the entire book is in chapters 16-18 of Lev Grossman’s The Magician’s Land)
A more factual (from an in-universe POV) telling of the Chatwins’ adventures and interactions with Plover; found in its entirety in Chapters 16-18 of Lev Grossman’s The Magician’s Land. It includes an account of the children discovering the clock portal to Fillory (Fiona was seven at the time; Jane was five). Martin and Fi went in and came back out somewhat older (their adventures were told in The World in the Walls). Then Rupert and Helen went in (The Girl Who Told Time). After they came out, just five minutes had lapsed in real time between then and when Martin and Fi first went through. By then Jane was awake and they all five went through.
Fiona was the first to mention Fillory to Plover. Contrary to what Plover wrote, they went through multiple times, usually all together and all through the year, not just summer. Rupert’s account includes the truth of Martin’s last return to Fillory and how he managed to stay, and also that Plover didn’t begin writing his novel accounts of the Chatwins’ adventures until Martin disappeared.
* * * * *
The seventh book is from SyFy’s TV series, and while not part of the in-universe Fillory and Further series as laid out by Lev Grossman, I’m including it because the Order of the Library (at least the one in Grossman’s novels) would no doubt want it that way. Of course, the TV story and cast of characters of this first foray into Fillory of current and former Brakebills students is much different than that of Grossman’s novel The Magicians.
Fillory and Further, Book Seven: TBD (by Quentin Coldwater, the episode 13 finale,
“Have You Brought Me Little Cakes?”, of the first season SyFy’s show The
Magicians)
Prologue: Holy Shit, You Guys, Fillory
Chapter 1: The Journey of the Witch and
the Fool
Chapter 2: By All Means, Hinge Your
Entire Quest On a Traumatized Boy
Chapter 3: The Watcherwoman, or the Other,
Other Identity
Chapter 4: Everything Sucks Now, And Why
Chapter 5: Be Careful What You Bargain
For
Chapter 6: How to Prepare for a
Fillorian Wedding
Chapter 7: Weddings Are So Boring, Penny
Would Rather Astrally Project Into A Dungeon
Chapter 8: Like I Said, Be Careful What
You Bargain For
Chapter 9: The Gift of Ember
Chapter 10: Helpless
