I have been trying to drag myself through this book for the past few days and, if nothing changes, plan to give up within the next 25 pages. Yes, this is a children’s book. No, I am not a child. However, I still believe that books can be timeless (ageless?). I read Roald Dahl again towards the end of last year and still found it hilarious. I’ve also read a few of Dean Lorey’s Nightmare Academy series and found them funny and well-written. While I wouldn’t jump to read every book in the series in its correct order, I’d definitely recommend them to parents or pick one up off the shelf for a short, sweet read. Though the writing is a little clichéd at times, and the plot is simple, I can chalk it up to being a kids’ book, enjoy it for what it is, and move on. Not so with this one. One thing that bugged me right off the bat was that this book was compared to Harry Potter. I hate that. I always have, and I always will. HP holds a very, very special place in my heart, but I always try to judge books on their own merit, rather than comparing them to others (unless the similarities are really blinding). Comparing this series to HP does it no favors whatsoever. I realize this is the publishing company’s fault and nothing to do with the book or the author herself. I’m just sayin’. Stop it. Next on the docket: the ‘Magyeicale’ words being bolded. At first I thought this was because I had an online version from the library, so I was willing to let it go, but no more. I’m fairly sure kids would recognize that the spell/act/concept is magical without the misspelling and formatting; they are children, not mentally deficient lemmings. These irritations, however, pale in comparison to Sage’s writing itself, which really does seem to be aimed at a target audience of mentally deficient lemmings.What. The. Fudge. Example:Roughly a page in, we are told how Silas Heap finds a baby in the snow, smuggles her in through the city gates, and is accosted by the new Grand High Poobah, who warns him to raise the child as his own. He does so. Roughly 20 pages later, GHP sweeps back into Silas’ life to take the baby back. Silas, apparently in the strong hope that GHP has magyeicalley forgotten that she gave him the baby, in essence says, “What the fudge, woman? This black-haired, violet-eyed child is the very fruit of my and my wife’s blond, green-eyed loins. She is the bosom sister of my six blond, green-eyed male children. You cannot tear them asunder!” To which GHP replies, “Remember that time when you found a baby in the snow, smuggled her in through the city gates, and saw me, and I warned you to raise her as your own?””Oh yeah! Was really hoping you wouldn’t remember, tbh.”By this point, even the lemmings might scoff.I? I will read 25 more pages because I love books and want to grant each one of them equal opportunity to win my heart. (Even the insufferably stupid ones.)
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.comIf you've been looking for a series that combines the magic of Harry Potter with the imaginative characters of Artemis Fowl, then Septimus Heap and his first book, MAGYK, is definitely the story for you. A quick, delightful read that can stand on its own, MAGYK is, without a doubt, an intriguing page-turner. Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son, died shortly after birth. Born to a family of Wizards, there's no telling what he might have become, as his lineage as a seventh son would have made him unbelievably magical. But on that winter night when Septimus died, his father, Silas, found another newborn child in the forest. They named her Jenna, and she grew up thinking that she was the daughter of Silas and Sarah Heap, and the sister of six older brothers--Simon, Sam, Edd, Erik, Nicko, and Jo-Jo. Early on, though, Sarah had her own ideas of who Jenna really was, especially when she heard the news that the Queen had been murdered. Jenna Heap was, undoubtedly, the Princess. Over the next ten years, darkness came to the Castle and the Ramblings, where the Heaps lived. With no Queen, evil came in the form of the Supreme Custodian, who along with his cohorts banned magic and ended the happiness the Queen's people had once known. As the Heap family attempt to ride out this time of darkness, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Marcia Overstrand, learns of the plot to kill the Princess, which will allow evil to truly take over the Palace. It seems that the only thing keeping DomDaniel, the Dark Wizard, from returning to the Castle is the presence of the Princess, and he plans to remedy that. What follows is the flight of Jenna, Nicko, the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, and a Young Army recruit known only as Boy 412 to the Marram Marshes, where Aunt Zelda Heap, a White Witch, will be able to keep them from harm. As events unfold and DomDaniel does everything within his power to track down the girl standing between him and a ruling darkness, the Heap family will have to do everything within their means to stop him--and at the same time stay alive. MAGYK is a delightful, entertaining story filled with action-adventure and fantasy. With a very large cast of characters who are as diverse as they come, this is one story not to be missed. If you like Harry Potter, you will definitely enjoy Septimus Heap. Filled with twists and turns, this is a story you'll stay up reading long into the night. And although at times predictable, you'll quickly be drawn into the life and times of the Heap family and their magical world.
What do You think about Magyk (2005)?
classic example of choosing a book based on its prominent display location. I saw it was a series, sounded interesting, so I got it. While only begun, it is a fun read so far.and now, the verdict is, in the words of Simpson's everywhere: Meh.mildly entertaining, annoying bold, italic, misspelled wordes . The story is ok, but nothing gripping. I actually left it for weeks with only a few pages at the end.While it wasn't a "bad" book, per se, it isn't one I can recommend at all.
—Ben
Poor Angie Sage. How annoying, to write a book about a young wizard right in the midst of Harry Potter mania! Comparisons are unavoidable, and reading this story in the shadow of Rowling's legacy makes it difficult to properly evaluate the characters and plot without drawing mental links between Boggart and Hagrid, DomDaniel and Voldemort, that leave an adult reader feeling dissatisfied with the world of Magyk. It is, however, important to keep in mind that this IS a different book, with different strengths and weaknesses. It is written for a younger audience than HP: many scary parts are played down or narrated from the perspective of an historic event. There's less suspense and many breaks for play and mundane activities that slow the forward momentum enough to let small children relax after a scary chase or a bad turn of events. There are many nods to classic children's fiction, including things that made me groan in pain, such as the Heaps' address at "There and Back Again Row" (Grrraauugggghhh! Tolkien is rolling in his grave). If you like Edith Nesbit or Enid Blyton you'll see a lot of their influence. The first 150 pages were not to my taste. I struggled through them, but found the last half of the book picked up and caught my interest. Sage's strength lies in her love of boating and wet places. Once the focus of the story moves away from the castle and into the marshes, the author relaxes into her own world of old British coastal ways that don't feature strongly in Rowling's franchise - the salty ways of sailors and bogs, mists and mud, bad cooking and swamp creatures. Several technical aspects of the book annoyed me no end. I found the use of a special, bolded font for all Magykal words to be deeply irritating. I did not enjoy the mish-mash of different verb tenses, narrative voices and points of view, particularly the heavy use of flashbacks.I must also complain about the many, many convenient interventions by previously unknown devices that saved the day for our young adventurers. Deus ex Machina is everywhere. Being attacked by a scary wizard in a deadly boat? Not to worry, here's a secret boat you never knew you had! Being hunted by a man who is going to set you on fire? Not to worry, just use the magic anti-death charm someone gave you last week! If Horace had been the editor on hand for the first read-through of this script, it would still be languishing on the bottom of the slush pile.To conclude, this book is a fun read... for little kids. It is NOT one of the hot new Young Adult crossovers that get printed with a second, Adult version of the cover. As a thirty-something, I can say that while I could enjoy reading this story aloud to an 8- to 10-year-old, it was too young for me to enjoy on my own.
—Moira Fogarty
I actually ended up enjoying this book quite a lot! It took me a few more chapters than I would have liked to "get into" the story and the characters, but after a while I found that I did feel invested. I liked the distinct personalities of the characters, and how consistent they seemed to be. It also took a while to understand the magical world. Two parts to this: one, being the good vs. evil statuses and people, how things came about, and what it all meant. I still feel there is more to it all though, and perhaps these areas will be explored in the later books. Enough came across, however, for the story to unfold as it should have. The second part is how magic works in Septimus Heap's world. I think I got a pretty good understanding by the middle of the book though, so again, it didn't bother me too much. (I still can't decide if the bolding of every magical word was cool or annoying). All in all I thought the book was written pretty well, and the plot flow was good. It's told from multiple perspectives, which makes for a bit jumpy read sometimes, but pretty much the transitions are smooth. The ending was satisfying, and good. Though a few things were left unresolved, I'm assuming it's for the following books. Hopefully.There were some things that very young children, or very sensitive children, might be upset about (mainly relating to cute woodland creatures who... we're not entirely sure what their fates end up being). But overall it's a very "G" read (or maybe PG). There is one part at the end that's pretty unsettling, but the fact it's rectified makes it less so.A few character traits were somewhat irksome, but again, I'm hoping that the author delves into these in the next books (this book did a good job, so I'm trusting that the author will continue in a similar fashion).Some things were predictable, but others surprising. And at the end of the book is an interesting collection of "whatever happened to" certain characters, "instructions" for various charms, etc.I'd recommend this book to fans of other "young adult" fantasy, and while I'm not as in love with the book as certain others in this genre, I did find it a very fun read!
—Ann
