Customer Reviews

The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

5 star:		(144)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

They say that out of the mouths of babes...etc. In this case, I borrowed a book from a grandson. He was right. This is a terrific story and a great family adventure. I see that some of these reviews, in fact, most were not necessarily written by young adults. It's always clear. And though I kept in mind as I was reading that this was not specifically addressed to my generation, still I fell under the considerable spell of a really good story which transcended age. When I see a review getting very very literal and probing,even"erudite" I must say, I have my doubts as to the reviewers intentions. I was up for a good read, plain and simple and I got it. The ability for young readers to Google every single character except the twins is unparalleled in fiction. My grandson showed me how and what could be more engaging. It lends a life beyond the story. Great!

This book is not a great book, but it's not a bad book either. Teen twins Josh and Sophie are working part time jobs right across the street from another and are happily going about their days when they are soon swept up into a world of magic and mayhem they never dreamed existed. I loved the aspect of the author creating fictional characters out of Flamel and Dee, but as one other reviewer mentioned, to title the book the Alchemyst, and then not have much alchemy in the book was very disappointing. If you are a reader who likes non-stop action and lots of cool magic, you'll love this book. But for me I felt it was all flash and bang, one action scene after another that just doesnt stop to take a breath, and in between there was no substance. The characters are well developed and all likeable, however I felt that the bad guy of John Dee, wasnt really a great evil enemy, he was a bit of a wimp if you ask me. He should have been much more terrifying, and like Flamel, he used minions to do his dirty work. In fact, I found both the characters of Dee and Flamel very lame. The magic used however is very creative and fun and used not in the ways that other YA fantasy stories use it. My major gripe with this book is that the author threw in way too many myths and legends, gods and goddesses and mythical beasts from around the world. It was too much and there were too many. The author had this big stew pot where he just tossed in every legendary myth and creature and then stirred it around and ladled out muck. I think if he had geared the story around one featured myth from one culture, say Norse, or Egyptian, or Celtic, it would have had much more depth to it. We find Egyptian sphinxes and cat goddesses, Excalibur, vampires, Odin, golems and ghosts, Babylonian, stories of Atlantis, Greek, African....it was just too much to throw all these elements in the pot to come out a polished novel. The other thing I found hard to swallow was that all the events in the book took place in two days. There was too much action and too much travel from one spot to the next, too many rollercoaster ride events to make a two day time span believable. But, if you are into thrill books that are fast paced and don't care too much about substance or a well developed background story, you might like this. There were aspects that I did like, some I didn't like, but on the whole I cant give this a rave review. I might pick up the sequel to see if the story develops more or just to see how it ends, but I cant say I'll be running right out on the release date to get it. It's a fun book but not fabulous.

Fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman don't believe in legends. What good would it do them anyway? Their parents are away the whole summer on one of their archeological digs, and right now all the twins care about is working hard at their new summer jobs to save money for their own car. By some stroke of luck, they find jobs in San Francisco across the street from each other --- Sophie at The Coffee Cup and Josh at The Small Book Shop. Books and coffee, an ideal combination if ever there was one.

On the surface, Nick Fleming and his lovely wife Perry seem like your typical bookstore owners. But then a strange group of men step out of a limousine at the curb, gray-faced golems lumber into the shop, the air smells like peppermint and rotten eggs, and explosive balls of energy get hurled through the air. Before Josh and Sophie even figure out what's happening, Nick and his wife kidnap them for their own good and flee the scene worried for their lives.

It seems that Josh's boss is not who he claims to be. Nick and Perry are really Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, and their secrets don't stop there. Records show that Nicholas Flamel was widely regarded as the greatest Alchemyst of all time. His wife died first, and in 1418 he followed her to the grave, nearly 600 years ago. If all this is true, then why are their graves empty?

Somehow, the Alchemyst is still alive.

Rarely have I read a novel that accomplishes as much as THE ALCHEMYST. By the author's own admission, the twins are the only invented characters; everyone else is grounded in history and mythology. The famous alchemyst Nicholas Flamel really married Perenelle. John Dee studied as his apprentice. The mysterious Book of Abraham was a real book made of bark. And to this day, Nick and Perry's graves lie empty. How did they get so rich? What happened to their bodies? Could they still be alive?

A skillful weave of history and legend, the first installment of this story leaves few ancient myths unexplained --- The Greek legend Icarus, the Great London Fire, the Viking god Odin, vampires, the Black Plague of Europe, the Island of Atlantis, the Irish Potato Famine, martial arts, witches, the Philosopher's Stone, and the secret of eternal life --- amazingly, though, none of them feels out of place. They help transform this fast-paced rollercoaster of magic, mystery and myth into a new legend that explains the stories of the past and holds the secret to all the ones to come.

--- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

© Copyright 1997-2007, Teenreads. All rights reserved.

My son picked this up at the bookstore (the cover is quite fetching) and I, his mother, couldn't resist reading it. He is a big Lightening Thief fan, so the possibility of more mythology was a big hit. How funny that both books pick Mount Tamalpais in Marin as an area of god-like importance.

The book hooks you from the start with a suspenseful scene. Later, I thought rough spots were a little too conveniently solved by a suddenly appearing power, so that you never felt they were actually in danger. When "soldiers in the tattered blues and greys of Civil War uniforms" popped out of a cemetary in California, I was a little disappointed. I'm no student of history, but I live in California and haven't seen too many Civil War battle sites around here. Um. None actually.

But I still enjoyed the book and look forward to the sequel.

It seems reviewers always forget a MAJOR aspect when reading a series, especially a YA fiction series.......................... You will NEVER get all the answers in the first book!!!!!!!!!! DUH!!!! If it's a series it's MEANT to be broken in to lots of pieces and make you wonder the obvious. JK Rowling did it with Harry and many other authors have done it with their respective series'. Repetition is also consistent in many FIRST books of a series to make sure you remember WHO your reading about, the role in the story this character portrays, and the importance of remembering details.

This series cannot be compared to Harry Potter!!!!!!!!! These are two different storylines and two different types of authors! M.T.S. is a REAL historian, while Rowling had a story come to her on napkins in a cafe. Both found inspiration in COMPLETELY different ways!!

I find the book to be a breath of fresh air. Historical figures left and right, good introduction for a first part in a series, and true to style in the YA Fiction world (grown ups get over yourselves and your supposed intelligence level). The twins represent a ying and yang (silver and gold) in my opinion being very different but alike at the same time. The guidance provided by Nicholas and his band of friends, mysterious as they all are, keeps it interesting as well.

When you start a book, no matter how hard, FINISH IT!! Then, and only then, will your review have any kind of significant weight.

Sophie Newman is at work when the world changes forever. Across the street from her, a sleek black car pulls up outside the book shop where her twin brother Josh is working over summer for Nick and Perry Fleming. Moments later the shop appears to explode, sending Sophie racing across the road to her brother and directly into the pages of history. For the owner of the shop isn't Nick Fleming but Nicholas Flamel, better known as the Alchemyst, and the Codex he has been guarding for centuries has been stolen by Dr John Dee, former magician to Queen Elizabeth the First.

Except this is happening in modern day San Francisco and Sophie and Josh have never dealt with magic before.

The Alchemyst doesn't stop, right from the very first pages the characters are given no opportunity to rest and neither is the reader. From meeting a 2000 year old Warrior Maiden who looks like a 17 year old girl to meeting the Goddess Hekate living inside the World Tree, the book keeps going and every page bring an ever increasing sense of danger and urgency to the storyline.

Characters from mythology and history are bought to life and fleshed out and set loose on the modern world, some hell bent on bringing about the destruction of humanity and some desperate to save it. Could Josh and Sophie be the twins of legend, the two that are one and the one that is all? Could these two teenaged humans have enough magical power within them to prevent Armageddon? Only time will tell, but the next instalments of this book will not come out soon enough.

It's rare to find a book that sucks you in so completely, even stranger to find one that sends you racing into other books to find out everything you can about the people in it. Every single character in The Alchemyst is real, apart from the Twins. From millennia ago to the recent past, names you've heard, names you'll know will leap out at you.

If you like mythology, history, danger, drama, death, sadness, love and above all, magic, you need this book in your life. Now.

Based on the historical but rather mysterious characters of Nicholas Flamel and Dr. John Dee, THE ALCHEMYST by Michael Scott is an almost-frantic romp through an imaginative modern-day world in which magical figures still exist, hidden amidst ordinary humans. The conflict in the book is nothing new, being a rehash of the ancient struggle between good and evil. The fact that mythological and magical characters take an active part in the struggle, using magic as their weapons, is reminiscent of Rowling's Harry Potter books and of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. In fact, while Nicholas Flamel is historical and could have provided inspiration for both Rowling and Scott writing quite independently of each other, one wonders if Rowling's use of Flamel and his "Sorcerer's Stone" in her first book did not provide Scott's inspiration. The fact that Tolkien provided inspiration is indisputable, since Scott goes out of his way to mention "Hobbits," or at least their fossilized remains, in THE ALCHEMYST. Such being the case, it would have been only courteous of Scott to have acknowledged the works of Rowling and of Tolkien in the "Author's Note" or the "Acknowledgments" pages at the back of his book, and the fact that he does not strikes me as rather mean-spirited.

I also have a problem with the depiction of Josh. He frequently comes across as a stereotyped image of an adolescent boy full of equal parts of bravado and ignorance, one who is quicker to open his mouth than to think. While the other characters generally come across as believable (assuming one accepts the premise that we are in a world full of hidden magic), Josh seems artificial, stilted, and two-dimensional by contrast. Perhaps part of this reaction derives from the fact that the reader concludes early on that Josh and his twin sister will prove to be the heroes in the epic struggle of good and evil, and the reader is therefore disappointed in Josh's immature thoughts and actions, the fact that he is only fifteen years old notwithstanding. After all, his twin sister, who is, obviously, also fifteen, is far more level-headed and adapts sensibly to changing situations in the story, underscoring Josh's rebellious denial of "reality."

Let us hasten not to make too much of this book, however. Unlike Tolkien's writing, Scott's is devoid of meaningful symbolism or allegory. Unlike Rowling, Scott does not explore the psychology of his characters or see them develop--they remain "flat," i.e., the same at the end of the book as they were at its beginning. Scott's THE ALCHEMYST depends entirely upon the superficial action to sustain reader interest. On the positive side, Scott does rely upon well-described mythological and historical characters, rather skillfully interweaving their traditional selves into a modern-day context. He also sustains the action very well indeed--the story absolutely gallops along. We should note also that the book is not complete, being only the beginning of the story, which is continued in a sequel, THE MAGICIAN: BOOK 2 OF the SECRETS OF THE IMMORTAL NICHOLAS FLAMEL.

Overall, my sense is that THE ALCHEMYST will appeal primarily to young readers, pre- and early-teenage, but then it's also a purely fun read for more mature readers looking for a fast, escapist story with lots of action, something to distract them from the stresses and worries of the real world for a brief time. It's a fun little fiction.

I was hoping for a light, fun ride into a new fantasy world. This silly novel fails miserably. The twins at the center of the story are vapid. They're also a little creepy with all that hand-holding and finger squeezing. The Immortal Nicholas Flammel is in way over his head and inspires no confidence. Gandalf and Dumbledore he ain't. The villains are pure camp; all they're missing is a furry white cat. Oops, nevermind, there are cats. And birds. (Hitchcock is rolling over in his grave.) Scott's noxious brew of every myth and legend he could Google feels like the kitchen sink has been thrown into this mess. And his prose is childish and repetitive. Yes, we know Josh and Sophie are twins. There's no need to remind us every 3rd sentence. We also know their last name is Newman. Is it really necessary to call them by their full name for the first 20 chapters? Yes, we know their parents are archeologists. Stop saying it over and over again. And yes, we know Dr. John Dee (always John Dee and always impeccably dressed) is a Doctor. It registered the first 125 times it was mentioned. And that part about Josh and Sophie saving up to buy a car - we remembered it from the last time it was mentioned half a page ago. I could go on and on and on. This book is pure drivel for anyone over over the age of 6. I want a refund.

Many compare Michael Scott's The Alchemyst to Harry Potter, and that is a fair comparison. Both books contain well-developed characters, mystical environments, and a completely entrancing plotline. The book protagonist, Nicholas Flamel, must struggle with good and evil in a modern society where magic exists, but hidden, throughout the world.

Nicholas Flamel and his wife are the guardians of a magical book called the Codex -- this book holds the secrets to ever-lasting life. One can only imagine the number of people after this book. Well, it doesn't take long for the book to be stolen. After the attack, Flamel suspects something odd about the mysterious twins he just met. Are they the ones the Codex referred as the ones who will destroy the world? Or are they here to save it? The action ensues as the four are of to discover the answers to these and many other questions.

The story flows smoothly and engages the reader at every turn. There are some low points, however. The book does get tedious at times, and makes the story predictable, but overall it is a great novel for the young-at-heart.........I also would highly recommend reading "Ashes Divide" by Clarence Cage: Ashes Divide I just finished reading it and it was spectacular...don't miss it.

It's clear that Scott knows what he's talking about when it comes to mythology, however his writing style certainly needs work. It's patterned, over-explanatory, over-dramatic, and uses far too many things that keeps it dated, such as mentions of Ebay, Wikipedia, iPod, etc. I disliked being told the same thing more than once within 10 pages as well as being unable to infer anything.

It's an interesting story, but I was sick of reading about halfway through the book and resorted to skimming. Definitely could be told in 150 pages, as opposed to 391.