The Alchemyst review- The Secrets of the Immortal Nicolas Flamel
Vložit
- čas přidán 4. 10. 2020
- I wonder how Nicolas Flamel would feel if he knew we think he was a wizard.
Patreon: / jamestullos
Twitter: / fortullos
goodreads: / james-tullos
Subreddit: / jamestullos
"Nicholas Flamel was born in Paris on 28 September 1330. Nearly seven hundred years later, he is acknowledged as the greatest Alchemyst of his day. It is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life. The records show that he died in 1418. But his tomb is empty and Nicholas Flamel lives. The secret of eternal life is hidden within the book he protects-the Book of Abraham the Mage. It's the most powerful book that has ever existed. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. And that's exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he steals it. Humankind won't know what's happening until it's too late. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh Newman are the only ones with the power to save the world as we know it. Sometimes legends are true. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time." - Zábava
this activated deep residual memories within me
Same
God same i remember loving this
I actually really like this book series. Though I could do without the author constantly repeating the vanilla and orange scent of the silver and gold auras.
Hahaha i just rolled my eyes everytime i read that words
@@charlottebagiou4274 Right? It reads like bad fanfiction whenever he repeats the scents of vanilla and orange scent. It's like buddy, I get it.
Or how the twins were always reminiscing their "normal life"
@@weeee455 Oh yeah you're right. I forgot about that part. Or where we're constantly reminded that if we don't get the codex page, then Nicholas and his wife will die and are aging faster almost every day.
But how else would we know that the silver and gold auras have vanilla and orange scents?
Magyc and Physik are part of the Septimus Heap books. Similar vein to The Alchemyst- all books I read back in the day- but not the same series
Yeah i thought that when he said they were titles.
I read those too in my childhood
As many other people have said, Magyk and Physik are part of the Septimus Heap series. It's another series that's written for the middle grade age group and follows some of those typical patterns of a kid having special powers that are better then the powers everyone else has. However, it also has a lot of unique world details and charm that I haven't seen a lot of other series contain. For this reason, even though I'm an adult now, I still love the series dearly. It's not perfect, but it's quirky and fun and endearing. If you ever get a chance I would love to see a review for it! (Though it's another one of those series where you have grown out of the target audience for sure.)
I remember reading the first few of these when I was younger, and loving them dearly.
I must have missed that episode of The Office
Nice I absolutely loved this series in middle school. I love how it fused all sorts of religions and myths, and that Marethyu reveal at the end was badass
That reveal was cool af, didnt expect it
Really? In retrospect, I feel like the reveal didn't pay off the loooooong setup it had, the going around grabbing the macguffins, and that the series ending was generally rushed.
Was it cool? Yeah, kinda. Did the series deserve a better ending? Definitely.
“Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds”
Spoiler dude
Man it made me wish to be Marethyu
Man I loved this series back in middle/early highschool. The later books get absolutely WILD though
Yeah the final twist is like woah. What?
How many books are there in total? I stop reading it after book 3 so i kind of lost track of it
@@charlottebagiou4274 I know it’s been like a year but there are 6. You got halfway and not even to the real wild stuff.
Oh snap I remember reading those in middle school and loving them haha I don’t remember much of it except that the brother later on was acting like an idiot lol
I loved these books so much. They get absolutely batshit insane with the introduction of people like Shakespeare or Billy the Kid. So much happens in them and the character writing gets a lot better as the books go along. Grey morality also? Definitely would recommend to read the rest as well!
Man this book brings back that nice Nostalgia feeling
I loved this series as a kid. Percy Jackson was probably my favorite childhood series, but I think Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is the series that really got me to fall in love with fantasy.
This book sounds like a mix of
Harry Potter and Fullmetalalchemist
Oddly enough it kinda is
1/3 of Percy Jackson 1/3 of Harry Potter and 1/3 of Fullmetal alchemist
1/3 dragonball
I read the whole series when I was in high school. I really love it during those times. One of the things I remembered from the book was that Albert Einstein turned down immortality.
I remember one thing that annoyed me about the author was that he kept naming specific technology- like mentioning characters that a blackberry phone or certain mac/pc laptops/setups. Even back then i was like “bro teens arent going to know what blackberries are in like 10 years”
If i am not mistaken, Dee actually takes the pages for the elexir of life, so flamel is actually slowly dying througout the series. The pages that get ripped out cobtain a ritual to bring back the elder race. I could be wrong, since i haven't read it for ages.
Also I really love the internal "mythology" of that series, which gets a bit more elaborate with every book. At first we were just introduces to the elder race and the next generarion. Then there are the great elders and the archons and later we learn that apperantly there have been two even more ancient races, the ancients and the earthlords. Sadly we never really get know anything about these races which i guess is part of the reason they fascinated me.
I remember these being basically video games in book form
I see the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel
I click
To me, this series was what Harry Potter was to other kids. I got into reading long series and fantasy because of this, it changed the way I myself think about fantasy worldbuilding (Especially Tsagaglal in 'The Warlock', "Are you sure it was earth magic that brought this flower to life? Why not air, water or fire? A flower needs carbon dioxide, water and warmth to grow aswell"), I even had a phase, in which i grouped people into aura colours (instead of hogwarts houses). The series nailed immortality, with all the different ways of making people immortal (Like the recipe in Abrahams Codex, Blood transfusions from Elders, Being used as a minion, other recipes) and it's effects (Just gonna put the name Gilgamesh here).
You should definitely read the other books, they're amazing. It's so much more than just following the Chosen One formula... Especially because of that final plottwist...
I love the series and it gets even better each book by the end it is really distinguished itself from Percy Jackson and Harry Potter but still keeps some familiar tropes of normal kids find magic and a magical world.
Bro I loooooved this series as a kid. Would love to see you review the rest of the series. The ending blows my mind to this day
When I saw *the alchemist*
I thought the alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Me too
Sí
Me too... The beauty of being latinx xD
This is the series that made want to write, it will always hold a very special place in my heart
okay, So I remember reading this and thinking that the Main character and his sister were awfully weirdly close to each other. I was pretty convinced it was gonna be some incest shit
heheheheheh........all part of the final book twist
Steven Pip what?!??!?!!?
@@stevenpip7339 i don't even remember what the ending was tho
@@stevenpip7339 WHAT? you can't just say that and disappear
@@katie750 na nothing happens, though there are some pretty big twists in the last book
Looks like I Alche-missed this one when I was younger
I remember I never finished it not because it wasn’t good but because I was too lazy to get the last book
My sister never finished the series because the copy of the last book that we had was printed in an uncomfortably large font lol
Bro the ending is legendary
I might just get it because I hate cliffhangers
I never finished it either! I bought it the same month it was released but was so scared of the ending that I never got around to reading it.....
Same here, I read all of them but the last one. It just wasn't out so I just never got arounf to read it
As someone who was very much in the target audience when I first read these books, and then tried re reading them when I was older, here is my (spoiler free) take on the series as a whole: the writing is not that great, but the premise, worldbuilding, and historical easter eggs are amazing. If you like history and ancient mythology, you will get many fun little references throughout the book to people and gods that not everybody has heard of. When I was younger, this was what I focused on and I had a blast. When I reread the books, however, the writing issues became a bit more noticeable. I had read some really great fantasy since then (I love Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse), and this series does not quite hold up to them in terms or writing quality, but the premise and worldbuilding does.
I can't stop imagining Nicholas Cage as Flamel when reading these books, and I kinda hate it 😂
One really good book series that does the “all mythologies coexisting” is the iron druid chronicles
I loved these books though and now I want to reread septimus heap for some reason
Oh shit, I remember this series! I read a bunch of them and was pretty into it, and then just suddenly stopped for some reason
same here wtf... it was a really intriguing series and I was into it, but then just stopped all of a sudden
i stopped when they met their aCtuAl PaRenTS i think
I did pretty much the exact same thing. Weird how similar people can be in their habits.
Me too! I think it was because they weren't all out, and in the time between releases I just kinda moved on
if you're up for it i'd definitely recommend finishing the series, i feel like the subsequent books really flesh out the world and characters and subvert the prophecies in a way that's refreshing
I remember I loved these books so much when I was younger. I don't really remember too much of it but Sophie becomes kind of the main character ad her brother becomes a villain I think?
Kinda, they all just kinda become kinda heroes towards the end. Like Dee stops believing his own bullshit and pushes Dare to be much better. Well the anti human elders are still evil though
I love this series.
Its kind of a comfort series for me that I read when I just want to relax and read something I enjoy.
I know you said this like 6 months ago but honestly I have to agree
I feel like I’m Am in the age group a lot of people started reading the series I’m only on the 3rd book the sorceress but I’m already hooked!
Ended up getting the whole series for myself lol
fun fact: Rick Riordan's books also canonically have multiple mythologies in the same universe. they just don't interact with one another because...plot.
YES! Man, I've been wanting you to start with this series forever!
Gosh this series was nuts.
So many historical and legendary and mythical characters, and worlds upon worlds upon worlds and the story's history is extremely ancient and there's just more and more that you learn and the ending was just crazy.
I don't think this has spoilers but if there are any, my apologies.
Btw, Magyk was a different series with a main protagonist who is believed to be special because he's the seventh son of a seventh son.
there are two pages at the beginning where sophie is chatting with her friend, and then the book store explodes and shit hits the fan real fast.
Honestly these books are my favorite series and I still love how the series evolves and gets darker and more complex with each book
Username checks out
The fact the prophecy is wrong was a good yet confusing twist
I really enjoyed it in middle school, I still have the books floating around somewhere. Except the first one, I think I might've gotten it from a library. Very solid series
Thank you for bringing this up on my radar I've been looking for this book for a long time and could never remember the name
Oof. No, Magyk and such books are a completely separate series. That’s the Septimus Heap series. Which personally, I HEAVILY preferred over the alchemyst.
magyk and physik are from septimus heap
If you like the idea of all the myths being real and interacting in one world, you really need to check out The Dresden Files if you haven't already. Jim Butcher did a masterful job at worldbuilding.
I remember it getting really good after a few books. In the interest of not spoiling anything, they do start to develop the main characters a bit more and a whole lot more with the setting and magic system. The author does somewhat subvert a few things about the prophecy, but also plays a few of those tropes straight. Id give it a solid 8.5/10, but that is somewhat based on nostalgia and me only mostly remembering it.
Maybe I will have to reread it at some point?
I read the entire book series, and they are all pretty good as I remember. The ending impressed me at the time cus it's not simple good triumph evil.
Man I was OBSESSED with this series as a kid, it's not perfect but it's a hugely influential part of my childhood
Does this book take place in Scranton, Pennsylvania?
You've got a typo in the title ;)
Flemel instead of Flamel.
Looking forward to watching the video this evening! I loved reading the series when I was... 10 I believe? Almost a decade ago. Brought me into fantasy right after Eragon and Harry Potter
I loved the series in middle school, nice to see James talking about it
I read the whole book series back in middle school and I loved it. That was like 7-8 years ago though, I don't remember much except all these cool legendary weapons of power and important historical figures taking place in the series. I get my memories of it all jambled with rick riordan's books though because I read of lot of those back then too, but I liked the Alchemyst series better. Maybe I should reread it just to see if it was as good as I remember...
Congratulations on your 950th milestone and Nicholas Flamel IS related to Zatanna Zatara Blessings and Hugs 💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕!
Omg i read this over ten years ago! thanks for bringing back some memories
Oh great. I've been interested in this series.
Now to see if it would be worth it.
I remember picking up the second book when I was pretty young and I had absolutely no idea what was going on
Thank you!
1. Your intro song ROCKS. 2. I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!
Hey, didn't know you did requests. I'd really like to see a review of any of the main books of the Riftwar Cycle from Raymond feist
John Dee (?). I want to say that's the name of one of the guys who helped create the Goetia ( i.e. The Greater and Lesser Key of Solomon. ) Basically demon / angel conjuring. :/
I love your shirt unironicaly
I read it my freshman year in high school it was one of my favs at the time.
I loved these books! The last few books were absolutely insane + the pacing is snappy as hell. Still really like it now
Oh and the coffee shop and bookstore are across the street from each other I believe
Hey James, are you by any chance planing to review 'to sleep in a sea of stars' by Christopher Paolini? I just started reading it and I'm curious what you think. Judging just by the first couple of pages, Christophers style definitely improved since inheritance.
HEY I LOVE THIS SERIES. I'm on my 2nd reading right now.
I remember reading this,
It was quite good in the beginning but the end .....
A serie that incorporated a mix of mythology including nordic, greek and Indian, is "I bring the fire" by C. Gokel Is really good
I just read this book a few days ago, I like it.
Hey, how do we ask him to review a particular book series?
Oh god I read this a while ago, AHHHH i kniw that this has to be simplified but the book store and coffe shop are seperate
I thought it was the OTHER The Alchemist.
the one by Paulo Coelho.
this one sounds more action packed, and less sheep herding.
if you like the all mythology is real deal I'd recommend the gate thief.
the later books absolutely slap imo
I remember doing a book report on this in 5th grade.
This series was my childhood. The end of the series was awesome. I think an adaption would be pretty cool.
Good review..
Can you recommend a book like this or Harry Potter but with a more mature tone?
Thanks
i used to love this series, but i haven't read it in ages
This book series is absolutely fantastic. I loved it as a kid and proudly own all but one of the books now. When I finished Harry Potter and refused to reread them, I was drawn to this series.
your intro song sounds like the Fireside Girl Song from Phineas and Ferb. look it up.
Later in the series, the prophecy is played with a bit
I liked it though I did have an issue at the beginning because it felt so rushed. I did want to get to know the twins and how they met Nicolás and his wife
There's a lot of character development that comes after the second book
Man, I remember reading this in middle school. I think changes some of the issues in the later books, like introducing some morally grey characters? I'm not sure tho, I was 10 years old when I read it, not really the age to be able to jugde something like that
I read this a couple years ago and it was pretty good
You need to read the rest, these were good when I read them a while ago.
Speaking as someone who did read these books when I was in the target demographic I did love them.
I read this series a lot going through high school. I’d say the story starts getting good around book 2. There’s a lot of shifting perspectives as it goes on and more of my favorites down the line isn’t even from the cast of book 1.
Oh boy, if the prophecy made you roll your eyes in the first book, just wait until the last book. This isn't a criticism, it subverts expectations hard, but on a reread, you can see all the clues that not everything is as it seemed.
I loved these books so much, and they just do not get the attention they deserve.
Honestly can’t praise this series enough. I see a lot of people saying they never finished it, but honestly the whole cast is love able and all the villains are intimidating. It’s been a good five years since then and I was much younger so maybe it’s nostalgia, but honestly these books blew me away and gave me a love for mythology outside of just Greek and I feel the ending was a bit of a ball drop but also the whole series did a great job avoiding falling into tropes or too shallow characters. It kinda sets up tropes to break them and made me respect Machiavelli who was a villain for most of the books. The only big problem I remember having was they switched POV constantly and time became very abstract because of it
What's that little noise at 6:35
omg this a series that I could never remember if it actually existed or if I had just made it up lol
if you like all myths are true stories, you might want to try out Dresden Files. It starts out somewhat small but because bigger and bigger with every book
wait! i read this saga! I actually really liked it (at the time, I don't know if I can actually enjoy them that much now lmao)
I read this series like eight years ago and barely remember anything about it
Favourite part is when dee destroys yggdrisal via excaliber
Did you read the whole series or just the first book?
You should review the bobiverse series
i havent read the series in so long dude, i dont think i finished it, the last thing i remember was Perenelle on Alcatraz
I think that's the third book?
I looooved this book
(SPOILER) the thing i like about the series is that the prophecy is subverted in an interesting way. the prophecy itself is real, but sophie and josh being the twins in the prophecy is fake. the elder race combed through time and space to find people with the auras they need. sophie and josh arent twins- theyre not even actually related. they were stolen from different times by the elders and then raised in the present day. so it kind of gets rid of the cliche that they just HAPPEN to be these normal twins who are coincidentally the most powerful magicians to ever exist
Hi! Could you review the book Shatter Me or the entire series? I really liked the series when I was younger but recently read it and... yeah ended up on my list of bad books. It’s kinda cliche, cheesy, kinda wattpady and written with the vocabulary of a 9th/10th grader so you could probably read it in 2-3 hours
I have that one on the list of shitty YA novels I want to get to eventually, but it's low on the list so I can't guarantee it'll ever happen. Jordan Harvey did a pretty good review of the first one if you're curious.