The Book Jacket Conspiracy

Though the first book in this series came out in 2007, as of last week I had never heard of Michael Scott or The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. My interest was piqued when I read on the dust jacket that Michael Scott is “a master of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and folklore, he has been hailed by the Irish Times as ‘the King of Fantasy in these isles.’” The King? What a powerful recommendation! I bought the first two books in the series and fully expected to be amazed.

Once again, The Great Book Jacket Conspiracy, fueled by crafty publishers, duped me. 

The one really positive thing I can say about this book is that Scott’s love of mythology and folklore is ever apparent. According to the author, every character, with the exception of the twins, is “based on real historical characters or mythological beings” (371). That’s something. 

The constant references to iPods, Hummers, computer games like Myst, etc. were beyond annoying. Am I really supposed to believe that the Morrigan (a warrior goddess from Irish mythology) is addicted to eBay and online strategy games? He might as well stick full-page color advertisements in between the chapters. Perhaps Scott is hoping that such blatant commercialism will lead to a movie contract. Whatever the reason, these product shout-outs made his magical world much less magical. 

The fact that the twins were constantly trying to be convinced that what they’re seeing is real also made the story less convincing. The blending of the magical world with the non-magical world just didn’t work. Why would someone be surprised that they can’t get a cell phone signal or find a power socket when they’re in a Yggdrasill (the “World Tree”)? That’s less believable than the tree itself. 

Finally, Scott’s narrative often digresses into long bouts of theorizing about the beginning of the earth. Not surprisingly, he is a proponent of evolution and the dull spiels about our ape descendants grated on my nerves. There was too much of an agenda for me. 

Despite all this (or maybe because I’ve already bought the second book), I’m actually hoping that these books will improve. Series can be unpredictable. Sometimes the first book hooks you and the rest let you down. Other times, the author is just getting warmed up and you have to wait for them to build their plot. The verdict is still out.