Flyte by Angie Sage is the second book in the Septimus Heap series and picks up about a year after the end of the previous book, Magyk. Septimus has now been the apprentice to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard, Marcia Overstrand, for a little over a year now and has mostly adjusted to his position. Currently he is helping Marcia make special preparations to catch the shadow that has been following her for some time and they are almost finished. When his eldest brother Simon visits he takes Jenna for a ride only to promptly disappear with her even though Septimus tries to stop him. With no one believing him about Simon kidnapping Jenna, Septimus acquires the help of Nicko, another one of his brothers, in order to figure out exactly what is actually going on. Something that seems to be increasingly convoluted when he discovers that Simon may be involved in something related to catching the shadow and also potentially the apprentice of the darke necromancer DomDaniel. As Septimus and Nicko continue searching for Jenna, she is working on her own escape as she refuses to be a helpless damsel that just goes along with Simon’s plans.
This is an interesting addition to what has the potential to be a pretty great series from what I am seeing. The magic that is present is fairly unique as it is focused primarily around the use of charms that represent individual spells with a wizard only being able to cast them independently after extreme repeated use of a specific charm version of a spell. While it does add some bizarre elements to the story because of that it also indirectly limits the characters as they can only cast a spell when they have access to the corresponding charm, at least most of the time. The characters are also pretty entertaining as they are definitely well written and seem to have some pretty unique personalities. It creates a well-rounded cast of characters since each of them have their own eccentricities. The plot is also interesting in that it seems more convoluted than you would expect from a kids series. There are numerous twists and turns present in this particular book and it ends somewhere completely different from where it seemed to leading at the beginning so I definitely enjoyed that aspect of the story. In fact many of what you might think are minor elements in the beginning end up playing a much larger role with everything being more interconnected than you think. It also does a great job of balancing the serious aspects of the story, such as Jenna’s kidnapping, with other more humorous elements that end up creating a story where you just can’t help but want to laugh and pretty frequently at that. You take all of this together and you end up with a pretty good story that was very well written. I am thoroughly enjoying it so far and am happy to give this book four out of five stars.
This is a great example of a humorous kids fantasy series so if you are a younger reader who enjoys fantasy books, especially ones that make you laugh, than you should consider trying this one out. Make sure to read the previous book first to get the full picture though or you will probably end up confused. The book may be aimed primarily at younger readers but considering how much I enjoyed it I could also see it holding at least some appeal for older readers as well. In terms of content there was nothing I noticed that people need to be concerned about so it should be fine for just about everybody. If you do decide to try it out feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.