Helpful Score: 5
I was pretty underwhelmed by "The Alchemyst" and I won't be reading the sequels. I will say - for younger people, it might be an enjoyable enough book (I guess), and may lead them into other, more interesting reading directions. It basically felt like a mish-mash of warmed over ideas from Harry Potter (The One!), Greek, Egyptian and Norse mythology (while leaving out most of the stuff that made them interesting), and the action/special effect sequences from "The Mummy" movies. The writing was pretty flat, and he really could have used a good editor, because boy does he like to repeat himself! The characters are two-dimensional puppets who behave the way the plot dictates.
I would also like to note that this is the second YA book that I've read in the past couple of months where there is no sort of resolution at the end. The story just stops. As I said in my review for the other book, I have no problem with series long arcs, but any series book worth it's postage has some sort of individual structure. This does not. It's just one d@mn thing after another until you run out of pages. Look, I know the publishing world is in a lot of trouble, but I really hate this trend. /rant.
I would also like to note that this is the second YA book that I've read in the past couple of months where there is no sort of resolution at the end. The story just stops. As I said in my review for the other book, I have no problem with series long arcs, but any series book worth it's postage has some sort of individual structure. This does not. It's just one d@mn thing after another until you run out of pages. Look, I know the publishing world is in a lot of trouble, but I really hate this trend. /rant.
Helpful Score: 5
A good if not simple book. Aimed at a slightly lower reading level than I expected. Good for fans of books like percy jackson and harry potter.
goddesslovingbookworm -
Helpful Score: 2
This may be targeted to young adults (like Harry Potter), but it certainly was a wonderful romp for me--and educational too as I went from book to Google and back researching mythological creatures and historical characters. First in a series, it is another morality play set in modern times; one choice can ripple through the world with consequences--what choice to make? Who to believe? Good and evil are not always set in black and white...
A cliffhanger ending makes me anxiously await the sequel entitled The Magician...
A cliffhanger ending makes me anxiously await the sequel entitled The Magician...
T.C. Robson -
Helpful Score: 2
Those who recall Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone rather vividly will perk their ears at the name Nicholas Flamel, the creator of that treasured hunk of rock that Harry almost died protecting. Now, Irish author Michael Scott brings Flamel's interesting story to the surface in The Alchemyst.
Twin siblings Sophie and Josh Newman work at a coffee shop and book store, respectively. Nothing odd about their days so far...until the book store's owner Nick Fleming and his wife Perry go head-to-head with mud men and rivel Dr. John Dee. Activity out of the ordinary, to say the least. Oh, but it gets even stranger: the fifteen-year-old twins finds themselves to be an integral part of a several hundred thousand-year-old prophecy that could save the world or destroy it.
The coffee shop and book store just got a little more exciting.
Turns out that their friend Nick Fleming is in fact a very, very, very old famed alchemist who has spent most of his immortal life protecting the Book of Abraham the Mage, or the "Codex", containing the aforementioned prophecy. And the formula for the famed philosopher's stone (English Harry Potter fans will recognize that title). And the recipe for the youth serum he and his wife so readily consume. Which means...Jaws theme song, please...Nick and Perry will age rapidly and be dead in less than a month without the book in their possession. Oh, wonderful. Just what a pair of teenagers wants to deal with.
When Perry, or rather Perenelle, is kidnapped by Dee and his tribe of followers, Flamel sets out on a quest to find a nearby Elder and their Shadowrealm (powerful mythological god and their residence, respectively) to Awaken the twins' hidden magical powers. A sword of ice is borne, a beyond-gigantic tree is set aflame, one of the twins drives a Hummer (which is pretty cool, you have to admit) - safe to say, Scott puts his characters and their enemies through the ringer.
The first in a series, The Alchemyst slowly leads the characters in adventures that they barely slide out of and provides a cliffhanger leading perfectly into the great adventures the next book, The Magician, will hold. The book is beautifully worded, providing vivid imagery quite like what Sophie experiences post-Awakening. Emotions run high, but the impactful energy of Nicholas Flamel's possibly final adventures runs even higher.
Twin siblings Sophie and Josh Newman work at a coffee shop and book store, respectively. Nothing odd about their days so far...until the book store's owner Nick Fleming and his wife Perry go head-to-head with mud men and rivel Dr. John Dee. Activity out of the ordinary, to say the least. Oh, but it gets even stranger: the fifteen-year-old twins finds themselves to be an integral part of a several hundred thousand-year-old prophecy that could save the world or destroy it.
The coffee shop and book store just got a little more exciting.
Turns out that their friend Nick Fleming is in fact a very, very, very old famed alchemist who has spent most of his immortal life protecting the Book of Abraham the Mage, or the "Codex", containing the aforementioned prophecy. And the formula for the famed philosopher's stone (English Harry Potter fans will recognize that title). And the recipe for the youth serum he and his wife so readily consume. Which means...Jaws theme song, please...Nick and Perry will age rapidly and be dead in less than a month without the book in their possession. Oh, wonderful. Just what a pair of teenagers wants to deal with.
When Perry, or rather Perenelle, is kidnapped by Dee and his tribe of followers, Flamel sets out on a quest to find a nearby Elder and their Shadowrealm (powerful mythological god and their residence, respectively) to Awaken the twins' hidden magical powers. A sword of ice is borne, a beyond-gigantic tree is set aflame, one of the twins drives a Hummer (which is pretty cool, you have to admit) - safe to say, Scott puts his characters and their enemies through the ringer.
The first in a series, The Alchemyst slowly leads the characters in adventures that they barely slide out of and provides a cliffhanger leading perfectly into the great adventures the next book, The Magician, will hold. The book is beautifully worded, providing vivid imagery quite like what Sophie experiences post-Awakening. Emotions run high, but the impactful energy of Nicholas Flamel's possibly final adventures runs even higher.
Rita C. reviewed The Alchemyst (Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Bk 1) on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
My adult grandson really enjoyed this book. Says he will reread it. For a twenty one year old that is a statement in itself.
