This is not a paid review.
I recently read three of Angie Sage’s Septimus Heap books, Magyk, Flyte and Physik, and thoroughly enjoyed it so I thought I might as well do a review starting with the first book, Magyk.
The book starts with Silas Heap finding a newborn baby girl in the snow and took her home despite being quite poor and having six other sons. On the same night, his wife Sarah delivered their seventh son, Septimus, but the midwife pronounced the baby as stillborn and hurriedly whisked him away.
So, they named the baby girl Jenna and brought her up as their own.
Fast forward ten years and the Extraordinary Wizard, Marcia, told them that Jenna is actually the surviving princess of their queen who was assassinated. Marcia came and took Jenna to protect her from possible assassins. Marcia also happen to save a young army boy from freezing to death, called Boy 412.
And so the adventure begins of how Marcia , Jenna and the Heaps, along with the reluctant nervous Boy 412, escaped to the marsh with the enemy in hot pursuit. The enemy is DomDaniel, the necromancer and former extraordinary wizard who is out to reclaim his title.
I do not want to spoil it for you so I will just say that what follows is a battle between good and bad, which is normal in any fantasy book. A dragon boat was found, a dragon ring was found, the seventh son of the seventh son was found and the book ended with a cliffhanger as to how Marcia’s new apprentice fared and what’s next.
This book is charming in the sense that it is full of magyk about magykal families in a fantasy world set in a timeless period where castles and wizardry and magic is the norm of the day. Although it may sound Harry Potter-ish, it isn’t all that similar except for the wizard and magic part. But I would say it is a definite spin-off from the famous Harry Potter series.
What is amazing about it is that this place merely called The Castle which consists of the palace and the wizard tower and that it is ruled by Queens and not kings. Sure the queens have husbands but often, the husbands were not mentioned. So, the throne is often ascended by the princesses and if the Queen do not have any daughters, it will go to the next female relative in line.
The tone of the writer is also quite light and often humorous which will have you grinning at certain chapters. However there are sad poignant moments too and as is needed in any good fantasy book, the page-turning thrill is also there. It is slow in the beginning but the pace picks up real fast and nearing the end, you will find that you could hardly put it down!
The only thing I find a little off-putting about the book is the bold words for spells and magical things such as Magyk or Caused.
In conclusion, if you are into some light fun reading of the fantasy genre, it is worth picking up this book.
Rating: 7/10
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