Back in 2009, fans of magical schools, Harry Potter, and fantasy genre mash-ups were introduced to the world of Brakebills and Fillory via Lev Grossman’s novel The Magicians. Seven years and two books later, this world and its characters have hit the SyFy channel in an all-new series. We pestered the author of these beloved books to figure out how he felt about the magical move from the page to the screen.

Ryan Britt (for Spark Life): By now, a fan of your novels will have noticed there’s some big changes from your books to what happens in the show. Everyone is a little older, Janet is now “Margo,” and there’s a new character named “Kady.” But, this kind of thing was to be expected. Still, was there anything you were able to tell the folks at SyFy: THIS IS CANON: NOT TO BE MESSED WITH?

Lev Grossman: To be honest I don’t recall ever getting seriously fussed about canon. Which surprises me, now that I think about it. There are all sorts of changes, big and small; I do remember being persnickety about some aspects of button-mechanics, but I drew no lines in the sand. It was more just persnicketiness. Being that this was a collaborative, creative process, I did of course lose my temper on several occasions, but that was more about emotional and thematic stuff.

Britt: From the first episode, elements from The Magicians are taking place alongside events in The Magician King, at least in reference to Julia’s story. Can you talk a little bit about this juxtaposition?

Grossman: It’s one of the biggest changes—but it winds up feeling surprisingly natural. I get why they did it: Julia’s one of the most successful characters in the trilogy, and a fan favorite, and on TV you can’t hold that stuff back, you have to lead with it from day one to get people into the series. But it turns out to make a surprising amount of narrative sense to lay out Julia’s story beside Quentin’s story. They balance each other, and they resonate. Sort of like watching Wizard of Oz and playing Dark Side of the Moon at the same time.

Britt: Some really dark things happen in these books. Is the show going to hold back on some of that?

Grossman: I think you’ll be surprised at how extreme it gets. One of the things I’d kind of resigned myself to in advance was seeing the really dark jagged edges filed down, but they stay pretty damn jagged. Especially since some things get even darker and more intense just by virtue of their happening in a medium where you can see them play out visually. I can remember putting a note on one scene that read “I can’t believe I wrote the thing this is based on, there must be something wrong with me.”

Britt: You mentioned on your blog that some characters are a little more intense in the show than they were in the books, specifically Penny. What’s the difference between Penny of the books and that of the TV show?

Grossman: Penny of the TV show… there are a lot of differences. He’s much better looking than Penny in the books. He’s an even more naturally talented magician—he’s a psychic, along with the traveling thing. He’s not a poser—he’s tougher and less innocent. All this makes him a tougher foil for Quentin—he gives Quentin a seriously hard time. Which admittedly Quentin deserves.

Britt: Quentin’s bookishness and love of the “Fillory” series is coming across splendidly. But, how is this Quentin different than your Quentin? And will we see him with silver hair by the end of the season?

Grossman: Really, Jason’s [actor Jason Ralph] Quentin is pretty damn Quentinny. A lot of the Quentin of the books makes it into TV Quentin. TV Quentin has actually been diagnosed as depressive, but then again he’s older, and that would have happened to book Quentin eventually. As for the hair, I don’t think he’ll get there by the end of season one. But the issue is in play.

Britt: Janet is now “Margo.” Why? Is she pretty much the same person?

Grossman: Josh, Janet, Julia, James … too many “J” names. Something had to give. Or maybe it didn’t have to, but regardless, it gave, and they changed Janet’s name. She’s very much the same person though, with the difference that Summer Bishil’s delivery is better than mine.

Britt: Are the “magical rules” on TV Magicians different than Book Magicians?

Grossman: Did I mention the button thing? They tweaked the mechanics of the buttons, which we’ll see down the line. In other respects there’s a lot of consistency. One of the most pleasant surprises in the show, for me, is that the spellcasting actually works pretty well on screen—the hand positions, the languages. I always thought it worked well on the page, but you never know what’s going to translate visually. They have a choreographer actually working out the hand gestures.

Britt: Some people think of The Force Awakens as J.J. Abrams doing fanfic of regular Star Wars. Do you see TV Magicians as fan fic of Book Magicians?

Grossman: I hadn’t thought of it that way. But no, not really. I think of most fan fic has having an angle—taking the original material and using it to say something new. The TV show is very closely aligned with the books, thematically. In a funny way it’s using slighlty different material, and a new medium, to say the same things the books do.

Britt: What’s been the best part of seeing these books moved into a different medium?

Grossman: Honestly? It’s probably been seeing Quentin and Alice fall in love. A sappy answer but a true one. Jason and Olivia have triple-A chemistry. And seeing the magic, that’s been great. You can waste 10,000 words on how cool the actinic blue light from this one spell looks, but there’s nothing like seeing it on screen.

Britt: What’s been the hardest part?

Grossman: The hardest part for me has probably been seeing my original mental images of the characters fade a bit. They’re getting blurred together with the actors. They’’ll always be there, but they’re ever so slightly less my own now.

Britt: What would you say to the most hardcore fan of your books before they watch the show?

Grossman: Give it time. It took me a lot of time—like months—to get used to the changes, which I got to absorb incrementally. The fans have to take them all at once, on the chin, and that’s a lot to take.

What’s your take on the SyFy version of The Magicians versus the books?