'Leo, the spiritualist, is spending his vacation at his father’s house. In the library, he finds books that delve into the secret origins of the mages, shedding light on their incredible powers, as well as their weaknesses… The truth might be a hard pill to swallow, but this knowledge will prove crucial for the seven friends as they prepare to confront… the beast!'
Volume four of Magic 7 delves deep into the history of the mages, their role in the world, and the origins of the Beast, giving readers a lot of long awaited answers.
So, not a huge amount of stuff happens in this particular volume of the series, with there being no big threat to contend with, no adversity to overcome. But, rather than being dull, it's actually one of the most interesting entries in the series yet as we get the chance to focus on the lore that Toussaint has created, as well as getting to spend some quality time with Leo.
This volume sees the members of the team split up, with Lupe on holiday, Alice and Milo doing their own thing, Hamelin, Farah and Fabrice practising their powers, and Leo spending the summer with his father, learning more about the history of the seven. Of the seven leads, Leo is the one we focus on here, with the other characters making only the briefest of appearances (other than Lupe, who isn't even in the book at all).
Very quickly into spending time with Nathaniel, Leo is given access to a huge library that contains the secret history of the mage society, and the original seven mages. Leo begins to delve into this history, learning small pieces of the original mage's stories leading up to the appearance of the Beast. However, several of the books are written in a code which requires Leo calling in the help of several spirits. He also learns that two volumes are missing, leaving gaps in the story. When Nathaniel claims he never found those particular books Leo is surprised to hear that the book is hidden away in the house by one of his ghosts.
Barely given a chance to figure out why his father is lying to him, Nathaniel brings Alice and Milo to the house, along with their parents, to meet Leo. Not knowing that the seven kids have already found each other, Nathaniel is hoping that bringing them together will help further his own plans. Leo and the others are forced to pretend not to know each other when Alice tells him that they're being monitored via secret cameras, and that Nathaniel has taught Milo's parents how to resit his powers. Despite this, Alice is able to help Leo get his hands on the hidden book, and is able to decipher the text, leading to a revelation that could change everything he, and the other members of the group, has come to believe.
I love it when a series spends some time delving into the history and lore that it's been building, allowing the reader a chance to learn some secrets and gain more context for things. Whilst it can be great to learn things slowly over time, I think that once you're settled into a story just getting to take a break from the main narrative for a while to do some learning can be a lot of fun too; and Toussaint manages to give us some big info dumps in interesting and engaging ways, that also progress the narrative quite nicely.
One of the big things we get here is a more concrete understanding of the children's powers. We get to see the original seven at a time where they'd been living with their abilities for a while, and were comfortable using them. As a result, we see them doing things that the kids don't know how to do yet, using their powers on a level that makes the children look like the amateurs they are. For example, we've only ever seen Farah access her demon powers by using it to fly and shoot fire from her hands, but the demonist in the past is able to summon demonic entities to our world to carry out his will, creating a small army of monsters. It's giving us some previews of things that the kids might one day be able to do, and making their powers feel extra exciting because we know they've barely begun to scratch the surface of what they can do.
We also get some info that puts some stuff from the last volume in more context. In that book we learnt that Fabrice had a baby sister, and that she died when he was with her. He was drawing at the time (which we know is how his powers work), and I thought that it was possible that his drawings had led to the baby's death. We get confirmation here that that didn't happen, and that the decedents of the mages only ever have one heir. Each generation of the family get to have one child, and any more that are born die before their first birthday. This takes the blame of the baby's death away from Fabrice, which is great because that's a terrible weight for any child to carry with them, but it also makes certain things make more sense. The original mages lived hundreds of years ago, and would have a huge number of descendants, making it almost impossible to know who they all were and which would inherit the powers. By only ever having one new member for each generation of the family it keeps things neat and simple, allowing the Mage Society to keep a firm grasp on things.
Another tiny revelation we get, that doesn't really add much to the story yet delighted me, is around the shaman. The shaman, who is able to use music to command animals, helped a village suffering from the Black Death, by playing a flute to make the rats (who carried the virus in their fleas) leave the town. The town of Hamelin. The shaman was the pied piper of Hamelin. The current shaman is named Hamelin. This small reveal actually made me chuckle out loud because I couldn't believe my brain hadn't already made that connection. It feels so obvious, so telegraphed by what we know about the Shaman's powers, that I'm surprised it took the book literally spelling it out for me to figure it out. And this is one of the things that I really love about the story, it's giving you just enough information early on that you're able to figure a lot of stuff out, that you an form theories that are pretty close to the truth, and that some stiff is so fiendishly simple and obvious that it's actually quite delightful.
There is a big revelation towards the end of the book, but I won't go into that because it really should be read and experienced to get everything out of it. But I will say that it's something that is guaranteed to change the series going forward. The path that this story seemed to be going down felt very simple and with a clear end goal in sight, but now it's like the rug has been pulled out from under me and I have no idea where things are going to go next. And that's really exciting. I can't wait to see what Toussaint does with this tale next.
There are a few more artists working on this particular volume of the book, with several artists joining to add their own styles into the usual mix. Each of the histories of the mages, each of the flashbacks, gets its own artist. The styles don't shift too dramatically, and it feels like it fits into the rest of the series, but they're distinct enough that they stand out and feel unique. Each of the original mages gets their own artistic team, and it makes these moments feel a bit different and special.
I've been really enjoying Magic 7, and it feels like this is the point where the series has really come into its own and found its footing. It spend a few volumes getting you used to the characters and their world, drawing you in, before spinning things on their head and changing the direction of the series. I'm excited to discover just what these revelations mean in the long run.
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