Steve Review: The Magickeepers: Pyramid of Souls by Erica Kirov

May 10, 2010 by shanyn

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Book Summary:
It was stolen from Alexander the Great. To keep it safe, Edgar Allen Poe bargained away his sanity. And somebody suckered P. T. Barnum to get their hands on it. It’s the most closely guarded secret in the magician community. And it’s missing.

What would you do to protect your family from an ancient pyramid capable of stealing your very soul?

Nick Rostov finally has the life he’s always dreamed-and he’ll do anything to protect it.

Nick has only now discovered he is part of an extended Russian family of magicians: the Magickeepers. He lives with his eccentric new relatives at the Winter Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where they perform daring feats of magic to a packed house. Real magic.

But Nick and his family face a new danger in the form of a stolen relic, the Pyramid of Souls. The tiny pyramid has traded hands many times throughout history. Its power can steal a magician’s very soul.

Nick knows who took it: Rasputin, leader of the Shadowkeepers. Using his unique ability as a Gazer-one who can see into the past-Nick enlists his cousin Isabella to help him find it. Soon, the two are hot on the evil sorcerer’s trail…until Isabella’s soul is trapped by the very relic they’re trying to find.

Nick will do anything to rescue Isabella and recover the Pyramid of Souls. But will it be enough to save his family?

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Steve Review:
I recently received this book (after Shanyn asked me if might enjoy it) and it went right to the top of my to be read pile. This was for one simple reason: it was short and took me a little over an hour to get through! I didn’t read the first book in the Magickeeper’s series but that didn’t seem to matter much. Although short, this book was entertaining and a nice novella type read for a rainy afternoon.

The book features a main character named Nick who happens to be a kid magician with a great destiny. We haven’t had any books like that in recent memory have we? lol. The quick paced story gives some background on Nick while hinting at some of the fun we missed out on during book 1. I enjoy the fantasy genre and this book had enough unique twists (russian ancestry, real life history characters that influenced the magic world, the infamous Rasputin, and a close knit family) to keep it light and fun.

When a powerful magic artifact is stolen by the Magickeepers’ archenemies the Shadowkeepers, it’s up to Nick and his family to get it back. The fight turns personal as Nick’s family is threatened by the Shadowkeeper leader Rasputin. Definitely a young adult plot line and slightly predictable. Still, I’m not complaining as I genuinely enjoyed reading this from beginning to end. Did I enjoy it enough to get into the series, maybe even go back and read book 1? Probably not. While short, this book is most certainly capable of standing on it’s own and you do not need to read book 1 in the series to enjoy it.

Book Cover: 2/5 – Ridic looking, the raven side of the book was cool though.
Book Title: 2/5 – Not too creative, but it does do the job I guess.
Plot: 7/10 – Decent; quick-paced, entertaining, and easy to jump right in.
Characters: 7/10 – Nick and his russian family seem to be good peeps.
Writing: 6/10 – Nothing to complain about, nothing extraordinary.
Ending: 8/10 – Satisfying ending that can easily lead to the numerous more books to surely come in the series.

Overall: 32/50 – I found this young adult fantasy mini-book to be rather enjoyable, but not something to bend over backwards to get involved with.

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