Review: The Magician by Michael Scott

The Magician by Michael Scott
Published: June 24th, 2008
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
Pages: 496 
Challenge: Off the Shelf!, 100+ Reading Challenge
Other: The Magician is the second book in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. There will be six books in total - the fifth book, The Warlock, will be published on May 24th, 2011. 
Buy the book: Bookdepository


After fleeing Ojai, Nicholas, Sophie, Josh, and Scatty emerge in Paris, the City of Lights. Home for Nicholas Flamel. Only this homecoming is anything but sweet. Pernelle is still locked up back in Alcatraz and Paris is teeming with enemies. Nicolo Machiavelli, immortal author and celebrated art collector, is working for Dee. He’s after them, and time is running out for Nicholas and Pernelle. For every day spent without the Book of Abraham the Mage, they age one year—their magic becoming weaker and their bodies more frail. For Flamel, the Prophecy is becoming more and more clear.

It’s time for Sophie to learn the second elemental magic: Fire Magic. And there’s only one man who can teach it to her: Flamel’s old student, the Comte de Saint-Germain—alchemist, magician, and rock star. Josh and Sophie Newman are the world’s only hope—if they don’t turn on each other first.


The Magician is the second book in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott. The book literally takes off where The Alchemyst stopped and keeps on going at an incredible pace. If you've read the first book in the series, I wouldn't wait too long to read the sequel - it took me around three years after finishing The Alchemyst to pick up this book and I had difficulty getting into the story within the first 100 pages of the book, because I couldn't really remember what happened in the first book. Yeah, sure, I knew the outlining, but some smaller things were harder to remember.

The book follows Josh and Sophie Newman to Paris, along with Scatty and Nicholas. They need to find an ally within the city, because they are being chased by Dee and the ones serving him. Because everything is so entangled within the story, I don't want to tell too much because I feel that I would be spoiling it, even though it's not a major thing in the book.

Like I said, I had difficulty keeping up with the book. Once I was fully engaged in the story again, I read it incredibly fast and I was even a little sad - because I finished another book in the series. However, all the elements in the book are really making it a pageturner. Magic, immortals, the city of Paris, history, mythology, emotion and all the dark creatures in the book are simply amazing.

My overall rating:


Rounded: 3,5 stars for The Magician - I decided to lower the rating with half a star because I think you should be able to understand what's going on in the story when it's been a while since you've read the book before it. Nevertheless, I loved reading it and I can't wait to read The Sorceress, which thankfully, is already in my book closet.