The Sorceress by Michael Scott

Title: The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #3)
Author: Michael Scott
Publisher: Random House
Published: 26 May, 2009
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy
Source: Bought - Easons

Nicholas Flamel's heart almost broke as he watched his beloved Paris crumble before him. The city was destroyed by Dee and Machiavelli, but Flamel played his own role in the destruction. Sophie and Josh Newman show every sign of being the twins of prophecy, and Flamel had to protect them and the pages from the Dark Elders.

 But Nicholas grows weaker with each passing day. Perenelle is still trapped in Alcatraz, and now that Scatty has gone missing, the group is without protection. Except for Clarent—the twin sword to Excalibur. But Clarent’s power is unthinkable, its evil making it nearly impossible to use without its darkness seeping into the soul of whoever wields it.

 If he hopes to defeat Dee, Nicholas must find an Elder who can teach Josh and Sophie the third elemental magic—Water Magic. The problem? The only one who can do that is Gilgamesh, and he is quite, quite insane.

You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, they say. Most times it's good to take that advice on board. However, this book or series even, is definitely an exception. Awesome cover, awesome book.
Anyway, onto the important stuff!

The Sorceress starts with Perenelle, who we know is still trapped on the island of Alcatraz, with Areop-Enap. This book actually focused a whole lot more on her than I expected, and I thought it was great. Usually, we follow the twins and their adventures and stuff, which is awesome, but I loved that a big part of the book followed her days on the island, and her escape. Speaking of which, was I the only person who suffered from fits of laughter when she finally escaped? Not really in a bad way, it was just pretty predictable how she tricked Machiavelli and Billy the kid.

The story, beginning with Perenelle and her escape, onto the Archon being awakened, flowed so well. I was really impressed at the transitions. If you think about it, the change is actually quite drastic, but Michael Scott perfectly eased one into the other. The nice and smooth flow also built up the suspense, in a way that I'm just failing to describe right now, but it was awesome haha! You'd be reading for hours, and wouldn't even notice the time fly.

About the whole roller-coaster comparison, I was actually referring to the number of new characters introduced in this book. If you've read, or are reading this series, you'll notice that the number of character, even just in the first book, is really quite high compared to other YA fictional books out there. In this book, the third in the series, we're introduced to Macha and Badb first of all, who are the Crow goddess' sisters. You're introduced to Palamedes and Shakespeare, over which I freaked out. And my personal favourite, Gilamesh, who teaches Water magic to the twins.

The only reason, that I can think of, for my liking Gilamesh in particular, was just how unique he was. His character could have easily been developed to perfection, he is a King and all, but Michael Scott decided against that. Gilamesh is flawed, not overly flawed because that can be annoying sometimes, and it added a certain depth to his character that most of the others didn't have. I loved it!

As always, Scott ends each of these books with a very painful cliffhanger! I feel bad for anyone who tried to talk to me during the final few chapters, because they were blatantly ignored. Haha! The ending was so exciting, what with the classic battle between the Archon Cernunnos and the gang, Dee fusing the Clarent and Excalibur together! Oh, and Scathach and Joan being transported to the prehistoric era? Michael Scott really knows how to get you hooked!
The only problem I had was that I felt the twins didn't really do much in this book. Everything was done for them and it made them puppet-like. It undermined their awesomeness.

Overall, this was a great read!

Thanks for reading guys!