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Magyk by Angie Sage Review

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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 mysterious 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.”

There’s nothing wrong with reading a solid book from time to time. It may not do anything new, but it provides some entertainment. For better or for worse, Magyk by Angie Sage is exactly that. Solid, but unspectacular.

While I do feel there are some good characters, such as Boy 412 and Aunt Zelda, there are way too many characters. There are some characters, such as Stanley the messenger rat, who show up, get some time, then do not show up for the rest of the novel. It’s fine if there are characters that only show up for a purpose, but when you begin to give them time and then never show up again, it feels underdeveloped and unnecessary. Boy 412 was my favorite character and his character arc from a quiet soldier boy to a magyk user was fairly well done, yet familiar. Aunt Zelda was a cool character with some interesting history that I wanted to know more of and this applies to Marcia as well. The villain was your standard evil villain, fear me type. The other characters such as Jenna and Nicko were fine, but I did not really find them all that interesting.

The plot is pretty standard for a fantasy novel and this book does get comparisons to the Harry Potter series (which happens for every magic series, it seems) which is mostly right, as it does borrow some elements from it. There is a bit of a twist by the end with a red herring in the middle, but it becomes quite obvious once it is when a certain character is introduced. The actual magic parts of the book was cool and I thought it was a bit of a nice touch to highlight the magic words (I can’t think of a word to describe it) and were the most entertaining parts of the book.

Overall, Magyk is a solid, yet unspectacular book that provides some nice magic moments and a few solid characters.

Rating: Read if you like the genre

5 comments

  1. See, Magyk is one of my favorite series. Stanley the Message Rat not only is a crucial plot point later in the book, but Sage also sets him up for him to appear in subsequent books, where he does end up having bigger roles. It’s never a superior main role, but it’s great for a good side supporting role.

    You have to remember that this is the first book in a series. There’s a lot of setting up and preparing for other books. There’s some slow parts, yes, but you really get to see Jenna grow from the only girl in the Heap family to what she’s truly meant to be. The ghosts, the Magyk spells, the way Magyk works in this world…it’s all super interesting to me. I’ve read all of the books save the finale, and they get better as you go on, because you get to see the characters grow as it goes along.

    Everything involving magic and spells will always be compared to Harry Potter, but honestly, I found the writing (at least for this first book) to be more sophisticated than the Harry Potter series (at least in the first few books). It also seems to deal with a lot darker material than Harry Potter. Dom Daniel can be compared to Voldemort, certainly, and there are some things that are borrowed, but there are a lot of things that are brand-new. It also takes place in an entirely different time period.

    Magyk is a great book, and the rest of the series just expands on that, and introduces a few new characters. (There really aren’t that many characters to keep track of here, especially once we get to Aunt Zelda’s about 1/4 of the way in.)

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      • It was my favorite series when I was in high school. I actually liked it more than Harry Potter. Both series have their flaws, of course. I guess I was just more into the medieval-ish setting of Magyk.

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      • Of course, no book is perfect. Most of great books, movies, etc. borrow elements from other books. It’s just natural for others to compare to create a sort of base. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the book and found it entertaining.

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