The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

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The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Der dunkle Magier (Michael Scott, 2009).jpg
German cover
Author Michael Scott
Cover artistMichael Wagner
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
Genre Fantasy
Publisher Doubleday (UK)
Delacorte Press (US)
Publication date
  • 5 June 2008 (UK)
  • 24 June 2008 (US)
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Pages461
ISBN 978-0-385-73358-8
823.914
LC Class PZ7.S42736Mag 2008
Preceded by The Alchemyst  
Followed by The Sorceress  

The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (often shortened to The Magician) is a fantasy novel by Michael Scott. It is the sequel to The Alchemyst , and the second installment in the six part book series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel . It was released on 5 June 2008 in the United Kingdom, and 24 June 2008 in the United States. It was nominated for an Irish Book of the Year Award, The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year – Senior Category. [1]

Contents

Title character

The book's title, The Magician, refers to the villain, John Dee, who works for the Dark Elders and for their return to dominance on Earth.

"Dee had so many talents, he could have been any of the characters – indeed, I have written elsewhere that he was the original hero of this series. He was The Alchemyst of the title. In his own time, he was always principally known as 'The Magician.'"

Plot summary

Sophie and Josh Newman – 15-year-old twins – are in Paris with the alchemyst, Nicholas Flamel, and his friend, Scathach. They now face Niccolò Machiavelli and his colleague, but also rival, John Dee, who both work for the Dark Elders. Machiavelli is plotting to capture the twins and Flamel with the missing pages of the Codex – or Book of Abraham the Mage – before Dee can arrive in France from San Francisco. The twins seek out a friend and student to Nicholas, Comte de Saint-Germain, who teaches Sophie to use the elemental magic of Fire. Saint-Germain's wife, Joan of Arc, helps Sophie to learn to control her aura and to sort out the Witch of Endor's memories from her own. Josh is given the legendary stone sword Clarent, twin blade of Excalibur, by Nicholas. Clarent is an ancient Fire Elemental sword. Josh, Joan, and Scathach encounter three Disir, more commonly referred to as Valkyries. The Disir are ancient enemies of Scathach and bring along the soul-devouring Nidhogg, a ferocious monster once trapped in the roots of Yggdrasil – the world tree. The monster was freed after Dee destroyed Yggdrasil and attacks Scathach but fails to slay her. Instead, it captures Scathach in its claws, but flees with Scathach when the ancient sword Clarent, wielded by Josh, wounds it. Meanwhile, Nicholas' wife, Perenelle Flamel, who had been captured, is taken to Alcatraz as a prisoner.


On Alcatraz, Perenelle is helped by the ghost of Juan Manuel de Ayala, a Spanish sailor. She explores Alcatraz and finds ancient monsters in cells. She gets attacked by the Morrigan because Dee has authorized her to be killed. Underground, Perenelle meets Areop-Enap, the spider elder. The elder explains that Dee could not have Areop-Enap killed because other elders would investigate. Together, the two incapacitate the Morrigan and her thousands of crows that accompanied her.

Sophie, Joan, and Nicholas decide to go after Josh and, by using Sophie's aura, they track Dee and his comrades to the catacombs of Paris. There, Josh's magical ability is awakened by Mars Ultor and he is given a special "gift" similar to what Sophie received from the Witch of Endor – Josh now has Mars' military knowledge. When Sophie, Josh, and the rest escape from the catacombs, Dee and Machiavelli have set a trap, making the gargoyles and statues of Paris come to life and attack. Josh, Sophie, Saint-Germain, and Joan of Arc combine powers to destroy the statues. Flamel and the twins escape via a train and head for London. Perenelle is still stuck on Alcatraz and fears recapture.

Characters new to the series

"Directly in front of him, close enough to touch, was the Elder the Romans had worshipped as the God of War. Josh had never heard of Hekate or the Witch of Endor, and because he knew nothing about them, they hadn't had the same effect on him. This Elder was different. Now he knew what Dee had meant when he said that this was the Elder remembered by humankind. This was Mars himself, the Elder with a month and a planet named after him"

Michael Scott, The Magician

Special editions and cover variations

On 5 August 2010 in the UK The Magician was re-released featuring a new style cover.

The Magician was also released as part of a special edition boxed 3 book set called The First Codex in the US on 28 September 2010. It consists of three books.

Audiobook

The Magician is available as an unabridged audiobook. It was released by the Listening Library on 24 June 2008 and narrated by Erik Singer. The audiobook ISBN numbers are: ISBN   0-7393-6491-X (U.K), ISBN   978-0739364918(U.S.A). [3]

Award nomination

Sequel

The sequel to this book, The Sorceress was released on 26 May 2009 in the US and in June 2009 in the UK.

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References

  1. 1 2 Staff writers. "Irish Book Awards Category page". Archived from the original on 15 November 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  2. Michael Scott. "Link to his post". Flamel's Secret Fan Forum. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
  3. The Magician Audiobook. UK. ASIN   073936491X.