Reviews: The Alchemyst, Insurgent

So I have free time again as usual to write some reviews this evening, so I’ll cover another 2 of my most recents.

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

I’m told I should read “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho, and I probably should, but this book and that book have, I am sure, next to nothing in common beyond the (roughly) same title. This book is about Nicholas Flamel. In fact, this is Book 1 of 6 from a series called “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel”. All books are out and I wanted to see if they would be worth the read (though the online reviews are seem to attest that the whole series is very good).

A rough synopsis is this: Everyone thinks that Nicholas Flamel is dead, but the truth is that his and his wife’s graves are empty and he had lived on. In this day and age, twins Josh and Sophie Newman get pulled into his world as the book that Flamel has been guarding all these years is stolen by the Dr. John Dee who serves the Dark Elders that would take back the world for themselves.

So the nutshell synopsis is pretty simple, but of course the actual plot is complicated enough. It is full of mythology from many different myths. In this way it reminds me of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, though perhaps a little bit more serious sounding (YA fiction versus Middle or High School Fiction). It tends toward a darker tone more quickly and it has a slightly greater focus on character. Overall it’s a wonderful story to learn about and it teaches you some interesting facts about myths and older characters (such as Nicholas Flamel and Dr. John Dee). The author has taken the time to do the research and get the facts straight and it shows. The ending is slightly abrupt for a book, but I can slightly forgive that due to the fact that it is the first of a longer series. Still; it does disappoint me how often books these days play the game of “I’m not actually going to finish a story now, this was just the first installment.” Older trilogies, and many today as well, at least have the wrapping up of some complete action that the whole book has been about. But I digress; the ending was fine enough.

This book suffers like the Percy Jackson series from an unclear system of magic possibilities. My mother pointed this out to me at some point in my reading life that because the powers are clearly defined, literally anything can happen and we have to accept it, a thing that makes the plot able to swerve from hither to thither. That being said, it appears to me that a system of magic etc. is within the books and there is some limit, we just don’t know what it is yet.

Overall, this book was wonderful to read through, especially because it does the characters well, sets up an engaging plot and character dynamic, and teaches truths about certain historical figures or myths. I’m persuaded to seek out the remaining 5 books and devour them. Plus, I love the idea of having Deckle-Edge Hardback books. They look pretty cool.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

This book is the second book in the trilogy starting with the book “Divergent”. It’s a future dystopian series about a girl named Tris. To not give spoiler away for those who haven’t read the first book, let’s just say that in the city there are 5 different factions that represent 5 different virtues (Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Candor), and in the last book Tris had to decide which faction she wanted to belong to and lots of crazy and exciting stuff happened that I can’t tell you about. There is practically no time skip between books; this one picks up right where the first book left off and this book is also packed with tension and action and excitement. In the first series, I had some troubles with the dystopian element of the book, but this book, especially near the end, answers some of those questions and validated this series as a well thought out dystopian in my mind. The plot was good with its own twists and turns.

There were a couple times where I got a little frustrated with a couple characters, but not often. And then there were other characters that gave me surprises that I really enjoyed. My only other minor complaint is that the book didn’t really emotionally move me at any time. Whenever I say “emotionally move” by the way, I mean it didn’t bring tears to my eyes or anything. Obviously there were plenty of good moments in the book or I wouldn’t have finished and I wouldn’t be praising it now as a good enjoyable book.