Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1)
by Angie Sage
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Book Summary Information
Author: Angie SageIllustrator: Mark Zug
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-03-14
ISBN: 0060577339
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Book Reviews of Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1)
Book Review: A kids' book that kids won't like.
Summary: 2 Stars
On a high-fantasy Earth, Septimus Heap is born. That very night, Septimus's dad Silas finds a baby girl abandoned in the snow. Silas returns with her only to find his new born son pronounced dead and taken away by the midwife. The Heaps then decide to name the girl Jenna and raise her themselves. Now, when she's ten years old, they find out Jenna is the daughter of the assassinated queen and that an assassin sent by a guy called DomDaniel is on the way to kill her. To avoid an irksome fate, the family sets out for Zelda Heap's cottage.
This is for sure aimed at younger kids, and I don't think the target audience will even like it. Really, I can't begin to describe how annoying Zelda, Nicko, and Jenna Heap are. Zelda is an elderly woman who doesn't like it when people use magyk to "interfere with the elements", and she likes to bring in unnecessary disagreements over ridiculous things. Nicko and Jenna are whiny and helpless. I doubt the nine to twelve-year-old kids reading the book will like them. All of the other Heaps excluding bumbling Silas have very little to do.
Marcia Overstrand (the "ExtraOrdinary wizard") was my favorite character. She has an authoritative and important personality about her, and yet she's still nice and funny. And she dislikes Zelda. Maybe she doesn't want to show it too much, but it's obvious. Alther Mella was a ghost, and he has some sort of involvement with the queen. There was a Young Army kid called Boy 412 who was vaguely interesting, but that's largely due to him being more or less mute. There's a Boggart named Boggart (these aren't your usual shape-shifters) who was horrendously funny ("Now, you followin'?"). DomDaniel (why is it written without a space?) doesn't prove to be very threatening in any way, and he's just evil because he feels like being evil. Yeah, it's a kids' book, but I think they deserve a better baddy. The Apprentice of DomDaniel was much better, we get to see a lot of his perspective. He's a guy who didn't exactly choose to be a criminal, but doesn't really want to stop being one either.
This story jumps around from a lot of different perspectives, so much that it's hard to come by character development. Really, do we need to be focusing on messenger rats? Just Marcia, Alther, 412, and the Apprentice would have been fine. Important things that could have been dealt with quicker take way too long. Some scenes are useless and boring, they can pretty much be skipped without missing anything.
I think the fictional world is fair, but it's not that good. I have a younger brother, I know kids like imaginative worlds. But author Angie Sage gave her world things like "the Forest", "the Castle", "the River", etc. Kids can remember location names, they don't need this sort of simplification. There are some odd/unnecessary elements, such the incomprehensible "charms", and all wizards' eyes turn green at a certain age. The "evil" magyk is "Darke" magyk, so nothing ground-breaking there. I did like the character Petroc Trelawney (gotta love living pet pebbles).
For some reasons, the word "Magyk" and all the Magykal spells are bolded in the book. It's distracting, messy looking, and it wore on my eyes. I mean really, in a fantasy world, the word "magyk" has to be used a lot, then there are all the different spells people are saying, so there are bolded words everywhere. I'm not sure if it's supposed to have some kind of meaningful and emphasizing effect, but whatever it's supposed to be, it doesn't do Magyk any good.
Nearing the end, it at first looked like it was going in a very interesting direction. But the moment an alternative was hinted at, it was obvious what was going to happen. So then you have to sit through a lengthy section for a big reveal to happen, and whaddaya know, you already guessed it.
There's little incentive for anyone to read Septimus Heap: Magyk. The target audience isn't going to like any of the characters they're supposed to relate to, and the world the book takes place in isn't going to be very interesting to them. The story is really boring and long, too. I can't think of any kid actually finishing this and liking it.
4 out of 9
Summary of Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1)
The Magyk Begins Here
Septimus Heap, the seventh son of the seventh son, disappears the night he is born, pronounced dead by the midwife. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across an abandoned child in the snow -- a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take her into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?
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