The Eternity Elixir
Twelve-year-old Gordy Stitser has a special talent most children his age do not: an ability to brew magical potions. In Frank L. Cole’s first installment of the Potion Masters trilogy, The Eternity Elixir (Shadow Mountain) draws us into a world where magic and potions have been behind every major development of the last three hundred years. Gordy has been learning from his incredibly skilled Elixirist mother for years, and is quite the prodigy. There is a lab in his basement that contains all sorts of magical ingredients, including a long-dead mummy named Bawdry (he requires daily spritzes of the strongest air freshener one can buy). Potions are a staple in his home, though his father and younger siblings do not have the innate talent Gordy and his mother do.
When his mother disappears and Gordy receives a package containing a mysterious potion, he is inadvertently sent into a life-and-death adventure. Gordy is now in possession of the Eternity Elixir, a powerful brew that threatens life as we know it. Dangerous forces want the potion too, and Gordy, along with his best friends Max and Abilene, must do what they can to preserve our reality. Featuring inventive potions such as “Rat Attack” and “Lava Bombs” saving the world is messy business. Fortunately for Gordy, things work out — for now. But all is not what it seems, and danger lurks.
The book lays the series’ foundation, establishing a team of strong characters before the action of the story really takes off. We meet Gordy’s family and support system, allowing us to get a sense of how things operate before all normalcy is thrown out the window. He has a loving dad, silly siblings and good friends who know Gordy’s most important secret. In the early chapters, Gordy pleads for his friends Max and Abilene to become his lab partners, even though they do not have the natural call to potion-making that he does. That Gordy’s mother gives her permission to let them go into the lab becomes invaluable later as the trio gets swept up in adventure, with Max and Abilene providing crucial help and support to Gordy.
Frank L. Cole has beautifully constructed a world in which potions are crucial to our everyday life. Gordy is in on one of the world’s best-kept secrets, as we learn how deeply potions are intertwined with history. Governed by B.R.E.W., the Board of Ruling Elixirists Worldwide, potions are used with positive intent. We meet a potion brewer who works with cars, trying to eliminate the pollution they produce. Other potions are medicinal, used to help sick people recover. There is even a potion that makes small children want to brush their teeth at night. However, once the potions are used to try to harm other people, we also find out that there are explosive brews out there too — and people who will fight for the good of humanity, and we find ourselves rooting for them as the journey continues.
The first of a trilogy, Gordy’s adventures prove that he is a bright young talent. One can only wonder what potions and shenanigans he gets into next with The Transparency Tonic and the just-released trilogy finale, The Seeking Serum.
The Eternity Elixir, The Transparency Tonic and The Seeking Serum are now available for purchase.
For more on Frank, visit his author profile.
