The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

 

The Alchemyst, By Michael Scott, is about twin brother and sister Josh and Sophie Newman, who both get summer jobs in San Francisco. Sophie worked at a local Coffee Shop across the street from where Josh worked, a small book store owned by Nick and Perry Fleming. At the beginning of the book,  Sophie notices strange men (who were actually Golems, a creature made out of mud) across the street. Another man steps out of the car the Golems came out of, and they go into where her brother Josh works. Then there’s a fight scene where Dee (the man that stepped out of the car the Golems) takes a rare book, but only after Josh accidently, but luckily, rips the two most important pages out of, and takes Perry Flamel hostage. They meet up with an Elder named Scatty, and speed away from San Francisco, barely escaping an attack from vicious birds. They hide in a shadow realm created and inhabited by the Elder goddess Hekate. She senses that Sophie and Josh have very strong auras and as Nicholas Flamel (Nick Fleming) suspected, are probably in one of the prophecies in the Codex (the rare book Dee stole). Then they decide that they need to Awaken the twins magical potential, which means that they would be so in tune with their bodys that they can see every fur on an animal, they can hear every silent noise, they can taste every single seasoning and flavor of food, and so on. Meanwhile, Dee and his partner the Crow Goddess decide to team up with Bastet, a Dark Elder that has the body of a woman and the head of a cat. Sophie gets awakened, while Josh does not. Nicholas, Sophie, Scatty, and Josh escape while the Crow Goddess and Dee are fighting Hekate. They then drive to another magical being, the Witch of Endor. Sophie learns all that the With of Endor knows, while Josh is sent out to the park across the street. Dee arrives attacking again with all of the dead things within range (Dee is a necromancer, which means he can control the dead). Sophie fights them off with her new found powers, but still they are definitely out-numbered and losing until, all of a sudden, all of the zombies and skeletons stop moving. It was Josh’s doing, he startled Dee’s concentration, so all of the dead things stopped attacking. Sophie, Josh, Scatty and Nicholas disappear into the witch’s antique shop, and then go through a mirror into Paris, France. That’s the end of the first book, which is kind of a cliff-hanger, isn’t it?

                I would say that the main theme of this book is Good vs. Evil. An example of this is every time that the good people (Sophie, Josh, Scatty, Hekate, Nicholas, Witch of Endor, etc.) are fighting the evil people (Dr. John Dee, the Crow Goddess, Bastet, etc.). The main fight is near the end of the book, when they all fight each other at Hekate’s shadow realm. That fight shows the good people vs. the evil people because the evil people kill somebody (I won’t say who…) and that shows just how evil they are! That is why I think that one of the main themes of this book is Good vs. Evil.

                I would definitely recommend this series by Michael Scott to other 7^th graders. I really enjoyed it! It was very fantasy like, but had a little bit of history because of all of the mythology in it. It is really entertaining, and is a page-turner. I would recommend other books from this author, like the whole series that this book is the first to. There are four books in that series so far: The Alchemyst, The Magician, The Sorceress, and The Necromancer. There are also other books like this, like the Ranger’s Apprentice series. That’s why I would definitely recommend these series to other 7^th graders that love a little magic, mythology, and fantasy.

I got this picture at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/michael-scott/alchemyst.htmThe