104:42 The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

The first book in the "Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" series by Michael Scott. After liking but not being overly impressed with the Percy Jackson series, I admit to not looking forward to this series but I was happily surprised and found it to be wonderful. The first book takes place over the course of two days but it's amazing how much they can pack into just two days. Nicholas Flamel and his wife have been hiding out in San Francisco as bookstore owners while guarding The Codex, aka The Book of Abraham, and keeping it safe from the Dark Elders who would use the information contained in it to bring back their full powers and enslave humanity. Who are the Dark Elders? So far we've only met 2 of the them but I wouldn't want either of them mad at me considering they are the Morrigan and Bastet. Their servant is Dr. John Dee who is a necromancer, alchemist, mathematician, geographer, astronomer, and astrologer. He was once a valued member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

So who does Nicholas Flamel turn to when Dr. Dee is after him with his allies? Well, there are the twins that have blundered into the thick of things who seem to be part of an ancient prophecy from the Book of Abraham and his friend Scathach but then there are the Elders, Hekate and the Witch of Endor. Hekate has powerful magic at her disposal, enough to bring forth a seed of Yggdrasil and awaken the powers of the twins. But will she and what will it cost her and what will it do to the twins?

I really loved the entwining of the different mythologies and personalities of the Elders/Dark Elders. The twins spend much of the book being very confused and trying to make sense of what is going on around them which is normal. Their personalities are not very strong at this point but at least they aren't whining or bratty which tends to really turn me off to a character. I look forward to their personalities coming out more in the following books. This book was very much getting the stage set and filling in the background on the older characters and did an excellent job of that while keeping everything moving forward. I also loved that the characters of Dr. Dee, Nicholas, and Perry were taken from historical accounts. Mr. Scott did his research on them and it shows.

Really looking forward to reading the rest of the series (what's been published so far).

Page count: 375p/10,904p ytd