Angie Sage

Septimus Heap — (2005-2009) Ages 9-12. Publisher: The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby's father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this myster ious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus? The first book in this enthralling new series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. magyk is an original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.

Available for download at Audible.com

Related Collection:
The Magykal Papers — (2009) Publisher: Enter the world of Septimus Heap with this collection of previously unpublished papers. This rich compendium includes:

• The private journals of Septimus, Jenna, and Marcia Overstrand.
• The best — and worst — places to eat as described in The Egg-on-Toast Restaurant Guide.
• Sirius Weazal's Speedy Guides to the Palace, the Wizard Tower, and Wizard Way.
• Excerpts from the Pigeon Post Biography series and the Heaps of History series.
• Alther Mella's Guide to Being Dead: Ten Handy Rules for New Ghosts.
• Beautiful maps, quirky flyers, funny letters, and much more!
  

Magyk: "A Seventh Son of the Seventh Son. Magykal Indeed..."

Let's not beat around the bush. Angie Sage has clearly been inspired by the world of Harry Potter, which makes it somehow impossible to review her work without comparing it to J.K. Rowling. Since Rowling's phenomenal series exploded across the world of publishing, there has been an onslaught of pre-adolescent youngsters with magical powers and unusual names popping up in the children's sections of bookstores and libraries everywhere. Charlie Bone. Percy Jackson. Artemis Fowl. And now, Septimus Heap. Considering the amount of lame Tolkien knock-offs that clutter up the fantasy genre, it's a little depressing to see so many authors race to leap on the "boy-wizard" bandwagon. Although Magyk is a harmless enough read, it cannot help but pale in comparison to Rowling.

Silas Heap is returning home to his family when he comes across an infant girl alone in the woods. Returning her home, he arrives to find that in his absence his infant son has died. Ten years later, their adopted daughter is revealed to be Princess Jenna, now hunted by the evil necromancer DomDaniel who is systematically taking over the Castle and the surrounding countryside. Warned by the Extra-Ordinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand, the family split up in order to escape capture, picking up a young recruit of the Young Army on the way: Boy 412, who is entirely overwhelmed by his new situation.

On the whole, Magyk is an entertaining little read, with a brisk pace, lively tone and a couple of intriguing twists which may catch younger readers off guard (although mature readers will see them coming a mile away — it's hard to believe a character is really dead when the book series is named after him). Despite the typical plot device of a lost princess and a 'switched at birth' scenario, there are a few original ideas that sparkle, particularly a Dragon Boat that is used to great effect at the climax. Mark Zug provides attractive penciled illustrations as headings for each chapter, and I liked the fact that the binding of this book actually matches a real book within the story.

Throughout the story there is not a clear main character, which means the plot is tugged around between several points-of-view which leads to poor character development for all save Boy 412. DomDaniel in particular makes for a rather dull villain. He rants, he raves, he throws temper tantrums, he sends incompetent minions out to do his dirty work, he falls asleep at inopportune moments... Voldemort would crush this idiot like a bug, but probably not before having the Death Eaters laugh at him for having such a silly name. Other characters are introduced only to serve no real purpose in the story itself (such as Jenna's brothers, Sally Mullin, Morwenna Mould and a variety of pets), as do several spells and magical artifacts. One of the best things about Rowling's series is that you knew that nearly every concept introduced into the plot would have major payoff later on in the story. That's not the case here, and as such, aspects such as Jenna's pet rock or Zelda's cat-turned-duck feel like extraneous padding to the plot, with none of the whimsy that Rowling's non-essential details held.

Speaking of which, there is so much here that seems based on Harry Potter, and not just in broad terms (evil wizard trying to take over wizarding community). The devil, as they say, is in the details. Jenna is the youngest of seven siblings, all boys (including twins). The name "Trelawney" is used as a surname. Animals are used to send messages (although here it's rats instead of owls). There is an appearance from a boggart (vastly different in shape and form from Rowling's boggarts, but couldn't she have at least chosen a different name?). There is even an emphasis placed on the importance of green eyes that has an uncomfortable echo of Potter.

And because nothing is really resolved here, Magyk ultimately comes across as an elaborate setup to the next book. Okay, am I being too harsh here? Probably — this is, after all, a children's book and most under-tens will heartily enjoy this fantasy series. But if J.K. Rowling has taught us any thing, it's that kids can handle complex plots and complicated motivations — and by doing so, adults can join in the fun too. All my complains aside, I give Magyk a healthy three stars, and already have Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book 2) on hand — I'm optimistic that the series will improve. This is, after all Angie Sage's first novel.

But then again, so was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. —Rebecca Fisher

Flyte: "The Art of Flyte is Not a Taxi Service..."

As the sequel to Angie Sage's first novel Magyk, a pre-teen wizarding fantasy heavily influenced by the Harry Potter series, Flyte picks up a year after the events of the first story, in which the magical Heap family discovered several amazing secrets about their past. Namely, that their adopted daughter Jenna was in fact a princess and that a young nameless boy they picked up in their adventures was their long-lost son Septimus, the highly gifted seventh son of a seventh son. Together, the two siblings found a beautiful Dragon Boat, defeated the evil wizard DomDaniel, and rescued the ExtraOrdinary Wizard — with Septimus becoming Marcia Overstrand's Apprentice in the process.

It seems everything was looking up for the Heap family, but one of their members is not quite as delighted with Septimus's appointment as the future ExtraOrdinary Wizard as everyone else. Simon Heap, the eldest son, had his own ambitions for the future, now destroyed by the unexpected heritage of his newfound brother and younger sister. Raising up the skeleton of DomDaniel, Simon makes a bargain with the dead necromancer — to restore him to life, if he's taken on as the next Apprentice to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard. And you thought Percy Weasley was bad!

Simon Heap returns to the castle and kidnaps Jenna from right under everyone's nose, leading a suspicious Septimus to enlist his brother Nicko's help in getting her back. With Marcia distracted by a Darke Shadow that's been haunting her and his parents convinced that Simon can mean his little sister no harm, Septimus and Nicko head off on their own to fetch her back, whilst Jenna calls upon her own resources to escape Simon's clutches. However, this plot-thread by no means takes up the length of the entire book — there are other adventures to be had, including some nice reappearances from the previous book (in particular the Heap's grandfather and the beautiful Dragon Boat).

No one can doubt that the book is fast-paced, filled with invention, humour and sparkling characterization (although the sheer amount of characters makes it difficult to keep track of everyone). However, the plot itself is rather haphazard, with characters wandering at length through the countryside without clear ideas on where they're going or why, and a climatic confrontation that's actually set about three-quarters of the way through the book, leading to a lengthy wrap-up of the story (there are *seven* chapters after DomDaniel's reappearance!) Likewise, there are some irritating plot holes in the story, the most glaring being Simon's motivation and intentions. As it turns out, he's been ordered by DomDaniel to kill Jenna — so then why does he go to the great length of kidnapping her, carrying her miles to his home in the Badlands, locking her in a cell... and then conveniently falling asleep so that she can make her escape? He's fallen into the typical bad-guy mistake of *not* killing his enemies straight-away. Just as odd was the Heap parents' complete lack of action when it became apparent that their daughter had been kidnapped.

Sage has an interesting grasp of the rules and regulations of magic-making in her invented world (though it was a bad idea to print every single magical ingredient, artifact and incantation in bold-type — it felt like the book was yelling at me) and some cute plot twists along the way. Septimus and Jenna are bright, good-natured and compassionate protagonists, backed up by an interesting (though vast) cast of supporting characters. Another interesting feature is the final chapter of the book, titled "What Happened Before..." which gives brief summaries of many of the periphery characters' back-stories. The previous installment, Magyk, was concerned with what happened to certain characters after the conclusion of the book (something I wish J.K. Rowling had used at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and it's a fun way to end the story.

Despite some weaknesses, it's still a nice little read. —Rebecca Fisher

Physik: "Different Enough to have Written Me a Note from Five Hundred Years Ago..."

I gave this book's predecessors rather lukewarm reviews, finding them a little too simplistic and reliant on the success of Harry Potter, with rather weak villains and too many periphery characters to keep track of. However, all that changes with the third installment in the series, which has a sophisticated plot with an intriguing resolution, a truly unnerving villain and a very real sense of danger and suspense. The protagonists of the series are Septimus and Jenna Heap, the former the Apprentice to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard and youngest son of the Heap family, the latter a long-lost princess raised by the Heaps who has recently found her heritage as future-ruler of the land. Together, they make a good team and are friendly, likeable and intelligent characters in their own right.

An ongoing joke of the series is the trouble that Heap family cause, and so it's only natural that their patriarch — Silas Heap — is the source of the problems that arise in this book, after inadvertently freeing the ghost of a five hundred year old Queen. Queen Etheldredda is as terrible as she ever was, and has a plan to reclaim her throne — one which involves the removal of Septimus, the death of Jenna and the talents of her mysterious son Marcellus Pye, a famous physician who holds the key to her hopes of immortality. As strict and severe as the worst storybook governess and ultimately quite as evil as any fairytale stepmother, Queen Etheldredda tricks Jenna and Septimus into looking into a strange dark looking-glass, one that hurtles Septimus back to the time of her living reign.

Also thrown into the mix is a Northern Trader named Snorri Snorrelson, a young woman with an ordinary-looking orange cat that does something rather extraordinary every night, and Marcellus Pye himself, a fascinating character who is not quite a good guy, and yet not quite a bad guy either. Other familiar characters such as the rest of the Heap family, Aunt Zelda, Marcia Overstrand, Alther Mella and the dragon Spit Fyre turn up as well, all of whom play reasonably important parts in the story. Furthermore, for the first time her invented fantasy world feels like a real place, historically, geographically and socially, what with the introduction of other cultures, other times and new locations.

Any book that deals with time-traveling usually gets confusing, but Sage handles the situation well, and in several interesting ways. Septimus, for example, is stuck in the past for quite a while, and as such goes through several drastic changes in his persona and appearance. It's nice when characters in a series change and grow over time. Likewise, there are several funny quirks throughout the story — such as letters written in the past that turn up in the present, diary entries that shed light on the location of certain people, and the origins of a few urban legends that the protagonists themselves create. It's all as mind-bending as any time-traveling story is, but handled with consistency by Sage. And even when the characters (well, *some* of them anyway) make it back to the present, there are a few surprises left...

At times, the story does tend to go off-track, such as the needless presence of a crazed mob of Rat-Stranglers and several characters serving little purpose in the flow of the story (such as Lucy Gringe and Wolf-Boy, who seem to be present simply so Sage can set up their roles for the fourth book). Silas and Sarah Heap still show a surprising lack of concern for the welfare of their children (perhaps Sarah can be excused as she is elsewhere at the time of their disappearance, but when Silas sits down to play a board game with his friend whilst his youngest children are potentially in mortal danger... well, you have to wonder if maybe there's something wrong with him). Even odder is the complete lack of Jenna's biological father, introduced in the second book, but only mentioned briefly here. You'd think their long separation and new reunion would have been a matter of more importance to the both of them.

However, perhaps these are issues that will be dealt with in the next book, as there are plenty of loose plot threads to sustain another book, particularly when reading Sage's trademark ending, in which she divulges background information on some of her characters in a chapter called "Things You Might Like to Know About." —Rebecca Fisher