A list of Shout Outs in The Magicians.
Comic Books
- Sir Hotspots is actually a reference to Martin Tenbones in The Sandman.
Literature
- Quentin's middle name, Makepeace, maybe a shoutout to the character Quentin Makepeace from The Bartimaeus Trilogy.
- Eliot is an Expy of Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited and his surname comes from its author, Evelyn Waugh.
- Obviously, Narnia is the basis for the Show Within a Show that provides the title.
- Given that Grossman is a fan of Iain M. Banks, a brief (sailing) reference to a "very fast picket" in The Magician King is most likely a nod to the space warships by that name in the The Culture novels.
- 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.
- Harry Potter: Time turners, Quidditch and Hermione Granger are all name-dropped—the books seem to exist within the universe.
- Near the end, Emily Greenstreet talks about how magic gives her the howling fantods.
- One particular scene is explicitly borrowed from In Search of Lost Time, where Marcel Proust stumbles on a lesbian couple having a sadomasochistic affair.
- The Lord of the Rings: Josh wants to see if he can find Middle Earth at the end of the first book.
- The Once and Future King: The part in the first book when the Brakebills students are transformed into geese is a reference to The Sword in the Stone. Arthurian Legend, in general, is referred to frequently throughout the second book.
- The great field of grass that is known as "The Sea" is a play on the Dothraki Sea in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.
- Word of God is that Quentin was named after a character in The Sound and the Fury.
Live-Action TV
- In the second book, Quentin accusingly reminds Penny that he slept with Quentin's girlfriend. Penny dismisses it claiming they were on a break.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- The basis of some spells our heroes cook up and the "level system" used by the hedgewitch safe houses.
- A marble nicknamed "Rakshasa" refers to an old character in the Monster Manual, named after a creature in Hindu Mythology.
- Traveller: The name of the group Free Trader Beowulf (and the text of their recruiting pitch) are direct references to a famous Classic Traveller scenario—THE introductory adventure for many players in the early 80s once it became clear to GDW that their Worldbuilding was as much of a draw as their ruleset.
Real Life
- The five Chatwin children are named after real-life intrepid explorer Bruce Chatwin.
