The Enchantress (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel #6) by Michael Scott

Another series I have been enjoying for some time is The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott.  And like Sisters Grimm, the series has come to and end with The Enchantress.  And like that series, the final book left me with mixed feelings.

Here is the Kirkus summary:

Scott tops off his deservedly popular series with a heaping shovelful of monster attacks, heroic last stands, earthquakes and other geological events, magic-working, millennia-long schemes coming to fruition, hearts laid bare, family revelations, transformations, redemptions and happy endings (for those deserving them). Multiple plotlines–some of which, thanks to time travel, feature the same characters and even figures killed off in previous episodes–come to simultaneous heads in a whirl of short chapters. Flamel and allies (including Prometheus and Billy the Kid) defend modern San Francisco from a motley host of mythological baddies. Meanwhile, in ancient Danu Talis (aka Atlantis), Josh and Sophie are being swept into a play to bring certain Elders to power as the city’s downtrodden “humani” population rises up behind Virginia Dare, the repentant John Dee and other Immortals and Elders.

This big sprawling end to a big sprawling series is hard to sum up.  I enjoyed putting all the pieces together, and the ending was creative, but it felt like a bit of an entertaining meandering over-the-top mess.  But that said, a great series.  More below.

Kirkus again sums it up very well:

The cast never seems unwieldy despite its size, the pacing never lets up, and the individual set pieces are fine mixtures of sudden action, heroic badinage and cliffhanger cutoffs. As a whole, though, the tale collapses under its own weight as the San Francisco subplots turn out to be no more than an irrelevant sideshow, and climactic conflicts take place on an island that is somehow both a historical, physical place and a higher reality from which Earth and other “shadowrealms” are spun off. Much rousing sturm und drang, though what’s left after the dust settles is a heap of glittering but disparate good parts rather than a cohesive whole.

I think that really captures my frustration with the end to the series.  Lots of interesting vignettes and character development some action and drama.  But what takes good from great is when it all really comes together into what Kirkus calls a “cohesive whole.”  I was really looking for something that packed a punch; that left you thinking “wow” that was cool.  Enchantress never really hit me like that.  It was more like: “hmm, that was interesting” or “that was fun.” A sort of unwinding and revealing narrative but less powerful story.

Still, all in all, an entertaining and engaging series – one you can really throw yourself into and enjoy over the course of six books full of intrigue and action.

Kevin Holtsberry
I work in communications and public affairs. I try to squeeze in as much reading as I can while still spending time with my wife and two kids (and cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers and Michigan Wolverines during football season).

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