Here are some more issues I have with the first story in the book series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott.
So this is something that I'll talk about later when I discuss what makes a good story (as opposed to a bad one like I am here). For a story to be engaging, it must have character development. Each character must have a flaw or issue that must be worked through. Take my word for it for now, but I'll give examples in a future blog.
This story has no character development.
Alright, I suppose this could be argued. But seriously. Sophie and Josh have no flaws. They're just confused, and they have every right to be. If I wasn't a critical thinker, I would be confused too.
As it is, the story is also very very very predictable. By the time the heroes are comfortable in the Shadow Realm, I guessed how the battle would end. I was correct.
When they arrived at the Witch's place in Ojai, I assumed that Dee would talk to Josh and then attack. When Dee goes all necromancer and resurrects the graveyard, I guessed that Josh would save the day.
I was correct.
In my opinion, a good story leaves me scratching my head. I shouldn't be able to make a guess even if I wanted to because it's all so confusing and interesting. In this story, I am disappointed because not only can I make a guess, I'm also correct. It's not even that I assume one thing, and then the author cleverly turns a missed detail around to give me an, "Ahhhh!" moment. Nope. Just predicable BS.
But back to what I was saying earlier. No one has flaws.
Pernelle is perfect in her little deus ex machina world.
Flamel is perfect – he's the good guy getting questioned by Josh. He's always calm, always wise, always without mistakes. Seriously, the guy makes no mistakes other than letting Dee catch up to him. But that had to happen so that the story could, now didn't it?
Again, Josh and Sophie are also relatively perfect. They love each other. They deal with the stress normally. They ask good questions. They don't get mad. Not even one of them gets mad.
"But Josh questioning Flamel!" you say. "Surely that's some development." No, that's a natural reaction. And even if it was development, tell me what he learns from it. He spends a loooong time questioning Flamel after this, even Mars.
One thing that started to annoy me by the end of the first book (and continues to annoy me as I read into the third out of five) is something the author Scott is doing just to be cool.
Did/Do you realize how many times he uses some variation of the line, "'......,' he spoke in a language that had not been uttered in a millennia"??
It's as if all these bad guys and gods and legends decided that the, "don't use the ancient languages for as long as you can" contest was over and all of a sudden everyone's speaking ancient Greek dialects and Elder tongues and on and on. For the first time since the dawn of man, apparently.
Seriously, one use of this kind of thing is fine. Twice is tolerable. Three or more? Shame on you!
Lastly. Remember last time when I mentioned that I thought this book series so far was crap with just a sprinkling of bacon bits on top? What did I mean by that?
Well, bacon bits make anything taste better.
Similarly, there's just enough in this generally lacking series to keep me reading. If only to slam it harder, but I'm still reading. So it's a tasteless series, but not so much as to make me spit it out. Not yet.
However, I am not at all hesitant to yell at the chef a little, as you've seen here.
Book 2, coming soon (later)!
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