A review by karida02
The Magician by Michael Scott

3.0

Title: The Magician
Author: Michael Scott
Rating: 3/5

Summary: 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. Perenell 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 Perenell. 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 Prophesy 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.


Review: This book started out with so much promise, so many expectations, but ultimately it kinda fell short of what I was hoping for, to cause me again to drop my rating by a star in retrospect. My favorite part of this particular book was the introduction of Machiavelli with the Kabuki masks. After that, the book unfortunately began to become predictable in nature. Sophie continues her training, learning magic this time from Saint Germaine, who had stolen it from Promethius and is married to Jean d’Arc (Joan of Arc), the last person, prior to Sophie, to have a silver aura. Josh is still jealous, but ultimately gets his awakening by the God of War, Mars, before he is killed by Dee. Dee, of course, kills everyone. Flamel is continuing to age, Perenelle escapes Alcatraz, traps Morrigan in a deep, dark cave, with no exit.

This series didn’t need a second book, or at least needed more time between the first and the second because this sounded forced. The Alchemyst was good, I liked that one. This book droned on and on and had a predictable storyline. After the introduction of Machiavelli, the only other part that actually held my interest and shocked me was when Scatty got dragged into the lake by Dagon. The introduction of Jean d’Arc could have been a lot less awkward, and while I do love her she was not the best character addition to this story, and I do kind of find myself liking Machiavelli.

I am somewhat of a book snob in my addiction to books, but in this case I was feeling somewhat generous and give this book three stars, even though it is down from my initial four star rating. I tend to use a policy that my teachers in the past have embraced, if there is effort there you at least get half a point even if the result isn’t exactly what it was supposed to be. I do have to admit, I like the cover art of the book a bit more than I like the story on the pages.


If you have any questions, comments or recommendations you can contact me at [email protected]
My reviews can be found here:
Confessions of a Bibliophile
Idle Musings and Random Things
Smashwords Reviews