The Magicians question

It doesn't bother me, that's part of the reason I love them. I don't think it's meant as fanfic or satire though, more like homage and allusion. They flat-out reference a few similar 'gateway' stories because these books (Magicians) happen not in some other world (HP where there's a whole hidden world of wizards, His Dark Materials where they are in an alternate dimension), but in our own reality slightly removed, including having knowledge of the books we know and love like HP and Narnia. Like on Walking Dead they never say zombie because it's a world where Night of the Living Dead never happened even though most of the rest is supposed to be our reality is a 'alternate reality' type thing. I like that The Magicians happens in our world and they call out their own similarities to other books intentionally. To me, that's part of the fun of it. They do it a lot more in the tv series, even calling non-magicians 'muggles' (no idea how they got away with that from a trademark pov), which I love because that's how I talk, it feels relatable.

This is exactly how i felt about the first book in particular! it was a love hate relationship and I really struggled to want to finish it. I really wanted to love this!

I had a hard time enjoying this book. It kept feeling like a Narnia knockoff, never mind that it took FOREVER for something to actually happen. The best bits were at the end. There were bits that I thoroughly enjoyed and concepts that made me think 'ohh, I like the idea behind that' but mostly... I wanted to love it and just... couldn't.
I've got the second one but I'm hesitant to get bogged down in this world again...