The demon Bartimaeus is disgusted to be successfully summoned by the ambitious twelve year old and, even more so, when Nathaniel compels him to undertake a dangerous and difficult mission. Their relationship is not cosy, but governed on either side by fear and constraint. The perspective of Bartimaeus, the millennia old demon who relates a great part of the narrative, provides a cynical, humorous and entirely unsentimental view of events. A djinn unlike any other will make you laugh and wonder how you could actually like a creature so devious. But I guess in a world that he is summoned to, it isn't so hard to love him. It's tempting to compare the book to the Harry Potter series. Young boy. Magic. Sneaking around. Breaking the rules. Stern teachers. But the similarities really end there. And speaking of the characters, they were completely delightful, even if not always likable. And the demons – omgsh the demons. They start out as these wildly interesting (and dangerous) enigmas that give you even more reason to keep reading. I also loved learning about summoning demons and watching one of the main characters struggle to get it right. The combination of the magic, world-buildings, and mystery plot made for one of the most enjoyable things I’ve read in ages. And that’s across ALL genres, not just middle-grade books. Notes: Too precious, wears, gets hard to care, its hero whines a lot, quite byzantine, excitement-lean, more filigree than plot.

This is a FANTASTIC book, one that suggests that Harry Potter books don't have to be just a phenomenon, but could be a genre as well, as long as there are people out there who have the capacity, as Jonathan Stroud does, to create new worlds. While Harry Potter may always be on the top of the heap (better protagonists), don't make me choose between Dobby and Bartimaeus; it will only end in house-elf tears. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2010-03-04 21:06:32 Boxid IA114714 Boxid_2 CH120120908-BL1 Camera Canon 5D City New York DonorI did enjoy it, I found the story very accessible but it still gave enough depth to build the world and get to know Nathaniel and Bartemaus. Learning that Bartimaeus: The Amulet of Samarkand is the story of a young apprentice magician, cruelly bereft of his parents and lonely and neglected in his foster home, we may feel that we are in over-familiar territory. Stroud’s novel, however, is very different in tone from the work of J K Rowling. If leaving his parents and erasing his past life isn't tough enough, Nathaniel's master, Arthur Underwood, is a cold, condescending, and cruel middle-ranking magician in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The boy's only saving grace is the master's wife, Martha Underwood, who shows him genuine affection that he rewards with fierce devotion. Nathaniel gets along tolerably well over the years in the Underwood household until the summer before his eleventh birthday. Everything changes when he is publicly humiliated by the ruthless magician Simon Lovelace and betrayed by his cowardly master who does not defend him. Stroud lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire, with his two children, Isabelle and Arthur, and his wife Gina, an illustrator of children's books. The graphic novel seemed to give a complete overview of the book, but it still didn't jog my memory. I was disappointed that while my favourite scene was almost certainly from here, it didn't make it into image form.

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. 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. Start Media has optioned the film and TV rights to Jonathan Stroud’s fantasy series The Bartimaeus Sequence. Though, how can you not? Both feature emotionally abused foster-children who learn magic in a school setting. Throughout his childhood, noteworthy events embitter Nathaniel towards Underwood. A year or so before the events of the novel Underwood hosts a gathering of magicians in his villa. Upon his presentation to the other magicians, Nathaniel (age 10 at the time) is interviewed by his later antagonist Simon Lovelace who dismisses Nathaniel's obvious powers for magic. Nathaniel retorts impolitely and incurs Lovelace's wrath, in the form of an invisible demon which holds him immobile, allowing Lovelace to deride his helpless condition. Once he is released, Nathaniel sets a fleet of mites upon Lovelace, which he easily destroys, and is punished with a beating from one of Lovelace's imps. Ms. Lutyens, his admired art teacher, attempts to waylay the punishment and is dismissed.

If you want an ingenious hybrid of Riordan, Pratchett, and comedic fantasy in general, you now know where to go. I also enjoyed the speed at which I could read the book – it took me a couple of days instead of the week or so the original book by Jonathan Stroud would have done – and yet I don’t feel like I missed out on any story. One thing The Amulet of Samarkand does not do is take itself too seriously. That was a relief. I had approached this with trepidation. I'd heard good things, but I wasn't in the mood for some heavy going in a kiddies' fantasy world with evil baddies, precocious sprites, etc. No, instead what you get with this book is a relaxed tone, a great sense of humor and a worthwhile adventure.

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. 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. Nathaniel is a boy magician-in-training, sold to the government by his birth parents at the age of five and sent to live as an apprentice to a master. Powerful magicians rule Britain, and its empire, and Nathaniel is told his is the "ultimate sacrifice" for a "noble destiny."I know they were trying to keep it to one book, but I feel like too much was left out, too much was rushed. All the major, important events were kept, but most of Nathanial's story, and a lot of the fun, minor details got left out. For the sake of brevity, I suppose. It was, however, a fine enough book, more like a good overview of the original than an equal to it.