The Sorceress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #3) by Michael Scott

From Barnes & Noble

Paris is destroyed, but Nicholas Flamel faces a full brutal round of challenges in this installment of Michael Scott's popular fantasy series. Nicholas is growing weaker, and he knows that he must take Josh and Sophie Newman to London to gather what secrets they can from Gilgamesh the King. There are only two big problems: Gilgamesh is stark raving mad and their path is blocked by those dreaded flesh eaters, the Hooded Ones.

From the Publisher

Book Three in the New York Times bestselling series.

Nicholas Flamel's heart almost broke as he watched his beloved Paris crumble before him. The city was destroyed by Dee and Machiavelli, but Flamel played his own role in the destruction. Sophie and Josh Newman show every sign of being the twins of prophecy, and Flamel had to protect them and the pages from the Dark Elders.

But Nicholas grows weaker with each passing day. Perenelle is still trapped in Alcatraz, and now that Scatty has gone missing, the group is without protection. Except for Clarent—the twin sword to Excalibur. But Clarent’s power is unthinkable, its evil making it nearly impossible to use without its darkness seeping into the soul of whoever wields it.

If he hopes to defeat Dee, Nicholas must find an Elder who can teach Josh and Sophie the third elemental magic—Water Magic. The problem? The only one who can do that is Gilgamesh, and he is quite, quite insane.

From the Hardcover edition.

Children's Literature

In the third volume of "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel" we rejoin the twins, Sophie and Josh Newman, after the destruction of Paris. Dr. John Dee is still pursuing Nicholas Flamel and the twins in search of the last pages he needs for the "Final Summoning." Flamel's wife Perenelle is still trapped on Alcatrez, so she is of little help to Flamel and the twins. Sophie keeps finding more and more information and talent from the gifts given to her by the Witch of Endor, but it is not quite enough to allow them to defeat Dee. They finally track down Gilgamesh, one of few people who can teach the twins Water Magic, but will it be enough? The story alternates between the twins and Flamel, Perenelle, and the various villains such as Dee, Machiavelli, and Billy the Kid. People new to the series will have little trouble jumping into this magical revision of our world, and fans are sure to be thrilled with the latest adventures of their old friends as well as meeting some new enemies. Reviewer: Amie Rose Rotruck

VOYA

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel adventures continue in this latest series installment in which twins Josh and Sophie team up with the immortal magician Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle to battle against the Dark Elders. The Dark Elders and their human servants, Dr. John Dee and Niccolo Machiavelli, are still in pursuit of two pages of a magic book now in Josh and Sophie's possession. These pages contain information that the Elders need to cast a Summoning, a spell that would unloose chaos and destruction upon the human world. In a desperate effort to obtain the pages, Dee and Machiavelli unleash a host of terrifying mythological monsters against the twins and Flamel. They are also waging war on another front against Flamel's wife Perenelle, who is still trapped on the island of Alcatraz. But Josh and Sophie are learning to master their growing power and hold their own against the mighty forces arrayed against them. This third installment continues the successful formula of fast-paced action and nonstop battles. The introduction of new monsters and diabolical enemies on practically every page gets to be a bit exhausting, but the plot manages to hold up nevertheless. One wishes that Scott had spent a bit more time on characterization rather than monster development, but that caveat is minor. Teens familiar with the previous two books or fans of adventure fantasies like Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series will eat this one up. Reviewer: Jan Chapman

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10–The third book takes up immediately where The Magician (Delacorte, 2008) left off, and the events described occur over the course of a week. Having fled a destroyed Paris, Nicolas Flamel and the twins are now in England with their every move being tracked by John Dee, the Dark Elders, and their denizens, who are now convinced that Sophie and Josh are the twins of legend. In the meantime, Flamel’s wife, Perenelle, the titular sorceress, is attempting to escape Alcatraz. Joined first by the knight Palamedes, and then by William Shakespeare, Flamel and the children try to stay ahead of their pursuers in an attempt to reach Stonehenge, where they hope to find a gate that will allow them to get to San Francisco. In the midst of evading pursuit, Josh finally gets the knowledge of an elemental power, Water Magic, from the insane Elder Gilgamesh, which, of course, conveniently becomes valuable. The chase and escape plots are rather thin and highlight the fact that this series feels bloated, and probably doesn’t need the six long volumes the author is planning to tell the story. The inclusion of historical characters such as Shakespeare and Billy the Kid seems primarily a gimmick, and these two characters in particular feel oddly anachronistic. This book is a must-read for fans of the series, but even they will tire if the author doesn’t get to the point with reasonable dispatch.–Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO

Kirkus Reviews

Weaving yet more figures from history and myth into the third of his six-volume fantasy, Scott whisks teenage twins Sophie and Josh to London, the stronghold of archnemesis John Dee, for an encounter with Gilgamesh-a half-senile street bum in this era but a master of Water Magic and the oldest human immortal of them all. The twins feel their ways into new powers in the course of a running battle toward (where else?) Stonehenge with the Horned God, the Wild Hunt and other foes. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, their guardian Flamel's gifted wife Pernelle survives clouds of poisonous insects and attacks from the octopus-legged Old Man of the Sea to escape from Alcatraz Island. Master yarnspinner that he is, Scott expertly cranks up the suspense while keeping his now-large cast in quick motion. He also continues to blur the line between the two sides, injecting notes of ambiguity that will leave readers wondering. Ending in a welter of revelations, reunions and unresolved plotlines, this page-turner promises plenty of action to come. (Fantasy. 11-13)

Product Details

• Read an Excerpt

Read an Excerpt