Book Review: THE NECROMANCER by Michael Scott

THE NECROMANCER
by Michael Scott
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-385-73531-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-73531-5
Publication Date: May, 2010
List Price: $18.99

Review: What if you could magically control the elements of the world? What if science, philosophy, and religion were incorrect? What if all you knew was wrong? This is what Josh and Sophie Newman discover in The Necromancer by Michael Scott. This is the fourth book in the “Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” series.

Six days ago, twin siblings Josh and Sophie Newman led normal lives, with a normal home. All that changed when they met an immortal alchemist and Nicholas Flamel and his sorceress wife Perenelle. After they meet, they set off on a magical journey, learning different magic of the spectrum of sorcery. Six days into the quest, where the novel takes place in the series, Josh begins to learn the magic of sorcery from Prometheus. Yet, through the course of the week, the Flamels are becoming harder to trust, and they engage in an intense chase from an evil magician, Dr. John Dee. As tensions rise, the only thing stopping Dee’s evil plans is his need for a necromancer. Can Josh and Sophie stop him, or will he succeed with his catastrophic, evil plans?

First, I really liked this book. The plot was phenomenal, and it took an extremely overused fantasy genre, one that I normally don’t like, and turned it into something that I could not stop reading! Michael Scott took this theme and made a compelling, original book that could draw any reader of almost any age to this series. One of the best things about the book is how vast, yet understandable, his fantasy concepts are. His view of reality formulated in this book is greatly creative and interesting. The book shapes a fantastic realm which readers will find nearly impossible to put down. At some points, Michael combines fantasy and fiction in a way that makes sense to all readers. Another part of the vastness of his world is that multiple things happen at once. His storyline consists of one main plot with three subplots. He makes the stories tie up and come together.

The Necromancer is in a four book series, “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.” It is bestselling, and is going to come out with a fifth soon. Overall, this is an amazing book. I’d highly suggest reading all of the books of the series first. But, I’d definitely suggest checking out this series, it’ll surely put you under a spell!

Review written by Jonathan (7th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of THE NECROMANCER for this review.

Have you read THE NECROMANCER? How would you rate it?