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Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass
Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass
Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass
Ebook196 pages2 hours

Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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In this remarkable novel Erica Kirov delivers one of the most memorable, unique and fast-paced adventures of the season. Complete with an incredible history, amazing characters (including snow leopards and crystal-ball salesmen) and a fascinating new take on magic, this is the must have new contemporary fantasy of the year.

Nick Rostov's life is borderline embarrassing.

His dad is well known as the worst magician in Las Vegas. Nick hasn't had a real friend in years. And his report card is not good at all. One F. Two Cs. One B-minus. And an A. In Health. But on Nick's thirteenth birthday his life changes forever. Awaking on the top floor of the world famous Winter Palace Hotel and Casino, he meets, for the first time, his extended family. A family gifted with the power of magic, real magic, exiled from their native Russia, they now hide in plain sight among the neon lights of the Casino.

All members of the family are powerful magicians, but Nick is unique. Nick has the sight—the ability to see into the past. His gift is the only way to unravel the mystery of the Eternal Hourglass, a magic artifact so strong it can even stop time. But the family's enemies will stop at nothing to get it. Nick knows that he is in for the adventure of a lifetime… if he survives.

The one and only Harry Houdini was killed for it, the most powerful magicians have battled for centuries to retrieve it, and even the Ancient Pharoahs feared its power.

What would you do for an hourglass that stopped time?

LanguageEnglish
PublisherSourcebooks
Release dateApr 1, 2010
ISBN9781402253966
Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass
Author

Erica Kirov

Erica Kirov is an American writer of Russian descent. Though she is not from a family of magicians, she is from a proud family of Russians, and she grew up hearing stories of their lives there. Erica lives in Virginia with her husband, four children, three dogs, parrot, and her son’s snake (she really hates snakes). She is busy at work on the next Magickeepers novel.

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Rating: 3.4242424060606065 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The Eternal Hourglass by Erica Kirov is the first of the Magickeepers series. Nick Rostov lives with his father in a crappy room in one of the older Las Vegas hotel. He's starting the summer off with a bad report card, and another birthday by himself.Except this time, his grandfather appears on his thirteenth birthday with the offer of a new life, new powers, an extended family he didn't know exists and, of course, new responsibilities. He's also moving to another hotel — this one a palace and magic school in disguise, all run by his extended and apparently massive family.How Nick reacts (or doesn't) to suddenly being thrust into a magical lifestyle is another bone of contention. Harry Potter fans seem to respond with more enthusiasm to Nick just blindly accepting his new life. Personally I have problems with the set up for both books — but here Nick, despite his crappy hotel apartment, does seem to have a good relationship with his father. I find it much harder to believe that he would just happily up and leave for such an extended period of time to go learn magic with relatives he didn't even know existed. Granted, he's still in Las Vegas, but I think he'd be motivated to find a way home.Here magic is hidden in plain sight by making it part of the Las Vegas kitsch. It's not a separate world of wizards and witches vs. muggles. Instead, it's a world of creative camouflage. Except — and this is such an overused trope — as soon as the main character has begun to come into his or her powers, the EVIL forces come out of the woodwork. As a reader, I'm tired of this plot. Learning to handle a sudden influx of power should be dangerous enough by itself. There doesn't have to be a BIG BAD lurking around every corner; all it does is get in the way of character development and world building.The Eternal Hourglass did not work for me. Nick was too passive a character. The inky shadows of BIG BAD, while visually interesting, were more of a distraction from potentially difficult character building opportunities or more complex world building. I wanted a better blending of Nick's personal story, the Russian family history of using magic, and Las Vegas's own checkered history. Unfortunately, none of those pieces came together, leaving me wishing I'd spent my time reading something else.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Kid is a typical teenager with a strange magical extended family, kid is then kidnapped by said family on his birthday, told "oh, but it's ok because we told your father we took you and he's alright with it now even though he despises all of us", kid says "well, that's all right then, I'll just stay here and not in any way try to speak to my father and make sure he knows I'm not dead", kid pairs up with cousin to stop horrible things from happening that adults couldn't possibly take care of themselves. What? Sounds a bit far-fetched? Yeah. Not even really fun at any point, just kind of ho hum, so I skimmed the last half.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Nick is an ordinary kid in Las Vegas but on his 13th day his grandfather takes him to a magic shop where a woman asks him to look into a crystal ball. Nick sees something thus confirming he has ‘the gift’. Suddenly his life changes and he goes to live with his dead mother’s relatives in a Las Vegas hotel where he eats strange food, learns Russian and regularly encounters tigers. He also learns to do magic (not stage magic like his father, but real magic) and that he is one of a long line of Magickeepers whose task is to guard magic items from the evil Shadowkeepers.A mixture of adventure, mystery and fantasy, this book (the first in a series) is promoted as being for lovers of Harry Potter. Whilst the books are similar the characters in The Eternal Hourglass aren’t as engaging as Harry and his friends. Recommended for fantasy lovers 9 and up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The blurb on the back is quite deceiving because it says, "What would you do for an hourglass that stopped time." and that makes it sound like the book will be about what someone does in order to obtain this object, but that's not exactly what the book is about. The Eternal Hourglass is book one in the Magickeepers series. Nick Rostov is a 13 year old boy whose father is a very unsuccessful magician living and working in Las Vegas. On his thirteenth birthday, Nick finds out some information that will change his life forever. He then spends the rest of the book trying to figure out what the key hung around his neck actually opens, and how to stay ahead of the Shadowkeepers, and thus, stay alive.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Series Review:I really enjoyed the Magickeeper series! It's written for ages 8-14, but even I got really into it and enjoyed it a lot. The stories were both woven well, with plenty of mystery and suspense to keep you reading. Once I started to read, it was hard to put it down. I never knew what to expect and was always surprised. It was like walking through a fun-house: you never knew what was going to be around the corner.My favorite characters had to be Nick and Isabella, followed closely by Isabella's pet tiger, Sascha. Sascha was just a really cool tiger. Vladimir, the hedgehog, was pretty cool, too. It was fun to watch Nick and Isabella together: they balanced each other well and would be fun people to be around. I wish they were real so we could hang out. Haley why would you want to hang out with thirteen-year-olds? Because they're magician thirteen-year-olds who can disappear and fly and look into crystal balls, and have more adventure in a day that I have in a month.The writing was good and easy to read and easy to follow, but some of the structure was a little confusing at times. It didn't take away form the action and adventure, though. I really liked the Russian culture incorporated into the stories. It wasn't overdone, but it was really fun to read the descriptions of the foods and the clothes and the decorations, and learn about some of the traditions. In the second book, The Pyramid of Souls, there was a lot of other cultures incorporated into it as well, because there were Magickeepers from Egypt and Nigeria and a Parisian clan, and Australians… so there were a lot of cool things that went on that we wouldn't normally think about—even in the world of magic.I look forward to the next book in the Magickeeper series! The Eternal Hourglass came out in paperback on March 31, 2010 and The Pyramid of Souls was just published in hardback on May 1st, 2010.Content/Recommendation: clean, and suitable for ages 8-16(-ish). I'm 18 and I enjoyed it, and parents would enjoy reading the books out loud to their kids as well!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Nick is the son of the worst magician on or off the Vegas strip, and has spent his life living in Las Vegas hotels. On his thirteenth birthday Nick’s grandfather takes him to a Magical Curiosity Shoppe where he is given the chance to look into a crystal ball, which is a total hoax, at least that’s what he thinks at the time. When he looks into the ball he is able to see far back in time. Not long after this he learns that magic is real, and that he is one of a long line of Magickeepers. Nick finds himself hunted by the Shadowkeeper because of a key left to him by his mother. Follow Nick as he fights to uncover the secret left to him by his mother and tries to rescue the rest of his family. This book moved a little slowly for me, and the main character was a little flat there was not much personal growth in this first book; but that is probably because of the authors need to establish a history. I look forward to the next book in this series as I hope to see more interesting character developments and new adventures.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Young Nick Rostov has spent his life in Las Vegas hotels. He is the son of one of the worst magicians on or off the Strip. If only his father were like the great Damian; tickets to his shows are sold out three years in advance.On the night of his thirteenth birthday, Nick's grandfather takes him to Madame Bogdonovich's Magical Curiosity Shoppe, where the boy is given a chance to look into a crystal ball. Nick thinks his grandfather is crazy—everyone knows that crystal balls are a hoax. But to appease the old man, he takes a look, and to his amazement, he can see far back in time. Nick, however, is unable to foretell where this newly discovered skill will take him.The magic in Kirov's novel is of three kinds: There are the familiar slight-of-hand magicians like Nick's father and Harry Houdini; there are the black magicians, or Shadowkeepers, such as Rasputin; and then there are the Magickeepers, or good magicians, like Damian. Until his birthday, the only magic Nick knew, was what his father had taught him. But within days, the boy would see firsthand the power of both good and evil magic.Other themes in this fast-moving middle reader fantasy are the importance of family and learning to trust oneself. Older readers will get a kick out of the "true" stories behind Houdini's skills and ultimate death, the fate of Russia's Princess Anastasia, and why Rasputin seemed to be impossible to kill.Don't look for wizards or dragons or unicorns; Magickeepers is all about the magic and takes place firmly in our world. On the other hand, there is much to spark a youngster's wonder and imagination, and the end of the book leaves us wanting to know more about Nick and his further adventures.This book will appeal to nine- to twelve-year-olds looking for a new fantasy series that features a young boy who is easy to relate to. Girls will be drawn to Nick's cousin Isabella and several other woman characters. Magickeepers is a bit young for high schoolers, but fans of the genre shouldn't hesitate to read the novel.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    You'd think having your birthday on the last day of school would be fun, but when your report card is dismal, you live in a hotel, and your father is the worst magician in all of Vegas? Eh.It all changes of course, when Nick's Grandfather gives him a key and the best magician in Vegas whisks him off to meet his extended family, which is full of magic. Real magic, not just illusion and trick.Not only is Nick expected to learn magic instead of sleep in on his summer vacation, he has to learn Russian, too. On top of this, there are some serious bad guys out there who are trying to steal magic and use it for evil. So much for skateboarding all summer...Kirov interweaves a lot of Russian culture, food and history (Princess Anastasia and Rasputin play major roles) in a solid adventure story complete with crystal balls, flying swords, tigers, and an hour glass that stops time.This book really sets up the series and I'm looking forward to the next one. It looks like a lot of the adult characters that Nick is meeting have both their good sides and bad sides, which is exciting. While Nick's family are the "good guys" it's apparent that they obtained many of the magical artifacts they're so carefully guarding through trickery or outright theft. Lots of murky morality to discuss. Combined with the magic and adventure (a great book for boys!) this is an excellent candidate for book discussion groups. I'm very much looking forward to the next books in the series.For reasons I can't fully explain, this book reminds me of Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians. They are similar in the fact that "boy meets a ton of distant cousins with crazy powers and goes on adventures to save the world" way, but that's similar to a lot of books. Nick never talks to the reader the way Alcatraz does, but there is something about each book that I think if you like one, you'll like the other.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    On his thirteenth birthday, Nick discovers that he possesses magical powers and that he's part of a long line of magicians dating back to ancient Egypt. The neat thing about this book was Nick's Russian lineage and the details of Russian culture that are inserted throughout. Unfortunately, the book fell flat for me and, although it was action-packed, I never really came to care about any of the characters. Hand this one to Harry Potter- and Percy Jackson fans who just can't get enough magic.

Book preview

Magickeepers - Erica Kirov

Copyright © 2010 by Erica Kirov

Cover and internal design © 2010 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

Cover Design by The Book Designers

Cover illustrations by Eric Fortune

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567–4410

(630) 961–3900

Fax: (630) 961–2168

www.sourcebooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kirov, Erica.

Magickeepers : the eternal hourglass / by Erica Kirov.

p. cm.

Summary: Living in Las Vegas with his unsuccessful father, Nick Rostov learns on his thirteenth birthday that he is descended from a powerful line of Russian Magickeepers on his dead mother’s side, and that the equally powerful but evil Shadowkeepers will stop at nothing to get an ancient relic that his grandfather gave him.

[1. Magic—Fiction. 2. Magicians—Fiction. 3. Good and evil—Fiction. 4. Family—Fiction. 5. Russia—History—Fiction. 6. Las Vegas (Nev.)—Fiction.] I. Title. II. Title: Eternal hourglass.

PZ7.K6382Mag 2009

[Fic]—dc22

2008047718

Contents

Front Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1: A Less-than-Stellar Birthday Report Card

Chapter 2: A Gift, the Gift

Chapter 3: The All-You-Can-Ask Buffet

Chapter 4: The Family Tree

Chapter 5: This Can't Be Breakfast?!

Chapter 6: Revelations and Advertisements

Chapter 7: Just a Dip in the Pool

Chapter 8: Some Answers and a Return

Chapter 9: A Pair of Vaults

Chapter 10: A Horse of Gold

Chapter 11: Grandpa's Triumphant Return

Chapter 12: Accelerated Training

Chapter 13: A Great Deal on a Dancing Bear!

Chapter 14: Who Sneaks into a Library During the Summer?

Chapter 15: An Unlikely Meeting

Chapter 16: Sometimes All You Need Is a Little Push

Chapter 17: An Imperial History Lesson

Chapter 18: Some Questions Are Better Left Unanswered

Chapter 19: Houdini's Last Trick

Chapter 20: A Bargain Struck

Chapter 21: A Mother's Choice

Chapter 22: A Rose of a Different Hue

Chapter 23: The Key and the Egg

Chapter 24: Awesome

Chapter 25: Fire, Water, Wind, and Sand

Chapter 26: No Going Back

Chapter 27: A Prince Rises

An excerpt from Magickeepers: The Pyramid of Souls

About the Author

Back Cover

To my father, for instilling in me a pride in my Russian heritage.

To my mother, for teaching me to live in the moment.

And to my children, Alexa, Nicholas, Isabella, and Jack,

for teaching me what it means to love.

Acknowledgments

A huge thank you, as always, to my agent, Jay Poynor, who was enchanted by the book idea, and who has never failed to support me in my writing endeavors.

To Lyron Bennett, my editor at Jabberwocky, who drove the writing of this book—his notes, his questions…I met my match as a writer. I appreciate all the inspiration and ideas he offered. The book—and I as a writer—gained infinitely from his insights.

To Irina Polyakova, who translated phrases into Russian for me and was more than generous with her knowledge of linguistics and Russian culture. I very much appreciate her patience with me.

To Writer’s Cramp—Pam, Jon, and Melody—for Tuesdays and the power of conference calls, friendship, dedication, and…sushi.

To my young friends—the gang at New Hope—Miranda, Lauren, Allison, Maggie, Josh, and most especially Jacob, who always makes me feel like a special author.

To my nieces and nephews, whom I adore: Tyler, Zachary, and Tori and Cassidy (Twins #1); and Pannos and his sisters, Sofia and Evanthia (Twins #2).

And finally, to my own family. Most especially, for this book, to my children, who have so wonderfully understood deadlines, and helped me name tigers and polar bears and envision a world in which magic exists. Because in the end, family is magic.

The power of thought—the magic of the mind!

—Lord Byron

The magic of the tongue is the most dangerous of all spells.

—Edward Bulwer-Lytton

My brain is the key that sets my mind free.

—Harry Houdini

Prologue

Princess Theatre, Montreal, Canada, 1926

The mysterious man in the black wool cloak sat in the front row of the Princess Theatre, precisely in the center seat. He set his top hat on his knees, and his rough beard straggled down, like a bird’s nest after a storm. The man waited for the finale of the show, speaking to no one, not even his companion. Instead, he stared intently with pale, magnetic eyes as the most famous magician in the world, Harry Houdini, announced his next trick from the stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing my original invention, the Water Torture Cell.

As the audience hushed, Houdini, short and muscular with a head of dark hair and wearing a simple black bathing suit, was draped in chains by his wife, Bess. A policeman from the audience was brought onstage wearing a dapper uniform, badge gleaming under the spotlights. Holding up his own handcuffs, the policeman pulled Houdini’s arms behind his back and clapped the cuffs on tightly, checking them several times before nodding. The chains wrapped around Houdini’s body were heavy and clinked and rattled with every move he made. Finally, two huge padlocks were attached to the chains and locked dramatically with shining brass keys.

Slowly, the magician was lifted—upside down—and suspended over the glass torture chamber filled to the top with ice-cold water. Bess signaled, and Houdini was lowered until his head almost touched the beckoning water.

Bess told the crowd, Take one last breath with the master, Houdini, and see how long you can hold it.

The crowd inhaled as one. Houdini filled his lungs with air—one last breath—and was lowered into the water, first his head, neck, then body, and finally his feet, before Bess fastened the top. The chamber was not big enough for Houdini to turn around in. A thick curtain was drawn. An hourglass was overturned.

He must emerge before this sand runs out, Bess announced to the crowd. Or he will drown.

Not one whisper could be heard in the theater. Patrons in fur coats and fancy theater dress leaned forward, women in plumage and jewels knotted their hands together anxiously. The man in the cloak heard people exhaling around him as they gasped for breath. He watched the sands trickling, as if he were somehow counting each grain. Now, as the sands ran down inside the hourglass, members of the audience murmured. Someone near the man in the cloak whispered, It’s impossible to hold your breath that long. They must free him.

It’s been two minutes! Bess exclaimed from the stage, panic in her voice. He cannot survive.

Bess parted the curtain, revealing Houdini struggling wildly with his shackles. Frantically, she closed the curtain and ran for the safety ax, ready to smash the glass and free her beloved husband from the throes of death. She raised the ax as the audience gasped in horror.

The man in the cloak saw those around him frozen at the edge of their seats as if statues. Seconds passed. The curtain rose.

The Water Torture Cell was empty.

At that moment, a dripping wet and smiling Houdini was revealed, standing atop the torture cell, arms raised above his head in triumph.

The crowd in the Princess Theatre rose to their feet as if they were one, stamping and clapping their approval, whistles and shouts of Bravo! ringing through the theater. But not the man in the cloak with the icy eyes. He stared, not at Houdini, but at the hourglass that had sifted the sparkling sand. He could see the lettering etched along its gold-rimmed top.

His companion leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, Is that it, Master?

The man in the cloak nodded, his eyes narrow with fury. Yes.

Now what?

We must do whatever it takes.

Eight days later, Harry Houdini, revered showman, the most famous magician ever to have lived, was dead.

Chapter 1

A Less-than-Stellar Birthday Report Card

Nick Rostov stared down at his end-of-year report card.

One F. Two Cs. One B-minus. And an A. In Health.

He tried to imagine how he would explain to his dad that his lone A was for the class that taught where babies came from; that he knew what a fallopian tube was, but square roots eluded him.

If he thought his report card was bad, lunch was a disaster. When he walked into the cafeteria, an overwhelming stench overpowered him—way worse than Tuna-Surprise Tuesdays and Mystery-Meat Mondays. The usual lady in the hairnet had been replaced by a creepy guy with long, wiry hair and strange eyes, and whatever the guy was serving didn’t look good—and smelled worse. The smell was so gross that Nick didn’t eat and instead fished from his backpack a pulverized snack-size bag of potato chips, which had been crushed into smithereens by his math book. This meant he actually ate potato chip dust, and his stomach growled all afternoon.

When the final bell rang, he grabbed his skateboard from his locker and waved good-bye to a couple of kids in the hall. Once he was off school property, Nick rode his board down the hot Nevada sidewalk in the general direction of the hotel where he lived in a suite with his dad.

He’d attended two schools in the last three years. Every time his dad was fired or changed jobs, they moved. Nick bent his knees and jumped a curb on his skateboard.

Living in hotels with his dad meant whenever Nick made a friend at the hotel pool, the kid was on vacation. He figured over the last three or four years, he’d made a hundred friends, and not one of them lived in Las Vegas. He once had a friend from Belize. He didn’t even know where Belize was.

Nick rode his skateboard into a big parking lot by the high school, the wheels making a steady whish-whish noise. He didn’t want to go home—not with that report card. Not that his dad would say much, but he always had a sad look on his face. Bad report cards only made it sadder.

Nick didn’t know how long he rode his skateboard, hopping curbs, jumping over banged-up trash cans lying on their sides. The last two cars left the high school’s parking lot, two teachers with bulging briefcases, grinning from ear to ear. Even teachers were happy when school let out for summer.

Finally, he started toward home, the sky clear and cloudless. When he arrived at the Pendragon Hotel and Casino, the doorman, Jack, asked him, How’d you do on your report card?

Don’t ask.

That good, huh?

Yeah.

Then you may not want to go up. Your grandfather is here. Louisa in housekeeping called me. You can hear them yelling all the way down the hallway.

Great. Just what I need. Dad will be in an even worse mood.

Nick sighed, picked up his board, walked through the lobby, and rode up in the elevator—the one with the light that sometimes flickered like a horror movie. He stepped off when it arrived at his floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something move. He whirled around in time to see a weird shadow on the wall. He took a few steps toward that end of the hall, and the shadow slid under a room door. Nick didn’t see a single thing that could have created the shadow.

What the…? Shadows didn’t appear from nothing. Nick hesitated but walked closer to the door where it had disappeared.

The closer he got, the more he smelled…well, he didn’t know what it was. But it was worse than his gym locker after not washing his P.E. uniform all year. It reminded him of the cafeteria’s strange odor at lunch. Could a lunchroom stench follow you home? Or was it something weirder than that?

Nick shivered. Whatever had gone under that door—shadow and stench—he didn’t want to be near it. So he ran down the hall as fast as he could, looking over his shoulder every couple of strides. When he reached his door, he could hear his father and grandfather arguing.

I told you, Gus, absolutely not! his father’s voice was loud. His dad never yelled. He gave Nick that I’m disappointed in you, son speech, but he never yelled, not even at Grandpa.

It doesn’t matter if you refuse. It’s in his bloodline.

Don’t talk to me about this. The answer is no.

"She would have wanted him to go. She would have wanted to know. For sure. Once and for all. I know my daughter. She would have."

She wouldn’t. That’s why we’re even here, Gus. She was hiding from them. From her past.

You’re a fool! Sooner or later, he’ll find out for himself. You can’t fight it.

Nick’s heart pounded. He leaned his ear closer to the

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