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wonderfully detailed without fear of emotions.good read for enthusiatic adventure loving teens and adults.while giving a basic value system as to why right is right and wrong is wrong and the conflict between determining those values.while using fantasy to keep the reader involved in the story-line.and keeps in-line with actual fables of our times.enjoyed it immensely and passed it on to my new teen.
Michael Scott is a genius. Rowling and, dare I say, J.R.R. I will say it again, Michael Scott is a genius. He has captured the essence of Young Adult fantasy better than J.K. Tolkien. Bravo, I am truly hooked on Flamel.
One "superbly powerful" character towards the end of this book barely made it thirty pages past his introduction, and was killed by what seemed like a relatively simple attack by Dr. His Dark Materials went south (yeah. John Dee. deep south) by the middle of Amber Spyglass. It's going to be tough for Scott to continue introducing more and more characters who are supposed to be more and more dangerous (literary escalation) when he starts out at such superlatives (Scathach is the best warrior there ever was. Michael Scott draws action sequences very well and it's fun to glimpse some of the personalities he has implemented: Dr. Except for Nidhogg.
John Dee is a great villain, and Saint-Germain is a fun addition to the party. Luckily, I found The Alchemyst.I liked the first book, and the second, thoroughly. The drama is self-sustaining, as the main characters are constantly moved and moving in and out of danger.As with most action fiction, characters thoughts and feelings are usually limited to analysis of the situation at hand and reacting to previous events: there's no internal interaction going on, and that's okay. I'd really like to see Scott begin to tie together action and an overall morality.
After finishing the Harry Potter series, I was desperate for good fantasy fiction, and there's just not a ton out right now. And Mars. And whomever they meet next. period). Remeber when wereboars were considered the best warriors in history during the battle at Yggdrasill. Very little attention has been paid by any character that Flamel's motivations are primarily based around getting his wife back and returning to immortality. Magic Bites, Dresden Files, and the other magic/mystery series failed to lure me. Where will Scott go from here, given that the only possible direction is up.2) Joan really needs more definition as she seems to be the same character as Scathach.3) We also seem to be missing a major theme here: Sophie and Josh aren't too emotionally invested in what's happening, and for a long time simply wanted to return home.
Scott, however, has stumbled across a couple problems and hasn't fixed them in his 2nd book of the series.1) Scott has a bad case of the one-uppers. No, now the Disir are the best. It's almost like Scott's releasing the books in teen-sized serials, rather than a long epic that might prove imposing to the novice reader. He's touched on it a couple times, usually involving Dee's attempts to lure Josh away, but there really needs to be a full addressing of the issues awaiting our heroes.Overall, very good, and worth the relatively quick read.
I enjoyed reading this book. I thought the author did a great job of keeping you guessing as to what would happen next (an issue I had with the first book), and I thought his character development in this book was very good. I can't wait to grab the third one.
I was excited to hear this isn't a trilogy and there is a fourth book in the works. Pernelle is held prisoner on Alcatraz but makes a ghost friend who helps her to escape and allies with an old enemy.
Josh and Sophie again are being put to their limits as well as Nicholas. Just like the first book, this was excellent.
Scatty will face old enemies and faces death. They are in Paris for this book and a couple new characters are introduced, interestingly Joan of Arc.
Josh will be shown his potential power when wielding the sister sword to Excalibur. Dee and Mackavelli call upon an Elder to awaken Josh's powers but bite off more than they can chew.This is a page turner, like the first book and I can't wait to read the next book.
This is series is a must read for all ages and holds a permanent spot on my bookshelf.
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