While working at pleasant but mundane summer jobs in San Francisco, fifteen-year-old twins, Sophie and Josh, suddenly find themselves caught up in the deadly, centuries-old struggle between rival alchemists, Nicholas Flamel and John Dee, over the possession of an ancient and powerful book holding the secret formulas for alchemy and everlasting life.

"A comprehensive look at the life and continuing influence of the 16th-century scientific genius and occultist Dr. John Dee"--

After his death, John Dee, a polymath from Renaissance Europe, is placed in suspended animation by his alien confidant, Dyckson. When humanity is about to create a weapon that will destroy all civilization in 2099, Dyckson wakes Dee to help stop Armageddon.

Fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman continue their magical training in Paris with Nicholas Flamel, Scatty, and the Comte de Sant Germaine, pursued by Doctor Dee and the immortal Niccolo Machiavelli.

Back in London, fifteen-year-old twins Sophie and Josh Newman must determine whom they can and cannot trust as they search for both Scatty and an immortal who can teach Josh the magic of fire, while Doctor Dee and Machiavelli continue to seek power.

When several of the queen's maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that something far more sinister is at work.

"A man who will become the original MI6 agent protects England and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I from Spain's nefarious plan to crush the Age of the Enlightenment. After centuries locked in an endless cycle of poverty, persecution, and barbarity, Europe has finally emerged into the Age of Enlightenment. Scientists, philosophers, scholars, and poets alike believe this to be a new era of reason and hope for all. But the forces of darkness haven't completely...

Summoned by William Cecil to address dangerous questions about Elizabeth I's legitimacy, royal astrologer John Dee teams up with Robert Dudley to retrieve the bones of King Arthur, a mission that is complicated by magic, a first love, and a complex plot against the queen.