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Review - The Alchemyst
Mar. 14th, 2010 12:12 amThe Alchemyst (Michael Scott)
I remember rereading some of Michael Scott's earlier novels last summer and feeling disappointed. They just didn't hold the magic I'd seen in them when I was younger. I don't know if these books would or not, if I was younger, but my first comment on The Alchemyst was "I'm so far unimpressed", and I could close the book with the same feeling, too. I don't really care enough to hunt down the next book, not while I have so much else to read.
It could be interesting. I quite like mash-ups of tonnes of different mythology. This just left me cold, though. The Morrigan likes ebay and is addicted to online strategy games. Hecate lives in a copy of Yggdrasil. Scathach is a vampire (of sorts) and prefers to be called Scatty. Etc. I don't mind mythology meeting modern technology, either, but this... Every couple of paragraphs it had to mention laptops or email or ipods.
You could sort of call this book "fast-paced", if by that you mean "one never-ending fight scene, with lots of special effects".
It completely lacks subtlety. Exposition is ladled on thickly, and not a chapter can go by without a reference to how much the twins love each other. The kids aren't just the son and daughter of an archaeologist, no, they know loads of stuff about mythology and the names of craters of the moon (and yet still don't know what Yggdrasil or Hecate or anything is). They're not just special, they're super special, with solid gold and silver auras. Etc.
Not for me, I think.
I remember rereading some of Michael Scott's earlier novels last summer and feeling disappointed. They just didn't hold the magic I'd seen in them when I was younger. I don't know if these books would or not, if I was younger, but my first comment on The Alchemyst was "I'm so far unimpressed", and I could close the book with the same feeling, too. I don't really care enough to hunt down the next book, not while I have so much else to read.
It could be interesting. I quite like mash-ups of tonnes of different mythology. This just left me cold, though. The Morrigan likes ebay and is addicted to online strategy games. Hecate lives in a copy of Yggdrasil. Scathach is a vampire (of sorts) and prefers to be called Scatty. Etc. I don't mind mythology meeting modern technology, either, but this... Every couple of paragraphs it had to mention laptops or email or ipods.
You could sort of call this book "fast-paced", if by that you mean "one never-ending fight scene, with lots of special effects".
It completely lacks subtlety. Exposition is ladled on thickly, and not a chapter can go by without a reference to how much the twins love each other. The kids aren't just the son and daughter of an archaeologist, no, they know loads of stuff about mythology and the names of craters of the moon (and yet still don't know what Yggdrasil or Hecate or anything is). They're not just special, they're super special, with solid gold and silver auras. Etc.
Not for me, I think.
