
Imagine Magyk: Septimus Heap put into modern-day New York and you may get the picture. Josh and Sophie Newman are ordinary twin teenagers whose parents are frequent-travelling archaeologists. So all they have pretty much is each other. Fortuantely, Josh works at a bookstore and Sophie works at the coffee shop just on the other end of the street. Then they are all of a sudden dropped into the stink of hell - literally. Apparently mud Gollums and the famous John Dee, a mortal enemy of Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, smell like rotten eggs. The bookstore is attacked and so is a book, and it is stolen, along with Perenelle, Sophie's boss, and that book stolen could mean the end of the world, says Nicholas Flamel, Josh's boss, except Josh was able to steal the last two pages, which are vital for the completion of the potion. All of a sudden, Nicholas Flamel must now go on the run with two new clueless teenagers whom he belies may be part of a prophecy: "The two that is one, the one that is all!"
Michael Scott apparently did a lot of research for this book, and I mean a lot, mentioning so many gods and goddesses, and visited a lot of the places he went. And so it's safe to say that this is a very well written book, and a few action scenes were very gripping, like when our heroes are chased on the San Francisco bridge by a pack of crows. And when it comes to supernatural abilities, there's not much else I find more magical. Books were made to sprout people's imagination, weren't they? But I'm afraid that this delightful fantasy tale is spoiled by repetitive writing style and stench jokes. There's too many "I can't believe this is happening, and I've seen weird stuff today." Too many "Is this a dream?" Too many "Why did it have to be us?" Because of this, I really felt the three hundred and sixty pages. Sometimes, I don't mind it when a book feels longer, like Michael Vey or Legend or Reboot. Those books I didn't mind because they were so good and I wanted to savour them. This book I did mind because, well, the reasons I mentioned, and it spends too much time being with the bad guy. I was happy t be with Perenelle for a little bit, but I don't usually find being locked up above a road trip to rescue. There's a character death that I wish didn't happen, because it made me a little sad, it made me question whether the cynical danger advice was actually the better advice, and the worst is that none seems to care too much. I don't know what to expect in The Magicians, but I hope that it ends up being the payoff rather than a twelve dollar commercial for the next installment like this one.