The Sorceress Book Review

Author: Michael Scott

First thing’s first. The full title of this new fantasy/science fiction novel by Irish author Michael Scott is The Sorceress: The Secrets Of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel. We just thought you should know because it is so absolutely necessary for you to go out and get this book we thought you should have the full, entire name to make it easier to find.

The other thing you need to know is that this book is part of a longer series by Scott. It follows two other books: The Alchemyst and The Magician. This latest addition to the series picks up where its predecessors left off: continuing Nicholas Flamel’s battle against the Dark Elders.

The Sorceress is absolutely magical. Just like the first two books in the series, it uses lots of myths and legends to tell its tale. In fact, all the myths and legends must have been

The book also relates the prophecy about twins who could save or destroy the earth. Nicholas, who is an immortal (translation: he’ll never die) thinks that Sophie and Josh Newman are those twins. So, he takes the teenagers under his wing, protects them from bad guys who want to use them to destroy the world, awakens their auras (the source of their magic) and starts their training.

Sophie and Josh’s training begins when they flee to England with Nicholas in search of a king named Gilgamesh, who they will ask to be their instructor in elemental magic. Of course, when we say “flee,” we don’t mean the three of them took a leisurely flight over to the United Kingdom, maybe stopping in London to do some shopping before going to find King Gilgamesh. No, by “flee” we mean someone is chasing them.

The villain’s name is Dr. John Dee and he works for the Dark Elders, carrying out their evil tricks and plans. Can Dee capture the twins before they leave homeland and stronghold of Britain? You'll have to read the book to find out!

The Hero

It may be interesting for all you readers out there to note that the main character in this book – Nicholas Flamel – is actually based on a real person of the same name who was a bookseller and a famous alchemist (someone who mixed chemicals to create cures for diseases and other things, sort of like a modern-day pharmacist) who lived in Paris between 1330 and 1418. In fact, if you ever have the chance to travel to Paris you should go and see Nicholas Flamel’s actual house in the Rue de Montmorency (translation: Montmorency Road), which is now a restaurant.

Nicholas Flamel was one of the most famous alchemists of his time. He started off working as a bookseller. One day he came across a book (the same one that is mentioned in the first book in the series, The Alchemyst) called The Book of Abraham (which also really existed). The real Nicholas Flamel was so taken by the book that he left us a pretty detailed description of his own copper-bound copy. While the original book was lost somewhere over the years, the illustrations from the text are still around.

Over the course of his long life Flamel became ridiculously rich and used his money to build churches, hospitals and schools. Yeah, he was a pretty giving guy. Both he and his wife, whose name was Perenelle, were really well-known across the France and all over Europe. The streets that were named after them still exist in Paris today.

While a lot is known about Nicholas, not much is known about his wife: she was older than her husband (she may have even been a widow when she married him) and she was much, much wealthier than Nicholas when they met. It’s also pretty clear that she wore the pants in the relationship and there’s even some evidence that she was an alchemist, too.

Scott uses tons of historical figures in his books – this one is no exception. You’ll meet Joan of Arc, Machiavelli, etc. Since the series is based on a combination of legend, mythology and actual, factual history, there are only two made-up characters in all three books: the twins.

Books No. 4, 5 and 6

We were really excited to hear that Michael Scott is planning to add a fourth, fifth and sixth book to the series. The story will, apparently, bring us readers back to the west coast of America to San Francisco (where the Newman twins are from) and heading south to Los Angeles. The next book up (fourth in the series) is called The Necromancer. The next two are called The Warlock and The Enchantress.

One more amazing fact about this series. It may take up a whole six books, but the events it describes actually happen in less than a month’s time! The experience sort of reminded us of watching that show, 24, on TV.

The Author

Michael Scott has written more than 100 books – fantasy, folklore, nonfiction and fiction for both adults and young readers. He’s even written quite a few book under the pen name (pseudonym or fake name) of Anna Dillon. So if you read and enjoy The Sorceress and the other two books in the series, you should grab some of Scott’s other books, too.

The Sorceress Rating:

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