Book Series I Gave Up On: The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel

Book Series: The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

I had read the first two books "The Alchemyst" and "The Magician" but I could not finish the third book "The Sorceress". I gave up on this six book series because it started to feel redundant with the same thing seeming to happen and nothing really changing. I have to admit, I thought the first book was quite good (I gave it 3 stars) and it made me interested in wanting to read the remainder of the series. The second book was good (I gave it 2 1/2 stars) but it started to drag on quit a lot. The third book I would say was the worst, it was extremely slow and boring. I just couldn't continue on with this series.

There was also nothing remotely likeable about a majority of the characters. The characters I did like were Perenelle Flamel, Scathach, Joan of Arc and Comte de Saint-Germain. The author kept having several characters state how untrustworthy Nicholas Flamel was as well as how powerful he was. However, there was never anything shown to prove untrustworthiness, all of his action within those few books showed other wise. But what the books did show was how practically useless Nicholas Flamel was. This was supposed to be a man who has been around for centuries and studied various things about science and magic yet he could hardly do anything. I found that hard to believe.

The twins Sophie and Josh who are supposed to be these powerful twins of myth, have absolutely no personality. There is nothing that makes you want to root for them as they go through all these trials and adventures. They had no character development and they were exactly the same from book one to book three. I found nothing intriguing or likeable about Sophie and Josh.

I would say this series suffered from: too much telling and not enough showing, having way too many characters (who were quite forgettable), poor execution of the plot, an overdose on details and a slow moving pace. The writing style also hindered these books as well. I really thought this series was going to be interesting because it blended history with magic and myth but it turned out to be just another boring tale.

Overall it just felt like a huge letdown.