I'm enjoying this series. The adventures and development of the characters keep me engaged. There is plenty of action throughout the story that make the book hard to put down. I guess I'll be reading book 3 because I want to know what happens to the twins and the Alchemyst next.

I loved this book. It got going right away, and while the writing wasn't fast paced, the story line was. I loved Scott's use of mythology and historical characters throughout this book. Some of the characters I came across I had read about in other books like John Dee, Machiavelli, Nicholas Flamel, just to name a few. Different story lines wove through the series, and all turned up at the end so that it finally made sense. Books like these make you appreciate how much research and planning goes into writing.

While I'm still enjoying the general storyline there are so many things that annoyed me through this book. They're basically going to be like bullet points because I'm tired.

I'm so glad now that Josh has been Awakened because that kid was annoying the hell out of me with his whining. He's such an unlikable character as it is, his whining did not help at all.

Why do cool Elders have to be destroyed at the end of these books? I liked Hekate in the first book, and now I liked Mars, why do they have to be killed? Is there no other way to just take them out of the picture for a bit/entirely?

I'm annoyed with the way Michael Scott is trying to set up his characters for us. Everyone and everything is "extremely powerful" and all these people we meet are supposed to be amazing and we're supposed to fear them. Dee isn't scary, he's annoying and when I read about him I think of Chef Skinner from Ratatouille. While I was slightly beginning to enjoy Machiavelli's character near the end, I didn't find him to be the formidable enemy the other characters made him out to be. When you want me to be scared of your villains, show me why I should be, don't just tell me that I should be. Same goes for the Disir and Nidhogg (although I liked Nidhogg in general).

I did, at least, like Perenelle Flamel and the events that took place on Alcatraz, however brief they were. I also liked Aerop-Enop, I hope Scott doesn't kill her any time soon.

I am not going to believe certain "historical" things like Scatty having rescued Joan of Arc from being burned and nobody every saying anything about it merely because of their embarrassment over having a woman pull a fast one on them. If anything, that's more of a reason as to why it should be in the history books. Give me better reasons as to why these people are still alive, Scott.

Also, stop mentioning modern technology. That pulls me out of the story way too much and I don't see at all why it's necessary for Saint-Germain and Josh to discuss PCs amd Macs. I don't want to hear mentions of Wikipedia and YouTube either, it's weird, so stop or I will write you an angry letter because that's my solution to everything at three in the morning.

I'm still really enjoying this series. It took me a little while to get into this one since it's been so long since I've read book one. The author makes it easy to remember what's going on though. Looking forward to book three.

josh hateclub president‼️

sophie fanclub president‼️

Better than the last book for sure! Scott seems to have got his sea-legs when it comes to a writing style. There are still moments of awkwardness or place I can see clear strategies for more interesting prose, but the improvement between this and The Alchemyst is heartening.

Still, we're having issues with the plot, though. We got a bit more downtime in this book, but most of it was our main crew being chased by an army of X through the corridors of Y, which gets a little exhausting. I hope that in later installments, Scott can understand the narrative power of breather moments, rather than attempting to end every chapter on a cliffhanger.