The Alchemist's Code [Paperback]

Dave Duncan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2009

On the trail of a foreign spy, Maestro Nostradamus and his apprentice, the swordsman Alfeo Zeno, are up against occult forces that could mean the end of both master and apprentice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Slightly overbalanced by dense, lush descriptions, Duncan's elaborate sequel to 2007's The Alchemist's Apprentice finds footing in intricate plots and conspiracies. Able swordsman Alfeo Zeno, a brash young noble serving as Nostradamus's apprentice, provides a firsthand account of murder and romance in an alternate 16th-century Venice. This time the mystery centers around coded messages from an enemy agent, with Nostradamus and Zeno aiming first to crack the code and then to find the spy through a combination of magic and Holmesian investigation and deduction. Zeno's chatty narration breathes life into the city as he describes its political and social structure. The level of detail occasionally stifles the flow of Duncan's prose, an effect offset by the energy of the twisting plot. The only snag is the somewhat superfluous element of the fantastic, which adds little to this tale of interpersonal intrigue. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The even more intriguing sequel to The Alchemist’s Apprentice (2007) is a mystery solved by the clairvoyant and sage Nostradamus and his apprentice, Alfeo Zeno. An ordinary case of a missing girl turns deadly serious when Venice’s Council of Ten asks Nostradamus to unmask a spy. The only clues lie in intercepted messages in a cipher that hasn’t been decoded. Duncan’s alternate late Renaissance Venice is wonderfully drawn and quite believable. The characters are a bit archetypal at first, which is plausible at a time and place in which public behavior was highly restricted. Duncan uses action to show what lies beneath public deportment. --Frieda Murray --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ace; Reprint edition (February 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441016901
• ISBN-13: 978-0441016907
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,196,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Canadian > Short Stories

More About the Author

Dave Duncan is a prolific writer of fantasy and science fiction, best known for his fantasy series, particularly The Seventh Sword, A Man of His Word, and The King's Blades. He and his wife Janet, his in-house editor and partner for over fifty years, live in Victoria, British Columbia. They have three children and four grandchildren.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good combination of fantasy, mystery, and history: Nero Wolfe fans take note, March 23, 2008

By 

David D. Friedman - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Alchemist's Code (Paperback)

I like fantasy, I like mysteries, and I like historical novels. The series of which this is the second but not, I hope, the last, manages to combine all three genres and do it very well.

While nobody else seems to have noticed it, both books in the series have an unacknowledged co-author--the ghost of Rex Stout. Nostradamus and his apprentice are their own characters. But they are also Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin transformed to a very different setting. The author has fun slipping in bits from that world along with passing hints at other sources ranging from _The Princess Bride_ to "My Last Duchess." A lot of fun, and some of the best entertainment fiction I have read of late.

I'm not an expert on 16th century Italy, but the historical elements felt right, including a convincing picture of renaissance magical beliefs. I am giving the book four stars not because there is anything wrong with it--so far as I can tell there isn't--but only because I prefer to reserve five stars for books that are not only very good but extraordinary.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Duncan is truly an entertaining read., March 12, 2008

By 

Avid Reader (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Alchemist's Code (Paperback)

I love fantasies, historical novels, and humor and this book has it all. Duncan also excels at cleverly drawn characters and the ability to keep the story moving. No extraneous detail here (sorry, the huge fantasy volume I read just before this book could have used some editing so I really appreciated the flow of this story) Reading it brought me back to my childhood, reading my father's Rafael Sabatini collection - books that took place in the Italian states. If you enjoyed the first of this series or Duncan's King's Blades series, you should enjoy this one too!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The wait is always worth it., March 10, 2008

By 

Tricia Crichton (Bremerton, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Alchemist's Code (Paperback)

Everything Dave Duncan writes is wonderful. The only problem, is that once you've caught up with ALL his books, you have to wait for months and months to get a new one. This year we get two, though!

The Alchemist's Code is great. I spent the first two nights I had it doing nothing but reading. One line (with no spoilers) was so good I had to call my husband on a business trip to share it with him.

Alfeo narrates the Alchemist books, and sometimes he talks directly to his readers, which adds a wonderful reflexivity to parts of the book.

Read the books. Duncan can say more in a sentence than I can in a page.