The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi

I just finished this short little book and it was an interesting read. My friend recommended I read "The Alchemist" because it was "amazing." So I go to the library and look it up and find it on the shelf and am surprised by how small it is. I figure any great book has got to be longer than 95 pages, but I check it out anyway. Only now when I looked up an image for this blog do I realize that I'm pretty sure she was recommending I read "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho. How was I to know the difference? Shoot, they have the same title and are even both written by Paolo's. What are the odds?

Regardless, this was an interesting little story. Quite short, so difficult to get a whole lot of character or story development, but worthwhile. It's about a man, an alchemist (go figure), who is searching for a way to fight back a dangerous plant, bramble, that is taking over his city. Bramble grows in response to magic, so whenever anyone performs any small or large bit of magic, it grows and takes over crops and homes. Oh, and it's poisonous and can easily kill you if it touches skin. So he creates a machine that can fight the bramble and takes it to the mayor and head magic guy, hoping to get a nice payout for saving the city. Problem is, the mayor and magic guy are evil and use his invention to hunt down anyone who uses magic and kills them. They lock him up for 2 years and make him create more cool inventions for them under the threat of killing his daughter and lady-friend.

I think this could be a really excellent story if it were developed more. The magic world our hero lives in is intriguing; I wish it had more background. The characters were good but I feel like I hardly got to know them. Also the ending felt rushed, I wish there was more detail.

Overall, interesting book but probably not "The Alchemist" everyone is raving about.

2.5 out of 5 stars