The Bartimaeus Trilogy
Series of three books by Jonathan Stroud: The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate.
Excellent series, not just for the target audience, but all ages.
In The Amulet of Samarkand, we're introduced to Nathaniel, apprenticed to a mediocre magician. When the eleven-year-old is humiliated by flashy magician Simon Lovelace and receives no help from his master, Nathaniel vows revenge. He studies in secret until he feels confident he can summon a djinni on his own. When he summons Bartimaeus, he orders him to steal the fabled Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace. But he doesn't expect to get caught up in a plot to overthrow the government. And djinnis are a little harder to control than he'd anticipated.
We're introduced to Stroud's alternate London, a London of Magicians and Commoners, who are very much second class citizens -- barred from the government and all important social positions. Magicians derive all their power from their ability to summon and control demons (djinns) from the Other Place. The dual themes of injustice -- the powerlessness of Commoners and the enslavement of djinns -- is the main theme of the trilogy.
But I'm making it sound too stuffy. It's a good adventure story with intriguing characters. Nathaniel is neither perfect nor heroic; he's whiny and petulant for much of the book, though when the going gets tough, he comes through with courage and quick thinking. Bartimaeus is pompous and sarcastic, but when he could harm Nathaniel, he doesn't, which is unusual. Most "demons" test their bonds and try to trick their masters into making fatal mistakes that not only free the djinns to go back home, but allow them to devour their masters too.
The story alternates chapters between Nathaniel (third person) and Bartimaeus (first person). Bartimaeus' wit and sarcasm make his chapters a treat.
The story continues in The Golem's Eye. Nathaniel is now fourteen, working in the Internal Affairs department, and is known as John Mandrake (magicians take on an assumed name, as their birth name can be used to harm them). Important artifacts are being stolen and buildings destroyed. The government believes these are terrorist attacks by Commoners, who have been growing more resentful. Worse still, there are rumors that some Commoners are becoming resistant to magic.
In addition to Nathaniel and Bartimaeus' viewpoints, we're now introduced to Kitty Jones, a Commoner who joins the resistance after a run-in with a magician who takes revenge after Kitty and a friend accidentally damage his car with a carelessly hit ball while they're playing in a park that's off limits to Commoners.
Bartimaeus' investigations take him and Nathaniel to Prague, where they try to find the magician who's behind the attacks.
Once again a fast paced adventure, with humor and intrigue. Bartimaeus' disappointment in being summoned again is increased by Nathaniel's progression into what Bartimaeus sarcastically calls your typical magician: cold and cruel, ambitious, self-serving. But behind his needling, the reader can sense his sorrow at seeing the man the boy is becoming. You sense that he's hoping that by needling him, Bartimaeus is trying to find the human core that still remains before it's too late.
Ptolemy's Gate concludes a satisfying series. Stroud has never pulled his punches or talked down to his audience. Even though marketed as a children's series, this is what makes it entertaining for adults.
Nathaniel is now seventeen. His success with the golem incident has led to his appointment as Information Minister. His main job is publishing propaganda pamphlets on the success of the war in America (the colonials are rebelling -- 200 years later than in our reality). The Commoners are growing more restless and rebellion is brewing as more and more people are developing resistance to magic.
Bartimaeus has been weakened by spending too much time in this world; Nathaniel refuses to dismiss him until the problems are solved.
Kitty is undercover in London. She's researching magic and Bartimaeus in particular, trying to find a way to break the cycle of conflict and slavery between djinns and humans.
The three are brought together again when a magicians plan to overthrow the government by allowing a demons to inhabit their bodies, confident they can maintain control and harness the demons' power for their own.
We also learn more about Bartimaeus' past and his relationship to a magician which has continued to haunt him down through the centuries.
The plots that have been building through three books come to a satisfying conclusion. Nothing slacks off or is given a hasty or overly rosy conclusion. To say anything more is to risk saying too much and spoiling it for first time readers.
Excellent series, not just for the target audience, but all ages.
In The Amulet of Samarkand, we're introduced to Nathaniel, apprenticed to a mediocre magician. When the eleven-year-old is humiliated by flashy magician Simon Lovelace and receives no help from his master, Nathaniel vows revenge. He studies in secret until he feels confident he can summon a djinni on his own. When he summons Bartimaeus, he orders him to steal the fabled Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace. But he doesn't expect to get caught up in a plot to overthrow the government. And djinnis are a little harder to control than he'd anticipated.
We're introduced to Stroud's alternate London, a London of Magicians and Commoners, who are very much second class citizens -- barred from the government and all important social positions. Magicians derive all their power from their ability to summon and control demons (djinns) from the Other Place. The dual themes of injustice -- the powerlessness of Commoners and the enslavement of djinns -- is the main theme of the trilogy.
But I'm making it sound too stuffy. It's a good adventure story with intriguing characters. Nathaniel is neither perfect nor heroic; he's whiny and petulant for much of the book, though when the going gets tough, he comes through with courage and quick thinking. Bartimaeus is pompous and sarcastic, but when he could harm Nathaniel, he doesn't, which is unusual. Most "demons" test their bonds and try to trick their masters into making fatal mistakes that not only free the djinns to go back home, but allow them to devour their masters too.
The story alternates chapters between Nathaniel (third person) and Bartimaeus (first person). Bartimaeus' wit and sarcasm make his chapters a treat.
The story continues in The Golem's Eye. Nathaniel is now fourteen, working in the Internal Affairs department, and is known as John Mandrake (magicians take on an assumed name, as their birth name can be used to harm them). Important artifacts are being stolen and buildings destroyed. The government believes these are terrorist attacks by Commoners, who have been growing more resentful. Worse still, there are rumors that some Commoners are becoming resistant to magic.
In addition to Nathaniel and Bartimaeus' viewpoints, we're now introduced to Kitty Jones, a Commoner who joins the resistance after a run-in with a magician who takes revenge after Kitty and a friend accidentally damage his car with a carelessly hit ball while they're playing in a park that's off limits to Commoners.
Bartimaeus' investigations take him and Nathaniel to Prague, where they try to find the magician who's behind the attacks.
Once again a fast paced adventure, with humor and intrigue. Bartimaeus' disappointment in being summoned again is increased by Nathaniel's progression into what Bartimaeus sarcastically calls your typical magician: cold and cruel, ambitious, self-serving. But behind his needling, the reader can sense his sorrow at seeing the man the boy is becoming. You sense that he's hoping that by needling him, Bartimaeus is trying to find the human core that still remains before it's too late.
Ptolemy's Gate concludes a satisfying series. Stroud has never pulled his punches or talked down to his audience. Even though marketed as a children's series, this is what makes it entertaining for adults.
Nathaniel is now seventeen. His success with the golem incident has led to his appointment as Information Minister. His main job is publishing propaganda pamphlets on the success of the war in America (the colonials are rebelling -- 200 years later than in our reality). The Commoners are growing more restless and rebellion is brewing as more and more people are developing resistance to magic.
Bartimaeus has been weakened by spending too much time in this world; Nathaniel refuses to dismiss him until the problems are solved.
Kitty is undercover in London. She's researching magic and Bartimaeus in particular, trying to find a way to break the cycle of conflict and slavery between djinns and humans.
The three are brought together again when a magicians plan to overthrow the government by allowing a demons to inhabit their bodies, confident they can maintain control and harness the demons' power for their own.
We also learn more about Bartimaeus' past and his relationship to a magician which has continued to haunt him down through the centuries.
The plots that have been building through three books come to a satisfying conclusion. Nothing slacks off or is given a hasty or overly rosy conclusion. To say anything more is to risk saying too much and spoiling it for first time readers.