Magyk by Angie Sage is the first book in the Septimus Heap series. The book opens with Silas Heap heading home to help his wife take care of their newborn seventh son, Septimus, only to find a baby girl abandoned in the snow on the way. After he picks the girl up Marcia Overstrand, the current ExtraOrdinary Wizard, shows up and tells Silas that no one can know the girl is not his. Upon arriving home he finds the midwife departing with the body of his son after informing them that Septimus had died. It then jumps forward ten years to when the girl Jenna is turning ten. A dark Ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard has shown up and taken control of the wizard’s tower and the castle. The Heap family ends up fleeing when they discover that Jenna is the princess that was believed to have died with her mother ten years previous. They are joined by Marcia who is on the run as well and Boy 412, an unknown young boy from the Young Army that works for the dark wizard that has taken control. Together they must find a way to protect Jenna and reclaim the tower and the castle.
I found this book rather entertaining as it painted a rather interesting picture. What was interesting was how somethings were kept vague and others were not. A good example is how I don’t think it actually explains which country or kingdom is the setting of the story and it implies that the throne and the castle really only rule the town and maybe some land alongside. There isn’t much information provided about that so I found myself rather curious throughout the story. At the same time it provided a lot of detail about the specifics of some of the settings such as certain parts of the town and the wizards tower and even parts of the nearby marshes. It created this odd contrast between vague and specificity that almost seemed to imply it could have taken place in just about any similar magical kingdom. Something that really grabbed my attention though was how the magic worked in this world as it was a slightly unusual form. It seems like almost anybody can use basic magic but to be really good or powerful you have to have a predisposition for it. In order to actually use it you need a charm for each individual spell, at least until you have mastered it well enough you no longer need the charm. I am not sure what to think of that as it seems to be a rather odd system of magic but it does seem to work pretty well within this story so I am rather curious to see how it will work out. Something that was rather interesting is how the book description implied that there was more to the story of what had happened to Septimus than was revealed at the beginning of the book. However, they don’t seem to really reveal that and instead only hint around the topic so that adds this layer of mystery to the story as well. Overall a pretty good book and one that I found rather enjoyable to read. I am happy giving it four out of five stars.
This is a kids fantasy book and one that seems to start off a pretty good series so if you are a younger reader who enjoys fantasy you should probably consider trying this one out. I am not sure if it would appeal to readers who prefer other genres though as it has a lot of fantasy elements to it. The book is aimed at younger readers who are probably around the same age as the characters so between ten and twelve. It can probably be read by kids as young as eight or nine if they have the skill to read it and obviously it can be read by any readers older than that. There didn’t seem to be any issues that I would have thought people needed to be aware of going in so I don’t think anybody needs to be careful. As I said though it is a good book and I hope you will consider trying it. If you do feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.