Series: Book 6 in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series
Rating: ****
Tags: Magic, Lang:en
Summary
The two that are one must become the one that is all. One
to save the world, one to destroy it.
But even with the help of two of the greatest warriors
from history and myth, will the Sorceress and the legendary
Alchemyst be able to defend the city? Or is it the beginning
of the end of the human race?
Scathach, Prometheus, Palamedes, Shakespeare,
Saint-Germain, and Joan of Arc are also on the island. And no
one is sure what—or who—the twins will be
fighting for.
At the heart of
The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is the
ancient book,
The Codex, the Book of Abraham. The story begins
with the theft of the pages from the book and, as the story
progresses, it becomes clear that not only have the Flamels
and Doctor John Dee fought over the book for centuries, but
that the entire adventure really began centuries ago, when
Nicholas bought the book from a mysterious one-handed
stranger. Fantasy fiction is filled with magical books and scrolls,
most famously,
The Necronomicon in the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The
extraordinary and shamefully neglected Clark Ashton Smith
created
The Book of Eibon, while Robert E. Howard, the
creator of
Conan, used the
Unaussprechlichen Kulten when he wrote about the
Cthulhu Mythos. These are all fictional books--but the
Book of Abraham is different. It really existed. Like everyone else in the series (with the exception of
the twins), Nicholas Flamel was a real man and we know quite
a bit about him. He was a poor bookseller and a scrivener. He
would have bought and sold manuscripts and also made a little
extra money writing letters for people who could neither read
nor write. In his own diaries, he tells how he bought a
21-page metal-bound book from a mysterious stranger. We even
know the price he paid for the book: two florens, and
Nicholas leave us a very clear description of it.
"It was not made of paper or parchment, as other books
are, but of admirable rinds (as it seemed to me) of young
trees."
Nicholas goes on to give a very detailed description of
each page. The book was written in a language he could not
understand, so he and Perenelle, his wife, set out on a
journey across Europe looking for someone who could help them
translate the mysterious text. According to Flamel's own
account, in the south of Spain he met a man called Master
Canches who helped him begin the process of translation.
Canches explained that this book contained the secret of
alchemy and that if Nicholas and Perenelle were prepared to
spend the rest of their lives studying it, then it would
reveal wonders to them. What is clear is that by the time the poor bookseller and
his wife returned to Paris, they had become phenomenally
wealthy. The Flamels put their money to good use and
established churches, hospitals and schools and were so well
known and beloved in Paris that there are streets named after
them both. The streets exist to this day. The original of the
Book of Abraham is now missing--Cardinal Richelieu
is supposed to have had a copy, and in the Flamel's will
there is a suggestion that it passed to a nephew, but
Nicholas made copies, and these still exist. Legend has it that
The Codex was a book of alchemical formulae--a sort
of chemistry text book. And of course it reputedly contained
the great secret of alchemy: how to create a
lapis philosophorum--a philosopher's stone (which
was more of a white or red powder or sometimes a purple
glass, rather than a stone). This powder could turn ordinary
metal into gold and help to prolong life, making the
alchemist virtually immortal. Did it make the Flamels immortal? Shortly after they died,
their graves were opened by grave robbers looking for jewels
and fine clothes. The graves were empty. And of course, there
are reports of the Flamels appearing all across Europe for
many years after their deaths. I spent many years working as a dealer in rare and antique
books--and I loved the idea of not only making a bookseller
the hero of a story, but making the story about an antique
book. And, before you ask: no, I do not have
The Codex. An authority on mythology and folklore, MICHAEL SCOTT is
one of Ireland's most successful authors. A master of
fantasy, science fiction, horror, and folklore, he has been
hailed by the Irish Times as "the King of Fantasy in these
isles." Visit him at DillonScott.com.
San Francisco:
Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel have one day left to
live, and one job left to do. They must defend San Francisco.
The monsters gathered on Alcatraz Island have been released
and are heading toward the city. If they are not stopped,
they will destroy everyone and everything in their path.
Danu Talis:
Sophie and Josh Newman traveled ten thousand years into
the past to Danu Talis when they followed Dr. John Dee and
Virginia Dare. And it’s on this legendary island that
the battle for the world begins and ends.
Today the battle for Danu Talis will be won or lost.
But will the twins of legend stand together?
Or will they stand apart—
one to save the world and one to destroy it?Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Michael Scott on Nicholas Flamel and
The Codex
About the Author