'Leo, Farah, Lupe, and Hamelin will need all of their supernatural gifts, and all the help they can get, to fight a mysterious power that has all the authority figures in their town—teachers, parents, and police—acting strangely and dangerously. And along the way, they will learn more about the bond that links them, and just what a daunting future the Magic 7 must prepare for.'
The second volume of Magic 7 goes a bit Invasion of the Body Snatchers when all of the adult authority figures in their small town begin to act strangely, forcing our group of heroes to go underground and form a resistance movement.
Magic 7, Volume Two: Against Them All picks up a short time after the first book, with Leo, Farah, Hamelin, and their new friend Lupe, having been friends for a while and forming a stronger bond after coming together to fight Lupe's out of control robot creations. However, we learn that their peaceful lives have been thrown off kilter when the teachers at school start cracking down on minor uniform rule infringements. This seems to only be the start too, as then the parents start to clamp down on what the kids are allowed to do outside of school. They're only allowed to get together if parents are around, and neighbourhood watch groups have formed to keep an eye on kids. It reaches breaking point when the police put a curfew into effect, preventing kids being out on the street at night.
The gang also face some personal dilemmas too. Lupe loses her stash of robots, her hanger being raided by police, who take the machines in as evidence. Hamelin gets told by his father that he's going to be sent into foster care, and his animals to the pound, and is forced to run away from home. We also discover that Farah is having difficulties with controlling her fire based powers, and learn why when we're told that she's channelling the power of a demon that's trying to possess her.
With their lives seemingly falling apart around them the children of the town are forced into action, coming together to form an underground resistance movement. Our magic heroes join up with the other kids, but have to try and keep their powers hidden from their peers as they fight back against what's happening. However, they soon start to suspect that there might be a magical origin for this new threat too.
With the previous volume of Magic 7 having done a lot of the groundwork for setting up these characters this second volume moved at a much quicker pace, and was able to pack in a lot more action, adventures, and intrigue straight from the start. The story didn't have to spend time letting us get to know our main character, and as such it definitely began a lot stronger; especially by being able to give us a huge revelation into Farah's powers and her home life very early on. It turns out she's not just making fire with her magic, but is possessed by a powerful demon that she's keeping at bay, and using its powers to her own ends. This was certainly a surprising development, but not an unwelcome one. It giver her characters a lot more depth, and makes her more than just a kid with powers. She has something dangerous inside her, something that she has to keep a tight rein on else it gain control and cause havoc. It definitely helps to set her apart from the other members of the group.
We also get an early explanation for why Lupe was acting shady in the first volume, and exactly what Alice was doing, and what her powers are. Yes, she's still quite creepy and I'm not one hundred percent convinced that she's completely on the level, but she at least seemed a bit more trustworthy in this book to the previous one.
I enjoyed the story for this volume a lot more than the first too. The first was a very childish story in a lot of way. I know these are books aimed at younger readers, so the stories are going to be simpler, but a thief that's stealing random objects like the school trophy or someones jewellery to be made into robots feels a bit different to all of the adults in town turning against the children. It felt like the stakes were higher here, that the threat was a lot more serious, and that it was a more desperate fight.
We also got hints in this volume of where the series as a whole might be heading thanks to a surprise appearance at the end of the book. It was something that I wasn't expecting, and am still not sure how I feel about it. The character it has a connection to seemed to act quite casual about something that should have been a huge emotional moment for them; but I guess we're going to have to see how it expands in future stories. We did get told why the Magic 7 are important though, and why they need to come together. It's something that I found very interesting, and if the story does follow through on what was promised here it could lead to some exciting stuff further down the line.
Overall, Magic 7, Volume Two: Against Them All proved to be a good second chapter in this story. It introduced some new characters, expanded upon the universe and gave us some interesting new information, and it felt like the stakes were a lot higher now too. If the series continues like this it seems set to only get better as it goes.
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