The Alchemyst series by Michael Scott

Forgive the picture, it was the only one I could find that contained all 6, that's right, 6 books. You can understand why I didn't want to upload 6 individual photos, especially since the covers are all essentially the same. In fact, the similarity of the book covers could reflect the uniformity of the story as well, and not in a good way.

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, is about the legendary Nicholas Flamel who became immortal through is discovery of how to produce the elixir of life, found in a book called the Codex. Flamel has been the keeper of the Codex for centuries and protects it from many who desire it, especially a man named Dr. John Dee. Contained in the Codex, along with many powerful spells and enchantments, is a prophecy about powerful twins who will save and destroy the world. Flamel spent his life searching for these twins of legend and finally finds them: Josh and Sophie Newman, two ordinary teens living in San Francisco. Dee attacks Flamel in San Francisco and captures his wife Perenelle, while Flamel escapes with the twins and takes them around the world to be trained in the various magics. Josh and Sophie have to discover for themselves which is the twin that will save the world, and which is the twin who will destroy it.

My primary criticism with this series is that, while I enjoyed it, the whole story could have easily fit into 3-4 books, not 6. I found the premise of the story fascinating; it's filled with legends and magic and I love that stuff. But the story draaaagged and I found myself skimming chapters just so I could get to the good parts. Poor John Dee spends 5 (or was it all 6?? I can't remember...) books chasing Flamel and the twins and never really gets what he wants. Granted, his motives are all kinds of mixed up, but you can't help but feel bad for him. I think the series would have been a lot stronger if it were condensed, but they were probably trying to stretch it to make more money. I'm just glad I didn't spend a penny reading these, otherwise I'd be thoroughly annoyed. What I would do without a public library I can't even guess.

I would recommend these on the condition that the reader understands that they will be reading a lot of unnecessary information that sort of makes you feel like your life is draining away... Overall, mostly entertaining, interesting storyline, just TOO LONG.

The first and last book get 4 out of 5 stars -- the last book is especially good, full of action and the reader is rewarded for putting in the hours reading the previous 5 books.

The middle four get 3 out of 5 stars

Though I think one of those middle ones deserves a 2, but I can't seem to remember which one; they all start to blur together... Odd.