The Alchemyst

Adult Themes: 1

Title: The Alchemyst

Author: Michael Scott

Series: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Rating Explanation

Language: One instance of profanity

Violence: There is an explosion in which creatures are destroyed. Fighting between humans, both mortal and immortal, and magical creatures. Many creatures are killed as is one person, but she’s not human.  Many of the magical creatures are quite creepy, some half-human and half-animal, “men” made from mud (Golems), wereboars (like werewolves, but boars) and skeletons and mummies. In one scene, the evil magician raises all of the dead from a cemetery and controls their skeletons to fight for him. Most of these are destroyed in the ensuing battle. Nicholas’s wife is kidnapped and held prisoner.

Adult Themes: For the most part, magic is fun to read about. I would say that is true for this book as well, but the bad guy in this book is a necromancer. To me, this is a little more creepy than your regular magic.

Synopsis

Josh and Sophie Newman are 15-year old twins spending their summer in San Francisco. They are average teenagers who work summer jobs, text their friends and listen to their ipods. But one summer day they stumble into a centuries old feud between two competing magicians. They discover that Josh’s boss, Nick, is the famous alchemist Nicholas Flamel and that he and his wife, Perenelle, are over 600 years old. Nick’s nemesis, Dr. John Dee, kidnaps Perenelle and steals the ancient book of Abraham the Mage. Nick needs Abraham’s book to brew their immortality potion because without it, he and Perry will age one year for each day they live. Time is literally running out for them. Abraham’s book also contains a prophecy about two who can either save or destroy the world. Could this prophecy refer to Josh and Sophie? Now the twins, Nick, and an ancient warrior, who is a vegetarian vampire, are on the run to escape John Dee, reclaim and book and rescue Perry.

I had a hard time putting this book down! Well written and full of interesting mythology, Scott left me ready to read the second book, The Magician. The third book in the series, The Sorceress, will be available in May of 2009.

©2009 The Literate Mother