Review: The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

ISBN: 9780385736008
Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Release Date: May, 2007
Series: Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #1
Page Count: 375 pages

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:

The truth: Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. Nearly 700 years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.

The records show that he died in 1418.

But his tomb is empty.

The legend: Nicholas Flamel lives. But only because he has been making the elixir of life for centuries. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects—the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. That's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Sometimes legends are true.

And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time.

     REVIEW:

WHAT I LIKED:

• I love myths and legends, and this book is full of them!
• Though much of the book revolves around myth, all of the characters except the teenage MCs existed at some point.
• Very detailed. I never felt like I couldn't picture a scene or something that was happening.
• A few Greek mythology characters were mentioned in the books. Some of you may know - I am a sucker for Greek mythology.
• The POVs were not only from the teenage main characters. Scott switched from the twins to Flamel, to Perenelle, to Dr. John Dee (the bad guy) to Scathach. I liked having the protagonists' and antagonist's view.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:

•  The writing was a little awkward. The dialogue was unbelievable at times; however, the writing did begin to flow slightly better about a quarter of the way through the book.
• There was so much information. Lucky for me, I read a ton of mythology books, including educational ones, so I knew some of this information already. I think this is a con, though, because some... or most readers... wouldn't know a lot of that information and would have a hard time keeping track.
• Really slow until about half way through the book, and even after that point, it wasnt that exciting. I found my self struggling to stay interested.
• Most of the myths are sort of just thrown in together with the explanation that all the Gods were the same all over the world just by different names. Again, I love mythology, but this began to get confusing. 

     SUMMARY:

I did enjoy this read, however I didnt love it as much as I really, really hoped I would. I adored Percy Jackson, and I thought this would be slightly reminiscent of the same. I was a little disappointed. I love informational reads that make you think, but I also like to be kept interested with action or something happening. Things did happen, but it never felt exciting. I will eventually read the next installment because I am curious on how this continues, but I'm not exactly rushing out to get it.

     RATING: ★★★

I liked it, but I didnt love it. It was an interesting read but not exciting.

EDIT (9/10/13): After many months and many books in between, I decided not to go forward with this series. I have very little interest in it and decided to spend my time reading something I'll enjoy more.

Have any of you read this one? Do you agree or disagree with the points I've made? Love hearing from you guys!
A.