The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Sequence)

Product Information

So it's a very interesting world with lots going on instead of just some tough wizard kid fighting a bad guy. I recommend it to all who want to read a different kind of fantasy. The plot works, though between action, it can slow down considerably, but the magical scenes are pretty fantastic, and, while HP has managed to sadden me on occasion, this book was the first that scared me with its monsters. The Bartimaeus Trilogy' gets 5 stars for all three books, not only for plot and story, but for Simon Jones' award-winning narration. Stroud lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire, with his two children, Isabelle and Arthur, and his wife Gina, an illustrator of children's books. This is a difficult book to rate: It was very well-written, with an intriguing plot and engaging wit. That being said, I must admit that it was more frustrating than enjoyable for me.

Recommendations: I loved this book so much, I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to capture the magic of reading as a kid again. It has enough adult elements to make it an ideal crossover series. Make sure to do a physical read, however - the footnotes are everything. The audio version includes the footnotes as part of the main narrative but they blend in too well, taking away half the fun of the series. In an alternate London where the British Empire dominates the world through control of magic, and commoners are governed by the ruling class of magicians, five-year-old Nathaniel begins an apprenticeship to magician Arthur Underwood, Minister of Internal Affairs. This series is getting better and better and I honestly have no real reason not to give it 5 stars except that I find it really hard to give 5 stars to children and middle grade books, sorry XD The text is small. Yikes, so small I had to use my strong reading glasses. Again, this is actually a good thing as more of the story remains. I think the story is set in modern times, but Britain is still a great empire that still rules the American colonies. This alternate history adds to the creativity of the story.I don't usually reread books I didn't care for initially, This would be the first. Before I had any prominence or visibility on Goodreads whatsoever, my first review for this book drew a lot of heated opposition. According to the New York Times, a film adaptation, entitled Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet Of Samarkand, was being planned. Miramax Films will finance the film, Mirage Enterprises will produce it, John Madden will direct, and Hossein Amini will write a screenplay. [1] Translations [ ] La historia que se presenta unos años después de los acontecimientos del primer libro me parece muy interesante e incluso supera a su predecesor con algunos momentos MUY buenos, de los que más emoción he sentido no solo con esta trilogía, sino en toda mi vida como lectora... sin embargo para mí pegaba altibajos al llegar a los capítulos (que no son pocos en la primera mitad del libro) del mencionado nuevo personaje (no quiero desvelar el nombre para quien no haya leído el libro y fastidiar la sorpresa). Salvo en un par de casos puntuales, deseaba que acabara su parte para volver con Bartimeo o Nathaniel. Not to compare this too much to Harry Potter, but it is one of the first series to ride the initial wave of Pottermania to greater notoriety. The Amulet is only mentioned during the events of The Golem's Eye once when John Mandrake (Nathaniel) attempts to use the fact that he saved the Prime Minister and gave him the amulet to evade being imprisoned in the Tower of London.

When he quietly masters one of the most difficult spells in a magician's repertoire, Nathaniel summons Bartimaeus, an ancient djinni (with a rather acerbic wit and a very dry sense of humour), and commands him to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, The Amulet of Samarkand. Unaware that Lovelace was planning on putting the amulet to use in a treasonous coup to overthrow the government, Nathaniel finds himself trapped in a maelstrom of evil, espionage, murder and magical Royal Rumbles and is now pursued as the object of a merciless manhunt. For those who didn't get the title, Simon Jones is probably best known by some as the voice of Arthur Dent in the BBC's TV and radio adaptations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But he does an excellent job of narrating audiobooks from what I've heard, particularly here.

So, Nathaniel is a young magician in training. The world he lives in, an alternate history Britain, is cruel and brutal. People with magical gifts are taken from their parents as children, fostered with strangers, and made to forget their own names. Once grown, these magicians are power-seekers. They rule the British Empire and subjugate practically anyone within reach. This includes “demons” like Bartimaeus. The real secret of magic is that humans only have magic by knowing how to capture and bind what they call “demons” (magical creatures like jinni, in reality) into magical slavery, and use those demons to perform magic. Of all the odd things to find in a modern, present-set, book, the author goes in hard on who, Disraeli or Gladstone, was the greater Prime Minister. Thank you to my Patrons: Filipe, Dave, Katrin, Frank, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Melissa, Derek, Tonya, Betsy, Mike, and Jen! <3 Enter Nathaniel, a boy who is in training to become a powerful magician. In book one of the series, he summons Bartimaeus from the netherworld and an involuntary partnership begins. In THE GOLEM'S EYE, young Nathaniel again finds himself in need of the djinni's aid, so he again turns to reluctant Bartimaeus. This time, a revolutionary group is blowing things up in London, which may or may not be related to a series of unusual occurrences that have the police stumped. Nathaniel feels that his career would take off if he can solve these crimes. But the stakes are high because he knows that his career, and possibly his life, are in jeopardy if he fails.

Among his most prominent works are the bestselling Bartimaeus Trilogy. A special feature of these novels compared to others of their genre is that Stroud examines the stereotypes and ethics of the magician class and the enslaved demons. This is done by examining the perspective of the sarcastic and slightly egomaniacal djinni Bartimaeus. The books in this series are The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate, his first books to be published in the United States. The main protagonist of the book Nathaniel is an apprentice. He is under the surveillance of a scrawny, not-so-powerful mr. Underwood. Soon he gets into enemity with Simon lovelace - a hedious magician thriving on want of power. And in process of seeking revenge he gets intertwined between far large conspiracy than he could ever imagine. so he summons a djinni to help himself.I could sympathize with the characters but I couldn't seem to make myself care for them. The only like-able character for me is Bartimaeus, the others fell kind of flat or annoying. It took me a while to warm up to Kitty and by the end of the book, I came to like her too. But not that much. Just enough so I could stop rolling my eyes during her POVs. teehee. Story-wise, this first installment in The Bartimaeus Trilogy is respectably good. However, the writing failed to appeal to me in many ways that, were they not already in my possession, I might not even bother with the next two books. Jonathan Stroud somehow manages to write with so much distance between the narrator(s) and the readers — even when he’s telling the story in first person through Bartimaeus. This is partly because Bartimaeus is vain and patronizing, but mostly because even the first-person narrative sounds like a third-person omniscient storyteller is telling it, only with “I’s”.