Review Detail

Everyone's always talking about who the "next Harry Potter" might be. Who might be worthy of Harry's lofty throne. Well, I'll tell you this -- I don't think there is a next Harry. He's one of a kind. But so is Septimus Heap. Maybe someday they'll be talking about who the next Septimus might be.

Angie Sage's new series is an engrossing fantasy read with a believable magical world and interesting, quirky characters. Readers might be confused to find that the title character, Septimus, dies in the first couple of pages, but they'll soon figure out that not everything is as it seems, and, as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard Marcia mentions, things have a way of working out.

Septimus is the seventh son of a seventh son (Silas and Sarah Heap) and he is stolen away the night he is born. As coincidence would have it (of course, there are NO coincidences, not really), Silas brings home a baby girl with violet eyes that he found out in the woods alone the same night.

Things are pretty quiet until about 10 years have passed and the evil no-good thugs who killed the queen and took over the castle figure out that the Heap's foundling is none other than the Queen's missing daughter. Thus ensues a flight to freedom from DomDaniel's (the evil old ExtraOrdinary Wizard) minions the Hunter and the Apprentice.

I hate too give too many details away, since they are so much more fun to discover. Let it suffice to say that there's lots of adventure, confusion, derring-do, comedy, and above all, Magyck. Once I got into it, this book really pulled me in and I can hardly wait for the next one.

Recommended for readers aged 10 and up, and for fantasy lovers everywhere.