Discworld and Member Articles
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Written by terrypratchettbooks.org
Thursday, 13 October 2005 |
A book review by Jessica Rajandran
(New Straits Times - Persekutuan, Malaysia)
IF you picked Magyk
up from the bookshelves before having read any J.K. Rowling or Terry Prachett books or Walter Moers’ The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear, you’d probably think it’s good stuff — but all it is, really, is anaemic in comparison despite the fact that there are identifications with the Harry Potter series and Pratchett’s Discworld.
And if you’ve read them and then read Magyk, you’d be able to pick out the familiar bits. But just because it’s a teensy bit bloodless in retrospect, next to those other books, it doesn’t mean that Magyk isn’t an interesting read because it is — if you’re loads younger than I am, that is. Besides, it’s about magic!
Anyway, we all know how difficult it is to read a fresh and new fantasy book and not compare it with the life and times of one Harry Potter, and I doubt any fantasy writer will find it easy to measure up to the likes of Rowling and Pratchett, so British author Angie Sage has done quite well for herself in that her book stands out and is quite widely publicised.
Magyk is the first of a series of children’s books under the Septimus Heap title written by Sage, who penned picture books for children before this.
Magyk happens to be her first novel, and it tells the tale of a baby who’s the seventh son of a seventh son — which is why he’s called Septimus. He’s stolen the night he’s born but on that same night his father Silas Heap comes across a bundle in the snow containing a newborn baby girl.
The story then moves 10 years into the future when Jenna, the baby girl, turns 10 and a few things about her birth are exposed.
Basically a fantastical tale about self-discovery and belonging, the story concentrates a lot on the importance of the family.
It’s an adventure set inside and outside the castle area known as The Ramblings, revolving mostly around Jenna — who turns out to be a princess and is wanted dead by the not-so-villainous, hardly baleful ExtraOrdinary Wizard DomDaniel.
And, of course, it’s about Septimus. What we’re really meant to discover in this book is the identity of Septimus Heap but there’s absolutely no suspense shadowing the discovery as this is not so subtly betrayed not too many chapters along the way.
Most of Magyk is predictable and you don’t have to wait for the ending to find out how it all goes.
By the end of Magyk, you feel that nothing more can possibly occur which will be of any import. It seems that anything and everything that can happen has happened already in just this one book, whereas with Harry Potter, you’re distinctly left hanging and not-so-patiently waiting for the next one to come out.
The only thing left unsorted here is the fate of DomDaniel, but really, with a name like that, who cares?
Some characters in Magyk are likeable but all aren’t very compelling. This is partly due to the fact that the names just aren’t imaginative enough.
The villain, for example, doesn’t appear menacing at all, partly because “DomDaniel” doesn’t exactly sound chilling and partly because he’s just made out to be comical.
The book crawls with creatures sporting uninteresting names like Nixies and Brownies, dogs named Maxie, rats named Stanley, villains named “the Hunter”, wizards named Marcia and witches named (seriously) Zelda.
Names are exceedingly important to all genres of literature, and to fantasy stories above all, but there is no Granny Weatherwax here, no Bilbo Baggins or Severus Snape or Tom Bombadil, no Gilderoy Lockhart or Roger Riderhood or Charlie Bucket.
Sage has a huge ensemble of characters but doesn’t fully develop any of them, so there isn’t enough chance to like them even after you get past their boring names; a shame, because so much happens but we don’t feel enough for the characters to be able to care about them or what they’re going through.
Sage’s world of Magyk has different details from that of Rowling’s or Pratchett’s, which makes it a bit fresh; at the same time, though, many of these details seem pale and badly sketched.
The “magyk” in the title is ultimately uninteresting and its spells contrived, and at its core the plot follows the fantasy template of “the adventures of the Chosen One” without offering anything really new by way of recompense.
Sage also seems to be stuck in picture-book mode, giving priority to depicting her world over developing any of its characters; although hopefully with fingers crossed and a bit of work, the next few books might be well-developed enough to cure this.
All said, Magyk’s a lot easier to read than any of the Harry Potter books, but it’s in no way superior. It isn’t even as funny. I guess some parents would be glad to know that among the many current children’s fantasy books, there’s one like Magyk, clearly among the least dark and violent.
It’s easy reading that can take up a few days and not too much mental space. Its mildness makes it especially recommended for those who don’t want to invest in the big dark fantasies yet.
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