If you haven’t read the series yet up to this point, I recommend avoiding this review’s inevitable spoilers. You can check out my review of the first book, The Alchemyst, here as well as find reviews of the other books on the Bibliophile Support Group.
I’m trusting that only seasoned Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel readers are continuing from here…
Sophie just watched her twin brother Josh turn away from her – leave her behind and follow Dr. John Dee and the mysterious Virginia Dare. Devastated and concerned, she wants to rescue him – to figure out why he would make a decision like that.
Yet the Flamel’s are dying – Nicholas is fading fast. And the day that the Elders will bring about their disastrous return is drawing near…
In the meantime, Scatty, Joan, Saint-Germain, Palamedes, and Shakespeare are all pulled back in time to the moment before Danu Talis was destroyed. They must make sure it falls – or the modern world they know will cease to exist…
Back in current-day San Francisco, Machiavelli and Billy the Kid are preparing to unleash the monsters of Alcatraz on the people and trigger a panic that will hand the human race to the Elders…
That’s pretty much all the synopsis I can give, I think.
I have to say that, sadly, at this point… I’m just finding the whole series quite tedious.
Where has The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series taken us? What kind of real development has occurred? Next to none, in my opinion. By this point, Josh is annoying and Sophie is nice, but bland.
I know there are a TON of fans out there. I’m happy for you! Please do read The Warlock for yourself!!!
I, unfortunately, ended up having to skim most of The Warlock because I was just too bored to read word for word. And disappointed.
There was one kind of cool surprise early on, but like everything else that’s happened in the series, it felt like a sudden choice of the author – not a planned twist. I could be wrong, but many things don’t add up right when you think back to the previous books.
And I’ve gotten very sick of Josh and Sophie constantly doubting if their on the right side, the wrong side, or does any of it even matter? Wondering if they can trust so-and-so or so-and-so? Truly irritating. It was one thing in maybe one book or occasionally cropping up in times of reflection, but this series make the question CONSTANTLY in the forefront.
The switching viewpoints feel clunky. Repeated exposition make paragraphs of action dull. Characters that were fun and humorous in The Magician (in my opinion by FAR the best book in the series) are now dead weight and buried beneath layers of convoluted, altering plots that seem to go nowhere…
Now, a shock at the end of The Warlock was certainly intriguing – but I just feel lackluster about the whole series. I’ll read the last book, The Enchantress, next month like I had planned – but there is no excitement or even strong interest to see what happens now.
Honestly, I’ll be relieved it’s over. Hopefully, it’ll be a while before I’m this frustrated in a book that many reviews claimed to be great for Harry Potter fans.
As a Harry Potter mega-fan, I strongly disagree.
BUT, again, this is MY opinion – read The Warlock, love it if you do!! I’m pleased it has fans. If it makes you happy and entertained, good for you!
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