It's been a while since Sophie and Josh have seen their California home. Well, not really. Six days can go by pretty quickly when you've been semi-kidnapped by a half-millennium year-old couple and dragged around the world a couple times over while being told that you hold the fate of the world in your hands. With the magician Dee's revenge fueled by failure and defeat coming their way, Josh and Sophie are enlisting the mentoring of Prometheus, one of the first masters of Fire. The couple in question, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel, are certain of the impact this could have on the twins' chance of survival. But not everyone's as optimistic. When Dee turns Josh to his side once more, Sophie, the Flamels, and even their new (and undoubtedly hesitant) allies quickly learn that upsetting a master plan is much easier than it seems.
With a shiny, busy cover, it's kind of hard not to really want to read this book. You're pulled right into the action on the very first page and a constantly shifting cast of characters ensures that you never put it down. But even though there was too much adventure swirling around to stop reading, parts of the intricate plot became tangled up and were tedious to peruse. Maybe the author meant for it to be like so, but you also just couldn't figure out which side many of the main characters were really on. As soon as you felt as though you'd skip chapters to get to the point of view of your favored side, there would be a new chapter and your little mind would think in a whole new direction. At least I had a small sense of success when there was a mythological character I was familiar with...
