Review: Flyte by Angie Sage (2006)

Septimus Heap #2: Flyte by Angie Sage
Publication: HarperCollins (2007), Paperback, 544 pages / ISBN 0060577363
Genre: Fantasy, YA
Rating: 4/5
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Challenge: Read Your Own Books 2009 (#10)
First sentence: It is night on the Marram Marshes; a full moon shines down on the black waters and illuminates the nighttime Things who are going about their business.

Series: Book #1 | Book #2 | Book #3 | Book #4

I love the first Septimus Heap book, Magyk, and so I was super excited to read this one. I had just as much fun reading it as I did Magyk, yet I felt slightly disappointed.

Summary from Amazon:

It’s been a year since Septimus Heap discovered his real family and true calling to be a wizard. As Apprentice to Extra Ordinary Wizard Marcia Overstrand, he is learning the fine arts of Conjurations, Charms, and other Magyk, while Jenna is adapting to life as the Princess and enjoying the freedom of the Castle.

But there is something sinister at work. Marcia is constantly trailed by a menacing Darke Shadow, and Septimus’s brother Simon seems bent on a revenge no one understands. Why is the Darke Magyk still lingering?

The main problem was, I think, that it seemed like the plot started off very quickly, with a lot of movement and excitement and then BAM. Stopped short. And then it never really picked back up again. It felt more like a transition between two events than an event of its own, and though I enjoyed reading it I wanted something a little more.

There is some character change/growth, which was nice, and the various subplots were quite sweet: Septimus meeting the rest of his family, for instance, and the thing with the (dead) Queen and her (alive) husband. The adult characters were pretty much the same, except maybe more annoying because they wouldn’t listen to the kids. If they had ever read a Diana Wynne Jones book, they’d know that’s a dangerous thing to do.

There are some exciting, action-y parts, of course, plus lots of interesting magic, new characters and places that I grew to love as much as the old ones. I especially liked learning about the people who became friends with the main characters after the first book– it kept things from getting too enclosed.

However, there were some other things that didn’t seem to be fully explored (not yet, anyway. Maybe they’re explored in the next few books). Septimus’ new, er, “pet” kind of just appears, then doesn’t really serve a purpose until the end and yet still seems mostly a sideline thing. Like many other things introduced in this book, it seems like it won’t find its place in the narrative until the next book or later.

Overall, it feels very transitory, and somewhat jumbled. Not bad, but not entirely like the first book, either. The parts I liked I really liked, and the parts I didn’t were just meh. Still, I look forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing where everything ends up!

Other reviews: Cindy’s Blog of Everything