Been soo loong since I want to tell a story about my 2013 trip last February! Hahaha. Well it's always better late than never, right? It's gonna be a long post with thousand photos. Beware!

So, we bought tickets a year before, when a well-known airfare pleasantly make "sale season" to some countries. We got tickets to KL, Hong Kong and returns for very, very, reasonable price. But according to our search, they said that life cost in Hong Kong is kinda high (shopping excluded). Honestly my mum bought me the ticket, but she made me promise that if I want to go for holiday I will pay everything there by myself. I nodded, knowing there's still a year to go, Tirza, Mus and me decided that we'll try to find money by ourselves. We've done some things, selling chocolates, cakes, breads, until flowers.. Hehehe. And we're proudly present... that we DID pay our life during holiday using those bucks we worked on. 

"The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel" Series

Author : Michael Scott

First, you need to read the plot overview here.

Done? Ok. Lanjut.

I just finished the sixth book this morning, and it successfully triggered me to get my ass in front of my desk and write a review about it, finally, after being absent in such a long time!

I think the first book (The Alchemyst) is published in 2007, and the rest were released at the rate of one per year, concluding The Enchantress in 2012.

After five books, I was really expecting The Enchantress to blow the series out. Unfortunately, it didn't. 

Buku pertama, kedua dan ketiga bagus. Ceritanya jelas, tokoh-tokohnya berkarakter kuat, pengembangan cerita bagus dan setiap bab selalu diakhiri dengan ending menggantung, dilanjutkan dengan bab baru dengan perpindahan lokasi yang baru. Hal ini membuat seri ini menjadi seru dan berciri khas, tapi siapa yang menyangka kalo repetisi "rumus" ini bakalan menjadi momok di dua buku terakhir?

I think Michael Scott trying waay to hard to impress us. Scott is telling us on how deathly the villains and monsters are, but in fact they turn out to be -puff!- easily in one of the twin's hand. Seriously, what? This happened all the time, and after a while, I don't take any monsters or deathly creatures-explained in the story-seriously. I know they will just lose in minutes when Sophie and Josh coming for them. Sounds sarcastic? Well maybe I am. But if you read the book, you will understand.

For me, there's so many characters, I had a hard time remembering who they were, but come on. The entire series is called NICHOLAS FLAMEL!! So why did he spend half of the book feeding his aura to Aerop-Enap? The beginning was a lot better, but Flamel should have been there with the twins at the end. Ah yes, the twins, or apparently, not twins. TERUS MEREKA SAPOSEH??*emosi*. Really wished I had some answers there. Through the entire series, it's been Sophie and Josh, together. Saving the world and each other's butts pretty equally. But in Enchantress, Josh does most of the saving, and saves the world ENTIRELY on his own. That was disappointing. We want more of Sophie, or at least, equally same portion with Josh. And the whole parents thing-Isis and Osiris-is so weird to me, and they were pathetic and silly as Earthlords.. The ending is shocking but somehow not in a good way. The fact that Josh is actually the same person with Marethyu left me devastated. Ya Allaah, William Scott.... Sebenarnya sih eke don't mind lah, tapi peran Sophie benar-benar dilupakan di akhir cerita, mau jadi apa dia jadinya? Dan Flamel couple kok bisa hadir di kawinan Niten-Aoife, katanya dibawa Marethyu ke Paris buat mati? Terus peran Nicholas Flamel di serial ini apa? Cuma itu aja? Menjaga buku, terus sisanya jagain si kembar, tapi akhirnya kok neka ga bersama si kembar... Sedih. Harusnya bukunya judulnya The Secret of the Legendary Twin kali ya...

Banyak peran-peran yang metong a.k.a mati nda jelas di kisah ini, entah apa karena 2 buku terakhir bacanya dalam bahasa Inggris jadi kurang sempurna dalam menangkap emosi yang sesungguhnya, but I think Scott is in hurry to finish the damn book so he seemed to forget some details and essences. Sungguh mengecewakan, secara tiga buku pertama mayan keren ya, akhirnya bener-bener anti klimaks dan bikin menderita... Dengar-dengar Scott mau lanjut dengan buku barunya, serial The Earthlords. Eke absen deh.. 

But, if you are a fiction-literature junkie, these series is worth collected. Oh I forget to add the fact that it has the best covers. Yes, the covers are very cool. Maybe even the best covers among all fiction I've seen.