In the fifth installment of the enthralling Septimus Heap series, we find several groups of our beloved characters heading off on various adventures. Jenna, Nicko, Snorri, Ullr and Beetle are in the harbors known as the Trading Post, where Jenna encounters her father, Milo Banda, who persuades them to spend the night on his ship. Milo promises his somewhat wary daughter "something special." But what is our hero up to? you may wonder. Well, Septimus Heap has gotten an amazing and sudden promotion, which (on the order of a teen finally getting his driver's license) enables him to head off on an adventure on his own. His escapade begins as he plans a simple flight on board his dragon, Spit Fyre, in order to retrieve his friends from the Trading Post.

Around this time, Aunt Zelda sends Wolf Boy from the Marram Marshes. She is giving him a challenging test as a first step in his becoming the first male Intended Keeper. Aunt Zelda herself has an extremely serious quest in her near future, and as soon as Wolf Boy leaves, she retrieves a SafeCharm, which appears to be a tiny, pear-shaped gold bottle. She has been troubled by the sight of Septimus on Spit Fyre in dire trouble, and must deliver the SafeCharm to him in order to keep him out of harm's way. But Aunt Zelda has been eating a few too many cabbage sandwiches lately, and she finds that her portliness slows her expedition down quite a bit. By the time she arrives at the palace gardens, Septimus is astride Spit Fyre, preparing to take off. Frantically, Aunt Zelda sends a young boy to deliver the SafeCharm...but Septimus doesn't understand that the trinket is from Aunt Zelda and refuses it.

Due to this unfortunate mix-up, the SafeCharm falls into the hand of a scoundrel who stole the little gold vial believing it to be fine and valuable perfume. When he takes the top off to sniff it, imagine his surprise when what goes up his nose is not a fragrance but an all-powerful jinnee! And the jinnee isn't exactly thrilled to find himself up someone's nose, to say the least. When the clueless fellow answers the jinnee's "What do you will?" by telling him to go away, "Jim Knee" is off on his own adventure.

Meanwhile, Wolf Boy is intent on his completing the task that Aunt Zelda sent him on test, a test that author Angie Sage describes in hilarious detail. Wolf Boy approaches the House of the Port Witch Coven as he begins his knee-knocking mission. While there, he meets the young witch Dorinda who adjusts the pink towel wrapped around her hair and says, "You're kidding me, aren't you?" when Wolf Boy tells her what he plans to do. Under Sage's talented pen, Wolf Boy's entire mission is side-splitting (think: a witch named Linda who reads detective novels, a monster who likes things very quiet, and vampire kittens!).

As poor Aunt Zelda envisioned, Septimus does eventually find himself in great trouble. He is marooned on an island with Jenna and Beetle as well as the deathly ill Spit Fyre. Nearby, nefarious happenings at a peculiar cat-shaped lighthouse threaten not only the unusual lighthouse keeper, but also two of Septimus's friends. However, Septimus's troubles are only beginning as he meets an unusual girl, Syrah Syara, who is under an enchantment...a dangerous Magykal charm that puts Septimus, as well as the castle, in terrible jeopardy.

As we've come to expect from this series, SYREN offers gripping adventure, whimsical characters, a mesmerizing plot, derring-do heroics, and tons of delightful humor.

This is such a great book! It's about the adventure that ensues after Septimus, Jenna, Nicko, Snorri, and Beetle get out of the House of Foryx. Of course, they're not out of the clear yet. They never are, are they? Aunt Zelda "Sees" that there is some trouble in store for Septimus, though she can't see exactly what. Apparently "Sight" is never wrong, and it goes on from there. All the little side stories tie in together very well, though somehow all the main characters always seem to find their way back to each other in the most improbable circumstances. I love how the Septimus Heap series integrates stories of family, friends, wizardry, science, royalty, sea-faring, military, witches, ghosts, genies, etc.! Sounds like it would be a horrible hodge-podge, but it's FABULOUS...for the information of anyone who is still deciding whether they should read it or not. There's a lot of action going on! Definitely not just for kids! My only problem with it is that it had to end. I hope there's much more to come, but I hate having to wait for it!

I think the character development in this one was perfect, and do not understand the comment another reader made that it was not. I felt we learned more about these "tweens" as they are approaching adulthood, and I felt it was realistic development, too. The story line is, as always with Ms. Sage, engaging, and new characters come on the scene smoothly. The new characters themselves are interesting, and I find myself looking forward to Book Six--the wait! the wait!!!! It is so hard to wait!!! --with great anticipation, to see how they progress.

Angies books just keep getting better and better! I loved the 4th book and just could not wait for this one. This book is a 1000 times better than previous ones. The plot is stunning and the descriptions are beautiful. Simply put, this book will complete your colection!

The strongest thing about this series has been the characters, and most of them are either missing or have cameo appearances in this book. A few new characters are introduced, and one has changed age... Lucy Gringe, who I thought was 20 in the first book, is now a teenager.

I don't want to be too specific and play spoiler on people who haven't read it yet. But some major plot questions that were left hanging (I assume purposely) in earlier books are still hanging. New ones are introduced, but they just don't seem to hang together. There are a lot of disparate elements in this story that just don't seem to have a reason for being there. This may partly be because of the series' lack of an overarching plot or goal. Introducing modern-day technology as something ancient is a bit annoying... if this is a far-future story, you'd think we'd have heard about it before!

The world still feels very real, although the placement of world-specific games, candy, and snacks feels much less real than it does in Harry Potter. In fact, this, along with putting the names of spells in a separate font, seems like a bid to be Harry Potter, complete with fansite encyclopediae and spin-off products.

Bottom line: I missed the characters. They were the series' strongest point.