Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1)

#53Title: Magyk (Septimus Heap, Book 1)
Author: Angie Sage
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Year: 2005
Genre: Children's fantasy
576 pages

A nice start to this children's fantasy series. Magyk works intelligibly; it also is finite and not to be used frivolously (a characteristic that magic sadly lacks in the Harry Potter books). Sage includes enough absurdities to entertain both adults and children (a red door painted black, for example, or Marcia's preoccupation with stylish boots) without sliding over into farce. The language is often clever (Silas is an Ordinary Wizard, while Marcia is an ExtraOrdinary Wizard). The action moves swiftly and progresses logically with only a few deus ex machina moments and incongruities (for example, on p. 386 Jenna suddenly realizes that she has been in the tunnels before, in her dreams, but we did not know about these dreams prior to the revelation).

While Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy is the best I've read recently in this genre, the Septimus Heap books may hold that role for younger readers. Older readers will figure out much of the plot fairly early on, but this does not detract from the pleasure of the story. Mark Zug has provided engaging illustrations at the head of each chapter, and the cover art is explained not too far from the end of the book.