The Alchemyst

This article is about the book by Michael Scott. For the titular character of The Alchemyst, see Nicholas Flamel.

The first-edition cover of The Alchemyst
Basic Information
Title	The Alchemyst
Author	Michael Scott
Titular character	Nicholas Flamel
Followed by	The Magician
First English Edition Information
General	US hardcover
First release	22 May 2007 (US) 24 May 2007 (UK)
Publisher	Delacorte Press
Cover artwork	Michael Wagner
Number of chapters	41
Length	375
English Audiobook Information
First release	22 May 2007
Publisher	Listening Library
Narrator	Denis O'Hare
Length	10:02:25

The Alchemyst is a 2007 novel by Irish author Michael Scott, the first part in the six-book series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Scott draws on a wide knowledge of world mythology to stage a battle between the Dark Elders and their hired gun—Dr. John Dee—against the forces of good. The series being divided into parts, "The Alchemyst", "The Magician", and "The Sorceress" being the First Codex, and "The Necromancer", "The Warlock", and "The Enchantress" being the Second Codex.

Titular character

The book's title, The Alchemyst, refers to Nicholas Flamel, as stated by Michael Scott in his Fan Forum.

Plot summary

When the necromancer and immortal magician Dr. John Dee steals the ancient book the Codex from its keeper, Nicholas Flamel, two teenagers named Sophie and Josh Newman are caught up in the danger and magic. Dee also captures Nicholas Flamel's wife, Perenelle. Flamel takes the twins to a magical warrior Next Generation Elder (who is 2,517 years old) named Scathach, who travels with them to another Elder's shadowrealm. This Elder is known as Hekate and has remarkable magical power. Hekate is over 10,000 years old.

Sophie and Josh are working at a bookstore and a cafe when Dee comes for the Codex. Here, they witness Nicholas and Perenelle using magic, and discover that Nicholas is not a bookseller, but is indeed an ancient alchemyst being kept alive by making the elixir of life (a secret from the Codex) for him and Perenelle. He can use magic. He needs the Codex back to make the elixir of life again, or he and Perenelle will die before the month's end. Also, if Nicholas does not retrieve the Codex, Dee will summon the Dark Elders to destroy the world and return to an age in which humans are but slaves and food.

Flamel quickly takes them to a dojo to enlist the aid of Scathach, an extremely powerful ally. Dee assaults the dojo, but is thwarted by Flamel and Scathach. Flamel then leads the twins and Scathach to attempt to secure the aid of Hekate, who can awaken the twins' magical potential. Dee discovers this, and enlists the aid of Bastet, and the Morrigan. The trio mount a massive assault on Hekate's shadowrealm, attempting to destroy the Yggdrasill that is the heart of Hekate's power.

While the Yggdrasill is attacked, Hekate Awakens Sophie; she does not Awaken Josh, as the Yggdrasill is then lit on fire and she rushes to defend her home. After a long, grueling battle, Scathach clears a path for the twins and Flamel. While escaping, they encounter Dee, and witness the power of the ancient sword known as Excalibur, which he draws. They see him transform a wereboar into pure ice, then shatter the statue. Flamel remarks that he thought that Excalibur had been lost when Artorius (King Arthur) died.

The twins, Scathach, and Flamel escape the shadowrealm rapidly after, shortly before the destruction of Hekate, the Yggdrasill, and the entire shadowrealm. As they escape, Dee uses Excalibur to freeze the Yggdrasill, and Hekate, whose life and power is linked to the tree, transforms to ice as it does. As this occurs, Dee is informed that Flamel and Scathach have escaped with the twins. In his rage, he shatters the Yggdrasill, which crushes Hekate into dust, killing her. At this point, they travel to Scathach's grandmother, the Witch of Endor (also called "The Mistress of Air"), who teaches Sophie her magical secrets.

While they are there, Dee has found out that the prophecy in the Codex speaks of Sophie and Josh. He tempts Josh to join him, while practising necromancy and raising thousands of corpses to assault the Elders and Sophie with. Josh almost agrees, but at the last moment he realizes he will lose Sophie if he agrees, and distracts the necromancer long enough to escape with Scathach, Sophie and Nicholas using a leygate (where lines of energy, or ley lines on the globe cross) to escape to Paris, where the book ends. The book ends with the conclusion that the Witch has survived and Dee is still searching. Perenelle smiles when she realizes that Nicholas, the twins, and Scatty are in Paris, where there are other Elders who can Awaken Josh. The Sphinx tells her that the end is coming, and Perenelle responds with, "This is only the beginning." The book ends, opening the way for the second book: The Magician.

Characters

• Sophie Newman - One of the twins. Sophie worked at a coffee shop, The Coffee Cup, before Dee attacked. Her aura is silver (very rare aura).
• Josh Newman - Younger than his twin sister by only 28 seconds. Josh's gold aura is slightly rarer than Sophie's aura. He worked at a book store, The Small Book Shop, with Nicholas Flamel before the encounter with Dee.
• Nicholas Flamel - Disguised as "Nick Fleming", Nicholas owned a book shop while he protected the Codex (a.k.a. The Book of Abraham the Mage).
• Perenelle Flamel - Disguised as "Perry Fleming" until she was kidnapped by Dr. Dee.
• Dr. John Dee - For centuries, Dee has been chasing Nicholas and Perenelle to get his hands on the Codex and awaken the Dark Elders. His master is unknown.
• Scathach - Nicknamed "Scatty". Scathach has trained many warriors over the past millennia. She is also a vegetarian vampire. She is commonly known as the Warrior Maid or the Shadow.
• Hekate - The Elder whose life depended on an ancient tree that grew in her shadowrealm. She Awakened Sophie's powers. She was also one of the most powerful elders until Dee turned her into ice and shattered her with the ancient and mythical sword of Ice Excalibur.
• The Witch of Endor - A Witch who lives in Ojai (pronounced Oh-hai) and was alive for millennia. She gave all her knowledge to Sophie after Sophie was Awakened. Also Scathach's 'grandmother'
• The Morrigan - The second generation winged Dark Elder - she had the ability to control crows.
• Bastet - The Dark Elder with a cat head - had the ability to control felines.

Book of Abraham

Also called the Codex, The Alchemyst centers around a prophecy in the Book of Abraham. The Book of Abraham is an actual book, but the prophecies described in the The Alchemyst are the fictional work of Michael Scott. The prophecies describe the return of the Elders - a race of magically powerful beings that seek to return to power and rule the Earth - and contains a spell that will achieve just that. Nicholas Flamel is the protector of this book and seeks to ensure the Elders never get their hands on it. When attacked by John Dee, the book is stolen. Luckily, Josh Newman manages to rip the two most important pages from the book - the Final Summoning, the one spell to summon the Dark Elders to take back Earth, and possibly raise Danu Talis (Atlantis) up from the waves.

The book is copper-bound, size of a hand or smaller, and the letters are written in different languages, shifting constantly, making it hard to read the book, but Nicholas Flamel found out the pattern of the shifting letters. His wife, Perenelle, and himself, believed that it was based upon the cycles of the planets, presumably the moon mainly, though it does not only hold the secrets of immortality and the philosopher's stone, but also every other magical, powerful, but dangerous spells, that holds many secrets on the universe. The secret of immortality is held on page 7, according to Michael Scott. It is believed that Nicholas Flamel learned the secrets of the Philosopher's stone from the Book of Abraham in 1382.

Scott could also be referring to the The Book of Abramelin, a book that refers is of magic.

Sequels

In order of publishing and selling:

1. The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

2. The Magician: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

3. The Sorceress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

4. The Necromancer: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

5. The Warlock: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel

6. The Enchantress: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel