Of late, I have been reading many Fantasy novels, so while doing this review, I could not help but compare Magyk to other books I have read. I know it is unfair to compare novels written by different authors, but I could not review this book in isolation.
So, deep breath, and here it goes…
Magyk by Angie Sage is one of a series of Young Adult Fantasy novels.
The entire series consists of the following books:
- Magyk
- Flyte
- Physik
- Queste
- Syren (unreleased)
and there may be more to come, I guess.
The Plot
Septimus Heap (the series hero) is the seventh son of a seventh son, giving him extra-strong magical capabilities. On the day he is born, he is wrongly pronounced dead by the midwife and is sent to the evil Necromancer DomDaniel, who wants to keep him and train him in his path of black magic.
On the same day, his father walking back home, finds a small girl child abandoned in the forest; he brings her home and raises her as his own child as advised by the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Marcia.
Life goes on as usual for the next 10 years until the identity of the girl child is revealed, and the family is forced to run away from their home. The rest of the story deals with how they defeat the evil DomDaniel and reunite with Septimus.
My thoughts on Magyk
This is a very sweet and charming novel. It is a fantasy novel but varies quite a bit from the usual style that I have come to expect. The hero (Septimus Heap) is introduced into the story quite late. Also, he isn’t identified as Septimus Heap until the novel’s end (although it was easy to guess quite early on). This late introduction and final realization of his identity ensure that the novel’s focus is not always on him. Numerous secondary (very charmingly written) characters flesh out this book with all their quirks and magical knowledge.
The evil magician DomDaniel is killed in this book. Therefore, I expect the other books in the series to be dealing with different issues and different adventures (making this a change from stories such as Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings, where the bad guys are defeated after a series of books).
I liked the pace of this book. It was quite a slow and leisurely read. The events in the book unfold fairly slowly, and I found it very relaxing to read. The descriptions of the places, the people, magical characters and animals were also very nice. The manner of writing took me into their world and fired up my imagination (a very good thing in a Fantasy novel).
Last words
The style of this book is very similar to Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. I would say that this is a slightly better-written novel. Definitely a good read for people who don’t like too much violence in the story. If you liked Inkheart, you will definitely love Magyk.
The only thing I did not like about this novel is the very pretentious spelling of the word Magyk throughout the book and on the title. It almost stopped me from picking up this book at Eloor. The cover is rather beautiful, I thought.
