kgbinks's review against another edition
5.0
For those looking for a Harry Potter alternative. The entire series happens over the course of a few days, there's so much packed into each book. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.
cozylittlereadingcorner's review against another edition
4.0
Officially I would give this book a 4.5! It’s almost written like I’m watching a movie - the scenes were very detailed and specific!! I liked this one a lot more than the first book:)
kittic's review
4.0
As with the first title in this series, Michael Scott weaves myth, legend and history into a powerful tale filled with magic, wonder and teenage turmoil. I am so happy I've returned to this series after so many years.
thebookishpaws's review against another edition
3.0
Better than the first book. Some very annoying characters but the plot was better overall.
rima_amani's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
calcitestar's review against another edition
3.0
Ok in parts but far more lengthy than it warranted.
isauldur's review against another edition
2.0
Originally published in Phantases and Other Funny Words
Note: Below, my review is split into two parts. The first gives my general thoughts on the book, and the second details spoilers and major plot points. Be warned.
Part One: Overview
This book is a noticeable improvement over the first one. For starters, there are very few pop-cultural references that date the novel, and the action is a bit more spread out. Whereas the first book was only an action scene followed by another action scene, which could be exhausting, The Magician takes a few breaks. There are a few points in the story where the characters take a break and just talk to each other. However, they only talk about exposition or about the plot. I guess talking about themselves was asking too much.
We finally get a little bit of background information on Flamel’s character, but it’s not enough to make him compelling. He’s still just some guy who does magic and who keeps telling these two teenagers to trust him. Scathach is roughly the same. She has an open-hearted conversation with Sophie about halfway into the book. But the problem is that it’s a single conversation. Beyond that, Scathach is little more than her epithet, the Warrior. Josh and Sophie do have a little bit more personality here, and they do start to become separate people. Josh is still sad and glum because his powers weren’t Awakened in the last book, and he’s jealous of his sister. Sophie just wants to go back to normal, because she feels that her Awakened senses are too much for her mind to deal with. But, I’m sad to say, this is the extent of their development.
The prose and the writing style are both fairly standard, leaning towards the simplistic. This leads to quick and easy reading, but it leaves little impact on the mind and allows for very limited vivid imagery. However, the biggest issue I had with the writing was the repetition. Scott really repeats himself a lot in this book, especially when describing the age of mythological beings and Josh’s fear of his sister leaving him behind. The ages of mythological creatures always follow the same formula: “she looked young, but was more ancient than the world” or “he looked like he was in his thirties, but he came from a time before humanity even existed,” etc. It grows exhausting. We get it, myths are old, the Elder Race is called Elder for a reason, please stop trying to tell us about the myths and please show us (I’ll come back to this later). As for Josh’s fears, not only are they acknowledged every time he so much as looks as his sister, but they’re also addressed and discussed at length, usually with the same words. Again, Scott tells us that Josh is afraid instead of showing us. He doesn’t distance himself from his sister, he doesn’t snap at her, and he only verbally acknowledges his feelings once. Instead, the narrative explains that Josh is afraid, and that he’s going to lose Sophie, and that there’s no place for him in this mythical world, and because of that he’s afraid. It’s tiresome.
One final note before I get into spoilers. Nearly every mythological creature that shows up is either a fifty-something year old, or seventeen. Scathach is supposed to look seventeen, and both Flamel and Dee look like they’re in their mid-fifties. It makes most of the characters, who already have little to distinguish them from one another, to blend together.
Overall, an improvement from the last book, but still not what I would have liked. Yet again, the potential comes from the way that Scott mixes all these mythologies together, and yet, as I’ll discuss below he wastes that potential at every single opportunity he gets. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be “frustrating.” It’s frustrating that so many opportunities are missed, and that we, the readers, don’t get to watch some of the most popular myths of all time interact with each other properly. I already told myself I’d read the entire series, so I will, and I still hold the hope that the books will get better.
Part Two: Spoilers and In-Depth Discussion
There was one major plot hole that I noticed on the first book, as many others have before me: if Nicholas Flamel has lived for over 600 years, how does he not have the recipe for the Immortality Juice memorized by now? Well, luckily for us, Mr. Scott explains that the formula changes every month, and that it works only once ever.
We get an additional villain in this book, Niccolo Machiavelli, and he’s supposed to be scary and creepy and vile and evil. But quite frankly, there’s hardly any difference between him and Dee, who we already know and who is a flat and shallow villain. Both Machiavelli and Dee dress the same in the same colors, have the same attitude, and they even speak the same way! The only major difference between them is that Dee is supposed to have a temper and Machiavelli is supposed to be more controlled. But in the end, they’re basically carbon copies of each other to the point that it becomes boring having them both in the same scene.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the biggest letdown since the release of A Phantom Menace! After an entire chapter of Machiavelli, Dee and Dagon discussing the Nidhogg, building it up as a primordial creature that the Elders themselves used as a weapon, the legendary monstrosity that was trapped at the roots of Yggdrasil, the ancient dragon of Norse mythology prophesized to be set free at the End of Times, and we finally get to see it. And it is……….!! A big lizard. Granted, it’s a very big lizard, but it’s just a lizard nonetheless. Josh even compares it to a Komodo dragon. [Insert disappointed weeping here]. By Odin’s beard, is this really the best you could come up with? The Nidhogg was supposed to have destroyed countless cities in the time before the humani, and it took several Valkyries (or Disir, as they’re more often called in this book) to keep it in check. But no, he’s just a big lizard who runs through Paris and breaks a few buildings. From the prelude we were getting and the buildup the characters were providing, I expected something along the lines of Godzilla or King Ghidorah to come rampaging through a city, knocking buildings down with every step and making the ground quake, but no. Yet again, we have the great potential of something colossal and mythological in scale (emphasis on the word “mythological”) that is wasted with something mundane and blasé.
It was taking me some time to figure it out, but after reading the scene with the Nidhogg, it finally hit me. I finally realized what these books have been lacking so far, and that is spectacle. The plot involves some of the greatest myths in the world, as well as some of the most enigmatic characters in human history. And yet, it all feels dull and weak and bland. Why? Because the books have no spectacle, no sense of wonder or scale. Nothing is ever grand or larger than life because the author won’t let it. He stubbornly sticks to the idea that mythological beings behaving like everyday people is cool, but believe me, it’s not. The Disir as they’re described, the Nidhogg, Mars Ultor, they’re not the creatures that people used to fear or worship or tell legends about! They’re pale, weak, cheap facsimiles with little in common with the myths that inspired them. The Nidhogg rampages through the city of Paris and it’s not even half as impressive as Godzilla is in his 1954 debut. For me, the best part of the book was when Saint-Germain lit up the Eiffel Tower and that’s because it’s the only part of the book that is allowed to be impressive and simply cool. The writing style provides a few vivid images and the entire section is memorable. The rest of it feels just like a low-budget, generic TV show that tries to tackle cool ideas but ends up falling short. The type of TV show that sells time travel as its core, but only has its characters end up in cheap, easily-reproduced time periods like the late 1800s, or the 80s or the 70s or virtually any time in human history that doesn’t require creativity to put on set. And if this was a TV show, I may almost excuse it. But it’s not, it’s a book, and books aren’t limited by budgetary needs. They charge the same to edit or publish a scene with gods and magic and storming weather as they would for a scene with three people sitting in a room debating who could win the FIFA World Cup. If the author had wanted to have impressive things, cool things, in his book, all he needed to do was write them! But he simply keeps trying to ground these myths, trying to make them fit in our world, only to have them end up unrecognizable and unsatisfactory.
Note: Below, my review is split into two parts. The first gives my general thoughts on the book, and the second details spoilers and major plot points. Be warned.
Part One: Overview
This book is a noticeable improvement over the first one. For starters, there are very few pop-cultural references that date the novel, and the action is a bit more spread out. Whereas the first book was only an action scene followed by another action scene, which could be exhausting, The Magician takes a few breaks. There are a few points in the story where the characters take a break and just talk to each other. However, they only talk about exposition or about the plot. I guess talking about themselves was asking too much.
We finally get a little bit of background information on Flamel’s character, but it’s not enough to make him compelling. He’s still just some guy who does magic and who keeps telling these two teenagers to trust him. Scathach is roughly the same. She has an open-hearted conversation with Sophie about halfway into the book. But the problem is that it’s a single conversation. Beyond that, Scathach is little more than her epithet, the Warrior. Josh and Sophie do have a little bit more personality here, and they do start to become separate people. Josh is still sad and glum because his powers weren’t Awakened in the last book, and he’s jealous of his sister. Sophie just wants to go back to normal, because she feels that her Awakened senses are too much for her mind to deal with. But, I’m sad to say, this is the extent of their development.
The prose and the writing style are both fairly standard, leaning towards the simplistic. This leads to quick and easy reading, but it leaves little impact on the mind and allows for very limited vivid imagery. However, the biggest issue I had with the writing was the repetition. Scott really repeats himself a lot in this book, especially when describing the age of mythological beings and Josh’s fear of his sister leaving him behind. The ages of mythological creatures always follow the same formula: “she looked young, but was more ancient than the world” or “he looked like he was in his thirties, but he came from a time before humanity even existed,” etc. It grows exhausting. We get it, myths are old, the Elder Race is called Elder for a reason, please stop trying to tell us about the myths and please show us (I’ll come back to this later). As for Josh’s fears, not only are they acknowledged every time he so much as looks as his sister, but they’re also addressed and discussed at length, usually with the same words. Again, Scott tells us that Josh is afraid instead of showing us. He doesn’t distance himself from his sister, he doesn’t snap at her, and he only verbally acknowledges his feelings once. Instead, the narrative explains that Josh is afraid, and that he’s going to lose Sophie, and that there’s no place for him in this mythical world, and because of that he’s afraid. It’s tiresome.
One final note before I get into spoilers. Nearly every mythological creature that shows up is either a fifty-something year old, or seventeen. Scathach is supposed to look seventeen, and both Flamel and Dee look like they’re in their mid-fifties. It makes most of the characters, who already have little to distinguish them from one another, to blend together.
Overall, an improvement from the last book, but still not what I would have liked. Yet again, the potential comes from the way that Scott mixes all these mythologies together, and yet, as I’ll discuss below he wastes that potential at every single opportunity he gets. If I had to describe this book in one word, it would be “frustrating.” It’s frustrating that so many opportunities are missed, and that we, the readers, don’t get to watch some of the most popular myths of all time interact with each other properly. I already told myself I’d read the entire series, so I will, and I still hold the hope that the books will get better.
Part Two: Spoilers and In-Depth Discussion
There was one major plot hole that I noticed on the first book, as many others have before me: if Nicholas Flamel has lived for over 600 years, how does he not have the recipe for the Immortality Juice memorized by now? Well, luckily for us, Mr. Scott explains that the formula changes every month, and that it works only once ever.
We get an additional villain in this book, Niccolo Machiavelli, and he’s supposed to be scary and creepy and vile and evil. But quite frankly, there’s hardly any difference between him and Dee, who we already know and who is a flat and shallow villain. Both Machiavelli and Dee dress the same in the same colors, have the same attitude, and they even speak the same way! The only major difference between them is that Dee is supposed to have a temper and Machiavelli is supposed to be more controlled. But in the end, they’re basically carbon copies of each other to the point that it becomes boring having them both in the same scene.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the biggest letdown since the release of A Phantom Menace! After an entire chapter of Machiavelli, Dee and Dagon discussing the Nidhogg, building it up as a primordial creature that the Elders themselves used as a weapon, the legendary monstrosity that was trapped at the roots of Yggdrasil, the ancient dragon of Norse mythology prophesized to be set free at the End of Times, and we finally get to see it. And it is……….!! A big lizard. Granted, it’s a very big lizard, but it’s just a lizard nonetheless. Josh even compares it to a Komodo dragon. [Insert disappointed weeping here]. By Odin’s beard, is this really the best you could come up with? The Nidhogg was supposed to have destroyed countless cities in the time before the humani, and it took several Valkyries (or Disir, as they’re more often called in this book) to keep it in check. But no, he’s just a big lizard who runs through Paris and breaks a few buildings. From the prelude we were getting and the buildup the characters were providing, I expected something along the lines of Godzilla or King Ghidorah to come rampaging through a city, knocking buildings down with every step and making the ground quake, but no. Yet again, we have the great potential of something colossal and mythological in scale (emphasis on the word “mythological”) that is wasted with something mundane and blasé.
It was taking me some time to figure it out, but after reading the scene with the Nidhogg, it finally hit me. I finally realized what these books have been lacking so far, and that is spectacle. The plot involves some of the greatest myths in the world, as well as some of the most enigmatic characters in human history. And yet, it all feels dull and weak and bland. Why? Because the books have no spectacle, no sense of wonder or scale. Nothing is ever grand or larger than life because the author won’t let it. He stubbornly sticks to the idea that mythological beings behaving like everyday people is cool, but believe me, it’s not. The Disir as they’re described, the Nidhogg, Mars Ultor, they’re not the creatures that people used to fear or worship or tell legends about! They’re pale, weak, cheap facsimiles with little in common with the myths that inspired them. The Nidhogg rampages through the city of Paris and it’s not even half as impressive as Godzilla is in his 1954 debut. For me, the best part of the book was when Saint-Germain lit up the Eiffel Tower and that’s because it’s the only part of the book that is allowed to be impressive and simply cool. The writing style provides a few vivid images and the entire section is memorable. The rest of it feels just like a low-budget, generic TV show that tries to tackle cool ideas but ends up falling short. The type of TV show that sells time travel as its core, but only has its characters end up in cheap, easily-reproduced time periods like the late 1800s, or the 80s or the 70s or virtually any time in human history that doesn’t require creativity to put on set. And if this was a TV show, I may almost excuse it. But it’s not, it’s a book, and books aren’t limited by budgetary needs. They charge the same to edit or publish a scene with gods and magic and storming weather as they would for a scene with three people sitting in a room debating who could win the FIFA World Cup. If the author had wanted to have impressive things, cool things, in his book, all he needed to do was write them! But he simply keeps trying to ground these myths, trying to make them fit in our world, only to have them end up unrecognizable and unsatisfactory.
vercopaanir's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
inez_hunter's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
nita022002's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0