The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.
The records show that he died in 1418.
But his tomb is empty.
The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.
Sometimes legends are true.
And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.
Goodreads Ratings: 3.84 stars with over 155,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Fantasy, Young Adult, Magic, Mythology, Urban Fantasy, Middle Grade
Goodreads Challenge: 42/50 books (Ahh, I'm so close!)
2021 Reading Challenge: #9 Read a book by an author Mike/Michael/Michelle or variant (Find the entire challenge here)
Book Review:
Hello, Readers! We are fast approaching the end of 2021, which means Tress and I will be launching the 2022 challenge later this month! Stay tuned. I hope you all will join us again. I'm so close to hitting my goal of 50 books for 2021. I don't think I'll get eight more books in this month, but I'm going to try. I'll be pretty happy if I get 45 books.
I've been reading the Memoirs of Cleopatra since what feels like she walked the Earth, so I decided to try and supplement my reading with a book on Kindle since that one is a physical book. I wanted something light and fun that would be easy to get through. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott definitely fits that requirement.
I really enjoyed the story. I thought it was a lot of fun, and I wanted to keep reading it. I really liked the fantasy aspect, and the world was created. I thought having the gods of various mythologies as an elder race of humans was interesting. I felt that Michael Scott did a great job including all five senses in the story. I feel like smell tends to get forgotten about sometimes, so I really liked that all of the magic had its own unique scent. Having the magic have a color attached with the auras also helped bring in the visual effects.
The characters were likable. I liked the dynamic between John Dee and Nicholas Flamel and how it pits their motives against one another. The twins were alright. I didn't really have any overwhelming positives or negatives for them. I did appreciate that there wasn't any romance in this book or swooning over crushes. I feel like many YA fantasy tends to focus on some teenage love triangle, and this didn't (Yay). I liked Scatty and her Grandmother quite a bit. As usual, Sassy Grandma stole the show.
I think my biggest issue with this book is that it moved really fast in a way that came across as "I've got this thing to tell you, but I'll tell you later." The background story ends up getting told after a bunch of other stuff happens, so I kind of forgot why it was pertinent information. It just didn't really feel like a natural story flow to me. When it came to the actual Alchemy, I thought it was more tell than show. We got told Nicholas was an Alchemyst, but I didn't really feel like it was ever shown, or if it was, it blended in with the other magic in the story.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I'll probably get around to reading others in the series, but I probably won't make some significant effort to do so. I think it'd be a fun read for younger teenagers who like fantasy. It's listed as a YA, and the twins are 15; however, I feel like it'd be incredibly appropriate for younger like 10 or 11. I'm not a parent, though, so take that recommendation with a grain of salt.
The characters were likable. I liked the dynamic between John Dee and Nicholas Flamel and how it pits their motives against one another. The twins were alright. I didn't really have any overwhelming positives or negatives for them. I did appreciate that there wasn't any romance in this book or swooning over crushes. I feel like many YA fantasy tends to focus on some teenage love triangle, and this didn't (Yay). I liked Scatty and her Grandmother quite a bit. As usual, Sassy Grandma stole the show.
I think my biggest issue with this book is that it moved really fast in a way that came across as "I've got this thing to tell you, but I'll tell you later." The background story ends up getting told after a bunch of other stuff happens, so I kind of forgot why it was pertinent information. It just didn't really feel like a natural story flow to me. When it came to the actual Alchemy, I thought it was more tell than show. We got told Nicholas was an Alchemyst, but I didn't really feel like it was ever shown, or if it was, it blended in with the other magic in the story.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I'll probably get around to reading others in the series, but I probably won't make some significant effort to do so. I think it'd be a fun read for younger teenagers who like fantasy. It's listed as a YA, and the twins are 15; however, I feel like it'd be incredibly appropriate for younger like 10 or 11. I'm not a parent, though, so take that recommendation with a grain of salt.
I love your website, when are u going to do the reading challenge of 2022??
ReplyDeleteThank you! The challenge for 2022 will be posted towards the end of December.
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