The Necromancer by Michael Scott
(Cover picture courtesy of Michael Scott’s website.)
San Fransisco:
Josh and Sophie Newman are finally home. And they’re both more confused than ever about their future. Neither of them has mastered the magics they’ll need to protect themselves, they’ve lost Scatty, and they’re still being pursued by Dr. John Dee. Most disturbing of all, however, is that now they must ask themselves, can they trust Nicholas Flamel? Can they trust anyone?
Alcatraz:
Dr. Dee underestimated Perenelle Flamel’s power. Alcatraz could not hold her, Nereus was no match for her, and she was able to align herself with the most unlikely of allies. But she wasn’t the only one being held on the island. Behind the prison’s bars and protective sigils were a menagerie of monsters, and now Machiavelli has come to Alcatraz to loose them on San Fransisco.
Perenelle might be powerful, but each day she weakens, and even with Nicholas back at her side, a battle this size would be too much for her. Nicholas and Perenelle must fight, to protect the city, but the effort would probably kill them both.
London:
Having been unable to regain the two final pages of the Codex, Dee has failed his Elder and is now an outlaw.
But the Magician has a plan. With the Codex and the creatures on Alcatraz, he can control the world. All he needs is the help of the Archons. But for his plan to work, he must raise the Mother of the Gods from the dead. For that, he’ll have to train a necromancer.
Despite what this gigantic blurb may make you think, The Necromancer is not an overly complicated book, I promise. The only thing you should take away from this blurb is that whoever wrote it desperately needs to learn the art of summarizing. Moving on…
As usual, Michael Scott’s writing is pared down and easy to read, which also makes for a nice, fast-paced plot. He knows just when to switch to another thread of the storyline to keep the plot moving along quickly. It is incredibly hard to put The Necromancer down and, as usual, it kept me reading until the very early hours of the morning.
Aside from the excellent pacing, the thing I love most about The Necromancer is the character development. Michael Scott allows his characters to develop at a natural pace, so they feel a lot more authentic than most characters in fast-paced novels. Alliances change and the line between good and evil blurs as Sophie and Josh Newman are put to the test again and again as Litha approaches. They are supposed to be the ones to save the world, but the ending of this book will leave you in severe doubt that there will be a happy ending to the series. Trust me, you won’t see what’s coming, but the cliffhanger at the end makes sense when you look at the series as a whole.
I give this book 5/5 stars.