 Okay, so today we are here to talk about another patron-requested review. This one is The Alchemist with a Y, so it kind of looks like the name of a metal band. And this was requested by Carcat Kitsune, and I think this one's good. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So I should clarify that this book is the first in a series. It's the immortal Nicholas Flamel, I believe it's what it's called. And so there's other books in the series that are like Magic, which is also spelled with a Y, and Physic, I think. And I do remember seeing a bunch of these in the stores and such when I was a kid around the time they were first coming out. And actually at that time I was in the target audience for them. It just never really grabbed my interest. I wasn't that into them. And reading it today, I can say that it is good, and had I read it back when I was in the target audience, I think I would have loved them. Wait, no, I should censor that bit. I would have loved them, is the point. But because it follows a lot of the same tropes and cliches as something like Percy Jackson does. You know, you have two main characters who are just normal kids thrust into this world of magic, so we can project ourselves onto them. They are subjects in a prophecy of some sort. They have these cool magic powers so we can all just imagine, yeah, if I was here I could go on adventures like that, you know. It's that sort of story. And again, I would have really liked it. Nowadays the prophecy and stuff kind of just makes me roll my eyes, because I just generally don't like prophecies. But you know, it's still a good book. So the plot here is that these two twin siblings named Josh and Sophie are in San Francisco one day and they go to a coffee shop or book store, or book store coffee shop combo I believe, and it's run by this dude who turns out to be Nicholas Flamel, who is a famous alchemist who made the Elixir of Life, so he's immortal. And then this other wizard breaks in, his name is Dr. John Dee. He breaks in, he tries stealing the book of Abraham, which is this book full of a whole bunch of important mystical spells and such, including the Elixir of Life. And he manages to steal the book, but Josh and Sophie tear out a couple pages beforehand so he does not get the Elixir of Life. And basically they talk to Flamel a little bit and he admits to them, okay, magic and stuff is real. And also there's this old race, which we just called the Elder Race, and they ruled the earth before humans were around for many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, and now they're gonna try and come back and take over. Now I will say right now that this book starts off with no time wasted. I mean I think it's like less than ten pages of just introducing Josh and Sophie in the store and then Dee breaks in and steals the book and then all hell breaks loose and things really don't let up until the last third of the book. We have a few very short episodes in the middle where things settle down and we really get a chance to know the characters. And that is a double-edged sword because as I said we don't really get to know these people until a little ways into the story. And even then we don't spend that much time on it. Josh is the character that gets the most development and I think they did a good job with him. It seems like they're going in a direction which would be kind of stupid, but then they reverse it and he seems like a better person. Without giving things away it's just okay yeah he is a good person. But at the same time by just having constant action in everything, well you have constant action. It's fun to read. There's a whole bunch of chase scenes and fight scenes and most of it involves the characters having to flee because the villains are so powerful and that's a good thing because it makes the villains seem scary. And they are and they should seem scary because this world also seems like really huge and old by introducing the elder races because as I said they've been around for millions of years it seems, way before humans even existed. Like they mentioned that they had an island homeland which eventually became the basis of the legend for Atlantis and you know it sank beneath the waves and all that. And that's something fairly standard for this type of story. There was magical people who ruled the earth and it was in prehistory and you know that sort of thing. But in this it's just so much older and pretty much every mythology around the world whether you're talking Celtic or Egyptian or Greek or whatever, those aren't all real but all of those myths are based on legends of the elder race. So like Zeus and Thor and all of them are just different interpretations of the same legend of the same people and I think that's really cool as well. I've mentioned in the past that I want to read more stories where like all myths are sort of in the same world and they're all interacting with one another. That's partially why I liked the Last God of War game so much because it's basically that. And this one it's not quite that but it is a different interpretation on it which I think is really cool. And the elder race from what we see they are extremely powerful and extremely scary so you know I think they're cool. As for the characters like I said there's just not that much to them. You know Nicholas Flamel is just the old wise mentor who is fighting against evil and has been doing so forever and is trying to teach the main characters to do it. You know that's a similar archetype we've seen a bunch of times and they don't really do that much new with it. And I know this is part of a series maybe he and the others get more development later on. In fact I would hope they do but as of this first book not really. But he does serve his purpose well and I would say the same for pretty much all the other characters. You know Dr. John Dee is just a villain you know he's out for something. They're actually a little more mysterious about what he's doing. He might just be working with the elder race or he might just be working with a specific faction of them to do something else. It's again I'm sure it's revealed later but as of this point he's just kind of the mega powerful magical villain who is after the characters because they have something he wants. Again it's fine. And then Josh and Sophie I talked about Josh a little bit you know he does get some development near the end and I like the direction they took him. He is mostly just you know kid that got swept up in adventure and is part of a prophecy and has super powerful magic powers that almost no one else has. Because that's also important. The main characters in this type of story not only have to be normal kids pulled into this world but they have to have super special unique powers that almost no one else has. Or if they are powers that someone else has then it has to be even stronger than everyone else. The characters aren't bad. I want to clarify that they're not bad. If I was a kid I wouldn't think about most of this at all. But they are just sort of there to do their part in the plot you know they aren't really there to be characters and then their actions drive the plot. The plot is just there to give them things to do if that makes any sense. And as for other complaints the main one that I had throughout all this is just that there is way too much description. Like especially near the beginning when they're describing what characters look like it feels a lot like those bad fan fiction scenes where like they'll spend two and a half pages just just describing what characters clothes and hair look like. Like it genuinely feels like that at a few points and I just I was reading that going okay bro slow it down and it gets better after the beginning after the beginning but still every time they introduce a new character it is like that and it just it feels silly and it feels a little stupid so I do have to mention that but really it's not that awful. And overall like I said I'm a bit too old for this book and a bit too old for this series. Had I read it when I was younger and I was you know looking for different stuff and my standards were lower I would have fucking loved it. I kind of regret not reading it when I was younger because I had plenty of opportunities and I just never took them but I am glad that I eventually got to it and one day I might go around and read the rest of the series like I can't do it right this moment because I just have so much other shit come in my direction like I'm trying to get through Battlefield Earth like I'm working on the long review for that don't worry I'm less than 10% of the way through the book though so it'll it'll it'll be a while but you know overall The Alchemist really solid book you know if you're looking for something in the vein of like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson and you know it's a fantasy story that isn't too mature it's not super dark it's just kind of classic kids tale where good defeats evil then I think you would enjoy something like this if you're looking for something more mature then yeah you probably won't enjoy it but overall thanks again to Carcat Kitsune for recommending this or requesting this and thanks to the rest of you for watching I'll see you later bye special thanks to all the patrons you see here and a super special thanks to all my $10 and up patrons who include Appo Savilainen Alex Humva Ashley Watson B Quinn brother Santotis Christopher Quinten Mbis Emily Miller Evan Stigal Joel Carcat Kitsune Madison Lewis Bennett Mike Enby star sad Martin again Tobacco Crow Tom Beanie Topher Wheeler Vacuous Silas and Vyvictus and if you aren't a patron then consider giving me money so you can get your name on here as well as early access to my videos and other stuff and if you watch this far then thanks a whole bunch please like the video comment on it and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already bye