The Magician by Michael Scott

Title: The Magician (The Secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel #2)
Author: Michael Scott
Publisher: Random House
Published: 5 June, 2008
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Source: Bought

Ashes to ashes... 

California: 
In the hands of Dr. John Dee and the Dark Elders, the book of Abraham the Mage, could mean the destruction of the world as we know it. The most powerful book of all time, it holds the secret of eternal life — a secret more dangerous than any one man should ever possess. And Dee is two pages away from the knowledge that would bring the Dark Elders into ultimate power.

 His only obstacle? Josh and Sophie Newman — who are eight thousand miles away.

Paris:
After fleeing Ojai, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scatty emerge in Paris. The City of Lights. Home to Nicholas Flamel. Only, this homecoming is anything but sweet.

Time is running out for Nicholas and Perenelle. Every day they spend without the book, they age one year: their magic becomes weaker and their bodies more frail. For Flamel, the Prophecy is growing clearer and clearer.

I read this quite a while ago, but something I did today got me thinking about this series and I remembered I hadn't finished reviewing it! The thing, irrelevant, this review, very! Haha

'The Magician' is the thoroughly captivating sequel to 'The Alchemyst', and the second book of the series. It starts up where the first book ended, with the destruction of Hekate's shadowrealm. After an ending like that, you've got to make sure whatever comes next doesn't loose the readers' attention, and I thought Scott succeeded there. You're barely given time to recuperate, before you're meeting new characters and being taken to whole new places.. and I loved it! Haha

One thing I particularly loved about 'The Alchemyst' was the world building of shadowrealms. If you don't already know, shadowrealms are sort of alternate universes, created by the elders. They're all unique and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Hekate's. In 'The Magician', though we did see a lot less of that, it was balanced out with the twins' being exposed to more magic in the real world. It's equally as magic-laden, what with Sophie's learning fire magic, being granted the Witch of Endor's memories, Josh's being awakened and gifted with the elder Mars' military knowledge.

We're introduced to so many more characters in the second book. The awesome thing about it though, is that you don't get confused or forget any of them, which I gotta give the author props for! Scott further develops the protagonists, but along with that, is his bringing in and developing characters such as Saint-Germain, Joan of Arc, the Witch of Endor and Machiavelli. Also, how cool it is that Michael Scott used well known names like Joan of Arc, and Niccolo Machiavelli, and it still made complete sense? Joan was brave and heroic and Machiavelli was noble yet conniving. It was obvious that Scott had done his homework, because it percolated throughout his work, which was very satisfying to read.

If I can say one thing, it's that Michael Scott has perfected his ability to end books. I say this because I know of a few books, which were good throughout, but the ending let me down. In 'The Magician' however, the ending couldn't have been more engaging and just plain awesome! Who else can make gargoyle statues coming to life, seem so realistic? Haha!

This book is worthy of all the praise attributed, and even that isn't quite enough. If you like magical action-packed reads, this series is definitely for you!

After all my hyping this series up, have you checked it out yet? Haha

Thanks for reading guys, hope you enjoyed it!