The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Sequence)

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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.

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. 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.The plot seemed to drag on and on, however, things started to come together in the second half so that was a plus. However, I didn't really care for the plot so much regardless- this was a very character driven book for me and I was just there for Kitty and Bartimaeus the whole time. The Amulet of Samarkand is an extremely potent magical artifact of a passively protects its bearer from magic-based assaults, even from the strongest magic and spirits. That and a whole lot more suggest this book is a faithful adaptation, cherishing the original and only making it more vivid.

Character For me, they were pretty much 1-dimensional. The magicians are power-hungry, self-obsessed, egoistic, with really nothing to brag about except they could control the Spirits. Most of the time, they come off very easy to manipulate. As what Bartimaeus once said, they are all driven by power and greed. Or you know, something like that. After Nathaniel dismissed Ramuthra from the room, he returned the amulet to the hands of the Prime Minister, Rupert Devereaux. The whole artwork is superlative, with characters - human, magical or otherwise - simply and well defined. The other half of the story shows how the apprentice, Nathaniel, was torn from his parents as a five-year-old and dumped in the household of an uncaring master to be force-fed with magical learning. You are just beginning to think you understand how the magician politicians of this world grow up so nasty, when Nathaniel suddenly - albeit arrogantly - begins to display some decent qualities. I find it amusing how many people compare this book to Harry Potter. Yes, they both involve magic, but that's the end of the similarity. The very basis of magic in this book is that magicians are evil, scheming, and enjoy enslaving other beings. In Harry Potter Magic itself was pure, free to be used in any way desired. But that's all I'll say on that, as this is a review of Bartimaeus, not Harry Potter.

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While it bears some resemblance to other narratives of the underdog sorceror's apprentice (Harry Potter leaps to mind), this is different. For while Bartimaeus is to a certain extent an unreliable narrator whose every utterance should not be taken at face value, he does pinpoint the sins, foibles and vanities of the human race and especially of the magical elite, whom he knows intimately from long experience. In this respect, he is similar to C.S. Lewis's demon Screwtape--although Bartimaeus would not care for that particular comparison. We’ll start with the plot. It is well developed and interesting enough on itself, but what makes it really shine is the narrative structure. The story is told from two perspective. One is a third person perspective which focuses on young Nathaniel, a magician apprentice. A very lonely boy, for magicians do not have children, they simply take apprentices (children of commoners and the parents seem not to have much saying in this).Nathaniel’s master cares nothing for him. Not surprisingly, this very intelligent boy can’t stand him but he likes his wife, whom he sees as a substitute mother of sort. That first part of the book was developed perfectly and I really felt for the boy- for most of the novel I quite worried about him even if I knew that it was highly unlikely for the protagonist to get killed. So, the plot is mostly focused on Nathaniel. The way the plot developed was something I quite liked. When another magician Lovelace offends Nathaniel, his mater doesn't stood up for him and Nathaniel is determined to take revenge. He does an unthinkable and summons a jinni on his own. It is an unheard of someone so young to attempt it, but Nathanial does it. Whom does he try to sum up? That brings us to our second narrative.

If the quality of a book rested solely on its plot, this would be an excellent novel. The general plot is, of course, standard fantasy fare (save the world!) but its details and the world built to drive it is unique. Also, there appears to be a second plot running under the main one which will obviously be continued in the later books, and this plot seems much more promising. 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. In modern England, all the politicians and noblemen are magicians, and everyone else is a commoner. The story begins with a young but gifted apprentice magician summoning a djinni (genie), Bartimaeus. He sends Bart. off to steal the Amulet of Samarkand. This sets in motion a chain reaction of events that are perilous and fantastical and ultimately build up to a big climax. Eventually you learn why Nathaniel wanted the Amulet stolen. By beginning with the theft, the story avoids a slow beginning. The story shifts point of view between Bart. (first person) and the boy Nathaniel (third person). The main problem was that I disliked both of the main characters: one is a wily demon (Bartimaeus), and the other is a 12-year-old kid who is way too smart for his own good (Nathaniel). I think you'd get a similar result if you paired C.S. Lewis's Screwtape with Rowling's Draco Malfoy. Don't get me wrong - I love "The Screwtape Letters," but with nothing enlightening to learn from the demon in question, and having to read a much longer book full of it, the negativism got old. As for Nathaniel... I know he had a miserable childhood and all, but he was whiny at the best of times; at the worst, he was downright treacherous. He used words like "conscience," "justice," and "honor," but it always felt like he was acting out of guilt, ambition, and revenge. I hoped he would change over the course of the book, but I was disappointed.Kitty completes the trinity of main characters, and gives our third point-of-view, that of a commoner fighting the oppression of the magic users. At first eager, then disillusioned, and in the finale more enlightened than any one, she provides a good balance to the goings on of Nathaniel and the upper-class of magicians. 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. This book is very cleverly written, with two alternating strands of narration. One in the third person, tells the story mainly from the point of view of Nathaniel. The other strand gives us a different perspective on the characters and events but it is in the first person, from the point of view of the devious, superior and sarcastic otherworldly being Bartimaeus. I 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. The Ring of Solomon revisits the universe created in the Bartimaeus Trilogy, although the setting shifts from modern London to Jerusalem, 950 BC. It follows the djinni's adventures during the reign of King Solomon, who was frequently referenced in the footnotes during the trilogy. It was released in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2010 and in the U.S. on November 2, 2010. The story revolves around the troubles Bartimaeus faces while enslaved to Solomon's magicians, as he gets caught between the plots of his master to overthrow Solomon, and the schemes of Asmira, captain of the guard of the Queen of Sheba, who was sent by her to assassinate Solomon.