Magyk (Septimus Heap, #1)

by Angie Sage

A baby girl is rescued from a snowy path in the woods. A baby boy is stillborn. A young Queen is taken ill. An ExtraOrdinary Wizard mysteriously resigns from his post. And all on the same night. A string of events, seemingly unconnected, begins to converge ten years later, when the Heap family receive a knock at the door. The evil Necromancer DomDaniel is plotting his comeback and a Major Obstacle resides in the Heap family. Life as they know is about to change, and the most fantastically fast-paced adventure of confused identities, magyk and mayhem, begin.

• ISBN10: 0747575878
• ISBN13: 9780747575870
• Publish Date: 4 April 2005 (first published 2 March 2005)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 20 May 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 576
• Language: English
• URL: http://bloomsbury.com/Trade/

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

This was a terrifically fun little story, especially in its audiobook format where I didn't need to worry about the creative spelling of words like "magyk".

Is it overly original? Heavens, no. It's a medieval style MG fantasy with a general good vs. evil plot. There's wizards and princesses and a necromancer who - as far as I can tell - never raises the dead. But it is a lot of fun, and I'm going to use that word a lot in this review because it's a fantastic descriptor of the journey through Magyk.

We have a lot of characters in this story, each one with their own role to play, even the smaller characters who always seem to end back up in the story. On the surface, this is a tale of an evil empire and a young princess in hiding... but at its heart it asks the question: what happened to Septimus Heap? We hear the story of how the infant died, the all powerful seventh son of a seventh son, but it all seems rather suspicious.

This book is a bit predictable, but in a good way, and I couldn't help but cheer when things went the way I wanted them to. I liked it. I had fun listening to it and would continue on in the series, no doubts.

[inlibrisveritas]

I suppose if I were younger I would have enjoyed this more. It's fairly good for fantasy targeted at younger readers. I don't think I'll be buying the others but if I can get them free or borrow them I may continue the series.