Fanstasy Fiction: The Alchemyst

We discussed The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel at our book club meeting yesterday.   This is of the fantasy fiction genre so not everyone loved it. This is the first of 6 books in a series, published in 2007, by Irish writer Michael Scott.

The setting is San Francisco. All of the main characters are based on history or mythology. Dr. Dee walked into a bookshop with his goons and foul odor, attacked the owner Nicholas Flamel, and kidnapped his wife Perenelle. Nicholas and Perenelle are the guardians of The Book of Abraham and Dr. Dee was in the bookshop to steal it. Teenagers Sophie and Josh Newman try to help Nicholas and Perry fight off the bad guys and suddenly they find themselves caught up in a world of magic and myths and legends.  They meet humans who have lived for centuries without aging and a non-blood sucking vampire. They have had to flee with Nicholas and they have been followed by rats and later attacked by birds and cats.  They hid in a tree house in the shadow realm of an Elder.  They get help from a Witch with no eyes who can see the future.

I think I  can see the future too. I see a movie with an abundance of special effects coming out of this series.  It is fascinating to me that there really was a Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel in France, that they really did do charitable works and founded hospitals and schools, and that their tombs are both empty.

Our book for discussion next month is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  The play will be performed in Jacksonville May 1-6.  Atlantic Coast Bank is organizing a trip to St. Augustine then an evening of Les Miserables on May 3rd.