The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
by Michael Scott
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael ScottBrand: Grosset & Dunlap
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-24
ISBN: 0385736002
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780385736008
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Book Review: The Alchemyst: The Secrets of The Imotal Nicolas Flamel
Summary: 2 Stars
Magic, mystical creatures, and of course alchemy are all wrapped up in "The Alchemyst," by Michael Scott, but do all of these factors really make up for the big faults with this book? Every book depends on great dialogue, great characters, and a great plotline to make the book interesting. This book seems to be lacking in all three of those departments. With all the cliché dialogue, an unrealistic plotline, and the unimaginative characters, this book is very bland.
Twin siblings, Sophie and Josh Newman, have their first encounter with the magical world of alchemy when Josh's employer "Nick Fleming" has his book store destroyed. The stereotypical heroic protagonists come to Fleming's aid to rescue the poor book store owner, and as they go to help Fleming the twins meet the evil alchemist, Dee. Dee begins showing off the powers of alchemy while trying to steal a powerful book, called the Codex, from Fleming's store. Just as Dee is leaving with the book, Josh stupidly runs up to the powerful Alchemyst and rips some pages out of the book. Dee successfully escapes obtaining the book that could destroy the human race , and capturing Fleming's wife. As Fleming and the children run away from the half destroyed book store they begin to roam around San Francisco. Nick Fleming then informs the twins that he is a powerful alchemyst, named Nicholas Flamel, they are the chosen ones who can save the Earth, and they all must all work together to awaken their powers so they can use them, while protecting the page's that Josh ripped out of the book. From there the rest of the book is about Flamel trying to track down elders that could awaken their powers.
One of the biggest problems with the plot is that the solutions to the main character's problems are very absurd. In the book the Codex is the most powerful book in the world and Josh, by luck, ripped out the only two pages that could end the human race. Flamel even notes how absured these chances are by saying "if Josh had wanted to take two pages from the book, rendering it useless, then Josh couldn't have chosen better than those" (pg.27).Out of the millions of pages Josh could have ripped out he ripped out two most important pages, and the probability for that seems highly unlikely. Later in the book Josh again has this miraculous luck again as he saves everyone from destruction by "running Dee over with a truck breaking the spell he was chanting" (pg.356). The author continues to favor using this technique of defying the odds by luck as though he had written himself into a hole, and that was the only way to keep the story going.
The character's importance and roles in the plot make them seem as though they should have personalities larger that life, but in fact the characters are very dry. Flamel's wife is the classic damsel in distress, needing to be saved by the hero. The twins are the historic good twin versus the evil twin, trying to fight to the death. Dee is the bad guy trying to conquer the world. Even their appearances seem stereotypical such as the evil alchemist being a "pale, unhealthy- looking gray- white skin man" (pg.5), and the twins being " blonde hair, and blue eyes" (pg. 16) . It's as though the author has based all of his characters off of old television shows, and movies that have the same stereotypical looking character for every role in it. He doesn't try to create any uniqueness with his characters by giving them flaws in appearance or personality. He makes all of his characters bland to the point that everything the characters do or say feel fake.
These characters fake persona is also paired with their cliché dialogue. In school, every English teacher tells their students not to use clichés in any of their writings, because it'll take away from it. If students know better than to use clichés, then why would an author use one? The dialogue is so predictable that when Sophie saves Josh they have a classic brother sister moment, where Sophie rescues Josh, anyone could guess that Sophie would say, "you're my brother! I'll never abandon you" (pg. 364). Any reader would assume that this wouldn't be so bad if the author only used clichés every once in awhile, but the author chose to use every cliché he possibly could. He even made the last sentence of the book cliché when Flamel's wife is facing her capturer, and he says "it is ending mortal "and she unoriginally says "one the contrary, it is only the beginning" (pg.369). One of the most commonly used endings, and out of all things an author could write for their ending, Michael had to use the biggest cliché there is. It's these kinds of things that make the book increasing frustrating to read.
The quality of a book comes down to the characters, dialogue, and plot line. Overall, this book is not fun to read. Everything is predictable, the characters are unimaginative, and the dialogue is very obnoxious to read because of the multiple clichés. This book is basically the same as ever other fantasy book there has ever been, because there is simply nothing new or original about it. Unfortunately this book seems to be a waste of time, even though it originally seems promising. This book is defiantly a letdown for all fantasy genre readers.
Summary of The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
He holds the secret that can end the world.The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.
The records show that he died in 1418.
But his tomb is empty.
The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects?the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.
Sometimes legends are true.
And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.
From the Hardcover edition.
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