First of all, my apologies for not being very active in the club for most of this year.  I did read this book way back in February (?) when it was the book of the month, I just never got around to posting a review until now.  I have been reading a lot this year, just not selections for the club.  I admit, I got distracted with other books.  Sorry about that.  Anyway, on to my review…

Would you become immortal if you had the chance?

No.  Given the fact that I believe in an afterlife I find the idea of being immortal unnecessary.  However, I can see the appeal immortality might hold for someone who thinks death is the end.

If you had to make the decision about whether or not to Awaken the twins, what would you do?

I don’t think it’s up to me, the twins should be the ones who should make that decision.  That’s one of my biggest problems with Nicholas, he expects them to make these major life and death decisions without bothering to explain anything or why they should take these risks.

If you had the chance to be Awakened, would you take it?

I honestly don’t know.  I probably would but only if I had I really good reason to do so.
One important task for fantasy writers is to build a believable world while still moving the story forward. How did Michael Scott do this? Was he successful?

Michael Scott has created a very interesting world in his novel, but I think his biggest problem is getting caught up in all of his details.  His story indeed has a lot of trouble moving forward in many places because he finds it necessary to explain so many obscure details that have very little to do with the actual plot.

Who is your favorite character? Which characters from myth would you like to see in the story?

I think Scatty is my favorite character.  She’s strong and loyal.  I think we need more female characters like her in literature these days.  In the sequels Scott not only introduces more mythical characters but several more recent and famous historical figures.  I don’t find that very consistent, I think he should stick to either the mythical characters or historical figures.  Blending them is a little confusing and doesn’t make much sense.  What I’m trying to say is I’ve already read the four books in this series (and that’s not the end) and I think the author needs to spend less time bringing in new characters and more time actually making his plot move.

Josh and Sophie both have doubts about Nicholas. Why don’t they trust him sometimes? Do you think he’s trustworthy?

I don’t blame Sophie and Josh for having doubts.  They don’t trust Nicholas because Nicholas doesn’t trust them.  Trust is a two-way street.  Nicholas is under the strange assumption that they will do what he says without asking questions.  Given the fact that their lives are at stake Sophie and Josh deserve those answers.  I don’t find him very trustworthy at this point mainly because he won’t explain anything, although I don’t doubt he thinks he is doing the right thing.  What does annoy me is when Josh thinks maybe Dr. John Dee is more worth trusting then Nicholas.  The scent of Dr. John Dee’s aura should give Josh the only clue he needs to figure out what that man is about.  Also, anyone who promises paradise, as Dee tries to promise Josh, is a liar.

Think about the alliances in the book. Why does Dr. John Dee work for the Dark Elders? Why do Scathach, Hekate, and the Witch of Endor help Nicholas and the twins?

The alliances were one of the most confusing thing about this book.  The battle lines, if you will, aren’t clearly drawn.  Dr. John Dee works for the Dark Elders because they gave him immortality, and because he think working for them will get him what he wants.  He’s not so much interested in what the Dark Elders want.  Scathach helps Nicholas out of loyalty.  Hekate doesn’t really want to help Nicholas and only does so grudgingly.  In the end she pays a heavy price.  This is off topic a little, but I was so sad when her magnificent tree died.  The Witch of Endor helps Nicholas because of Scathach and probably for some unknown reasons of her own.  I think one of the most confusing things about this book and subsequent sequels is trying to keep track of who is on which of the many sides and why.

Nicholas and Perrenelle Flamel were real people. There are streets and hospitals in Paris named after them. Dr. John Dee was also a real person, the most famous alchemist and astrologer of his age. How does the factual basis affect how you read this story?

Honestly, the only reason I’ve even heard of Nicholas and Perrenelle was because they were mentioned in the first Harry Potter book, and even then I thought they were fiction.  For all intensive purposes they are fiction because the author is making up most the important details that have to do with the story.  I’ve never heard of Dr. John Dee so he’s still as good as fiction to me.  So for the first book the “famous” names really made no difference to me.  However, in the sequels more characters are introduced that are historically famous and people I’ve actually heard of.  It did start to get distracting because it seems as if only the historically famous are ever granted immortality in Michael Scott’s world.  How unrealistic is that?  Seriously, I would not be surprised if Elvis shows up in a future sequel because all sorts of famous people who should be dead apparently aren’t.

What are your predictions for the next book in the series?

I liked the first book enough that I read all the available books in this series up to this point, including the new one that just came out in May.  There are four books in all so far, with another book planned, but I have no idea how many novels will eventually be in this series.   The Alchemyst was a good book, but it could have been better.   The story bogs down in the sequels, the author involves way too many key characters in all sorts of various sub plots.  The aforementioned new novel barely progresses the story at all, nothing really happens except more confusion for the reader.  The book would never work as a stand alone novel, and I think that’s a mistake.  I’m probably at the point where I’m starting not to care how the series ends, the last book I read in this series, The Necromancer, was a very unsatisfying read.  It’s too bad really because the author has neat ideas, he just needs to learn to leave out so many useless details and make sure his plot gets the attention it deserves.

I’ll try not to get too wordy here, especially since one of my biggest complaints of this book was that it was too wordy. :) I got everything I’ve been begging for in the children’s books I’ve been reading this past year: Back story! Mythology! Emotional struggle! Better description! But there were some parts that just seemed a tad too drawn out. All the same, it’s just what I’d want in a magical adventure, and a promising start to what I imagine is an engaging series.

The two teens in this book — twins, Sophie and Josh — were not annoying like most other teens in this genre. Their reasons for wanting to flee, for example, were valid. They were scared, and they knew that the adults were holding back information. At some point literature is going to evolve past this one complaint that kids always have in books, but for now I like to see how it’s handled. Sophie and Josh reacted based on their age and experience; they didn’t throw a tantrum, and although they put themselves in potential unnecessary danger, well, they somehow had to be reminded that the world they’d entered after encountering the Codex was very different from their own. They stick together, their emotions are very mature (Josh isn’t easily convinced that ‘nobody loves him,’ whereas I think most teens in other books fall prey to this argument from the bad guys way too easily), and their concerns are believable.

I kept thinking as I was reading that the style flowed very well. It seems that in most kid’s books I’ve read of late, each chapter stands on its own as an adventure in itself, all of them tying together into the whole story. That is true of this one as well; why else would you divide it into chapters? But things weren’t wrapped up nicely at the end of one chapter so the next could start with temporary peace. I rather prefer that, I think. It’s harder to put the book down, for one, and it just seems a lot more like reading life.

As I said, my only complaint was that it was a bit wordy… I like the back story, I like all the detail, and I definitely didn’t mind the length. I just noticed that when Nicholas and Dee went into their histories, it was described in thoughts across four or five pages of paragraph blocks. That’s fine, except how many people sit around thinking of their lives like that when they know they’re short on time? In movies, they fill in back stories by way of conversation between characters. Even having Josh’s impulsive rude questions to interrupt Nicholas’s speech would have broken up the text a little more, made it a little less tiring to read. I found myself glancing ahead, seeing how many more pages until the book jumped back into the action.

All in all, though, it was really well written, and certainly something I’ll recommend in the future. It’s good for older kids (which I suppose is why it’s kept in the teen section). It doesn’t have a lot of ‘older’ themes, but it’s not as fast paced or attention grabbing as books for younger kids so unless you have avid readers on your hands, they might find it boring.

I actually got on the author’s website and looked into some of the other books he’s written, and I most certainly will read more. I’ll probably get through this series before I venture out into other realms, but he’s written a lot on Irish folklore and a few other young adult books that look rather interesting.