The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand
This is my second book for the Once Upon a Time Challenge, and is the first book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy.
In a London where the government is run by magicians, a five year old Nathaniel is apprenticed to Arthur Underwood, an average-at-best magician. Nathaniel soon surpases everyone’s expectations of him – secretly, of course – in order to steal an amulet from Simon Lovelace, a magician he’s trying to get even with. This amulet turns out to be the same one that was stolen from the government not too far in the past; Simon wants it back, and will stop at nothing (including murder) to get it. What started as Nathaniel trying to get revenge on Simon soon turns into Nathaniel, with help from the demon djinni Bartimaeus, trying to save the whole government from Simon’s evil plot.
This book reminded me a lot of C.S. Lewis’s work. From Arthur Underwood being almost identical to Uncle Andrew in The Magician’s Nephew to Bartimaeus seeming very similar to Screwtape… Now, I haven’t read the Screwtape Letters in many years, so they may not actually be similar characters at all, but… Anyway, I’m going to need to reread Screwtape now.
While I enjoyed the book on the whole, I feel that the parts told from Bartimaeus’s point of view were much more entertaining than those told from Nathaniel’s point of view. Bartimeaus has such a wonderful voice – he is snarky, sneaky, and totally wants you to think that he’s only out for his own interests (all of which I seem to find irresistible in characters). As for Nathaniel, I felt he had so much potential to be a character I loved but half way through the book he sort of … went wimpy. I’m all for the underdogs rising above everyone’s expectations of them, but he was rather bland when compared to Bartimaeus.
There were other “demons” and the like in the book, and it was fun to see the antagonism between them all – or at least between them and Bartimaeus.
I’m interested to see where the series goes from here, and I’ll be picking up the other books in the trilogy at some point.
Quixotic April 19th, 2007 at 4:49 am
I have this one on my challenge list too, I was given the trilogy boxset recently as a gift. I’m looking forward to getting to it.
After reading this and a couple of the other reviews/posts about the book, I think I’m going to enjoy Bartimaeus’ character, he sounds fun.
I love that cover image too, very appealing.
Chris April 19th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Great review! I’ve been meaning to read this book. I’ve heard some good and some bad, but I have a feeling I’ll like this one. Thanks!
Bellezza April 19th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
I adore The Screwtape Letters; imagine my surprise when I discovered they are actually labelled as Fantasy! I thought they were theology. Anyway, your review intrigues me because C.S. Lewis is such an incredible writer and it’s interesting that this book makes you think of him.
Stephanie April 20th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
I bought the first 2 books in this trilogy for my brother for Christmas. And I got him the 3rd for his birthday. I full expect to get them back at some point in time!! Nice review!
Kailana April 22nd, 2007 at 11:21 pm
I really need to put this book on a list because I have owned it forever and not read it yet… I must read it, but then I will have to buy two more… hm…
Mailyn April 23rd, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for stopping by the site! I love yours and added it to our links.
I have this series in my TBR pile and I can’t wait to start on it!
Court April 23rd, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Marilyn – Thanks for the link on Twisted Kingdom!
Kailana – Ah yes, that’s always the dilemma with starting the first book of a series…. ;)
Bellezza – I never would have considered The Screwtape Letters to be fantasy… that’s really strange. Now I’m really going to have to go back and read it and pretend that I don’t know it’s theology in order to see if I can think of it as fantasy…
Framed April 24th, 2007 at 12:17 am
I enjoyed all three books in this series. Bartimaeus is certainly the star, much more interesting to me than Nathaniel. I love his footnotes.
Semicolon April 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
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