May 23, 2014

Series review: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

Titles:
• The Alchemyst (2007)
• The Magician (2008)
• The Sorceress (2009)
• The Necromancer (2010)
• The Warlock (2011)
• The Enchantress (2012)

Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on 28 September 1330. Nearly seven hundred 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 and Nicholas Flamel lives. 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. And 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.

"When in doubt, we follow our hearts. Words can be false, images and sounds can be manipulated. But this...' He tapped his chest, over his heart. 'This is always true”

Michael Scott wrote 6 books with a story that only happened in less than 10 days. This series is the outcome. And because of this, the story is super fast paced and very well constructed. There are a lot of twists and turns. Michael Scott added a lot of interesting subplots that are connected to the main plot. While reading this book, you learn a lot of mythology and legends, because lots of the characters are based on them, manipulated to fit into the story. I think that's awesome. I've always been interested in mythology and I like to learn more about it, through reading fantasy stories (like Percy Jackson).

What I also liked about this series, there were no romance involved. I like this because, I always think 'love' in YA novels is a bit to cheesy to me most of the times. The protagonist did not go and find love, but the character development was strong anyway. They switch sides, you see them develop.

The ending to this series was amazing, I never would have guessed this would happen. But I still have a lot of questions. I wanted to know more about Sophie's future, have a bit of a closure on her story. And there were other subplots I wanted to read more about. We didn't find out the fate of Black Hawk, Billy the Kid or even Machiavelli after the action was all cleared up. There was also a rather vague description of what happened with other characters like Scatty, Joan and Virginia. But besides all of this, I did liked the ending. It surprised me and I like surprises!

And how beautiful are those covers! Each book represents an element, and the title a character from the book. The design is beautiful and the spines look awesome next to each other in my bookcase. To be honest, I bought the first book, just because I thought it looked amazing, lol. Cover artist Michael Warner did a great job.

If you love mythology, folklore, history, fantasy, and action, then I highly recommend this series!

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