I finally slogged through The Necromancer, the fourth book of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, which was a bigger deal than I thought it would be, considering I had read it halfway through before I realized there were three books before it. But on the bright side, there is so much that makes sense now!
There is sooooo much going on in this book that it’s hard to know where to begin. There are all sorts of different locales, there are just as many new characters, not to mention shadow realms that it is really hard to keep up. The story starts where it began, back in San Francisco, and it is where several story lines converge and then break off again, which adds to the intensity. What’s funny about this story is that it feels, and makes the other three books feel by comparison, as if it’s a set piece only there to set up bigger action.
But it’s still good and interestingly layered. Characters that were only hinted at finally reveal themselves, and yet they are still shrouded in mystery. There was a hooked man that was mentioned in a few of the earlier books and he finally gets introduced in this book. Some of the elders and dark elders that have only been hinted at have started revealing themselves and you start to realize the machinations at play.
The other interesting thing is that the twins aren’t even boring anymore. That’s mostly because they’ve both become ciphers for other people’s stories. The more that Sophie delves into The Witch of Endor’s memories, the more layered and interesting she is as a character. The more Josh is used as a pawn for Mars Ultor and Dee, the more interesting he becomes.
It’s still a good book with its own plot and its own action, but I still can’t shake the feeling that it feels less like its own fully formed story and more like a jumping platform for the rest of the action that is about to take place. B
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