Septimus Heap Book I: Magyk

Man, I don't know what's wrong with me, but lately I've been so critical of the books I read. And normally I'm very forgiving. I don't know if it's the mood I'm in, or if I've just gotten more sensitive, but lately everything I read is crap! I just keep thinking, did they have an editor? Did the author even read the book after they were done writing it? My cat could've written a better book than this!

So, after that little rant, I must admit that what I just said doesn't actually apply to Septimus Heap. Or, not really, anyway. Cuz I actually enjoyed the book. I do have a few criticisms, however. I thought that there were a few holes in the plot, some plot lines or characters that could have been developed more fully, and a couple of characters which were just extraneous (y'all know what a fan I am of tight plots). And the biggest flaw was that the author just didn't do a good job of explaining how the magic works. I mean, I know it's magic, and it doesn't have to follow any known laws of the physical universe. But, in fantasy worlds, magic usually does have rules which must be followed and make sense within that world. The author tried several times to explain how it worked, and I was still like, Huh? And non-wizards seem to be able to perform spells, so what's the point of being a wizard??? I dunno. There is another book in the series so maybe that will explain some of the discrepancies.

But, like I said, although the afore-mentioned inconsistencies occasionally annoyed me, on the whole I still liked the book. And I stayed up until 2 in the morning to finish it, so they must've done something right, right?