While armies of the Shadowrealms gather and Machiavelli goes to Alcatraz to kill Perenelle Flamel, fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman accompany the Alchemyst to England to seek Gilgamesh.

Reviews

Gr 6-10-The third book takes up immediately where The Magician (Delacorte, 2008) left off, and the events described occur over the course of a week. Having fled a destroyed Paris, Nicolas Flamel and the twins are now in England with their every move being tracked by John Dee, the Dark Elders, and their denizens, who are now convinced that Sophie and Josh are the twins of legend. In the meantime, Flamel's wife, Perenelle, the titular sorceress, is attempting to escape Alcatraz. Joined first by the knight Palamedes, and then by William Shakespeare, Flamel and the children try to stay ahead of their pursuers in an attempt to reach Stonehenge, where they hope to find a gate that will allow them to get to San Francisco. In the midst of evading pursuit, Josh finally gets the knowledge of an elemental power, Water Magic, from the insane Elder Gilgamesh, which, of course, conveniently becomes valuable. The chase and escape plots are rather thin and highlight the fact that this series feels bloated, and probably doesn't need the six long volumes the author is planning to tell the story. The inclusion of historical characters such as Shakespeare and Billy the Kid seems primarily a gimmick, and these two characters in particular feel oddly anachronistic. This book is a must-read for fans of the series, but even they will tire if the author doesn't get to the point with reasonable dispatch.-Tim Wadham, St. Louis County Library, MO Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2009: "Master yarnspinner that he is, Scott expertly cranks up the suspense while keeping his now-large cast in quick motion...this page-turner promises plenty of action to come."

School Library Journal, July 2009: "This book is a must-read for fans of the series"

Booklist.com, April 24, 2009: "Immersively imagined, this series remains a great choice to fill the post-Potter vacuum"

VOYA, October 2009: "Teens familiar with the previous two books or fans of adventure fantasies like Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson and the Olympians "series will eat this one up."


"From the Hardcover edition."