Rating: 
Summary: Wizardly conspiracy game
Review: Imagine a more Faustian "Harry Potter," which transforms neatly into a magical conspiracy thriller, complete with theft, high-speed chases, and assassination attempts -- the first book of the Bartimaeus trilogy, "The Amulet of Samarkand." It's well-written and the demonic lead is a treasure, but his human counterpart is a lot less endearing.The djinn Bartimaeus is magically summoned by a young apprentice magician, Nathaniel, who orders him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand. He doesn't know much about it, but he knows that Simon Lovelace, the man who has it, has had someone killed to get it. He also has a personal motive -- Lovelace hurt and humiliated him, and his obnoxious, cowardly master didn't help him. Ever since, Simon has been plotting to get back at Lovelace. Bartimaeus is peeved, but has to obey Nathaniel. It immediately becomes clear that the amulet is a lot more important than it looks -- and someone will kill to keep it a secret. Lovelace tracks the amulet to Nathaniel's house and attacks them, while Bartimaeus is captured and confined in the Tower of London. Despite their initial dislike, they must join forces, or Lovelace will use the amulet for an unspeakable crime. An alternative universe with magicians as the ruling class is hardly a new idea. But Jonathan Stroud manages to make it fresher than before with a complicated British government ruled by magicians. Not to mention a rebel band of "commoners" (meaning: non-magic-users) who are sick of being treated like cattle. (That's something you won't see in "Harry Potter") Stroud is also a writer who can handle just about any words he tries. He switches freely between first person (Bartimaeus) and third person (Nathaniel) narratives. The writing is pretty detailed; not too much, just enough to make it all come alive. What's more, the constant tussling between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus adds a note of much-needed character tension. The biggest problem with "The Amulet of Samarkand" is that Nathaniel (who spends much of the book being rather demanding and snobby) took a VERY long time to grow on me, and even as he does good things, you get the feeling he's not a really good person. Bartimaeus is, however, an amazing character -- witty, sardonic, irreverent and wry, looking on with annoyed amusement at the rest of the scrambling cast, including his fellow djinn and demons. "The Amulet of Samarkand" is a solid, genuinely suspenseful fantasy with a sparkling title character and a rather annoying supporting lead. Well-written, interesting, this is one of the really good fantasy books of the past year.
Rating:
Summary: Better than I thought it would be
Review: This story is a lot like The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches by Robert Stanek. A classic good vs. evil story. There's a young wizard apprentice, Nathaniel, with a rough childhood who gets pushed to far. Think Vilmos from Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches. A strange and powerful being. In this case a Djinn called Bartimaeus in Kingdoms and the Elves it is Xith. Overall recommended but read the real thing first.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Page Turner.
Review: Just when you think that you are getting to the end of what literary wizards can achieve with Rowling and Pullman, along comes Stroud with his brilliant and inventive fantasy. Containing a narrative split between Nathaniel (a boy apprentice wizard and his mischievous djinn (as in genie) Bartimaeus, we are catapulted into an alternative modern London where commoners (such as ourselves) are hardly worth mentioning and wizards rule the government. Our journey follows Nathaniel as he unwittingly steals an amulet from a powerful wizard, Simon Lovelace, as revenge for the boys mistreatment. Little does he know that this theft will unleash a devastating train of events which he seems powerless to prevent. One of the best fantasies I've read for quite sometime. Move over Rowling and Pullman. There's a new kid on the block!
Rating:
Summary: The Best of it's kind
Review: I know it's unoriginal to compare children's fantasy to Harry Potter. But when said young wizard is the standard practically all authors in the genre have to live up to it's hard to avoid comparison. The Amulet of Samarkand is the first book in the 'Bartimaeus' trilogy and it's definitely more sophisticated than Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl. The story is of a 12 year old boy called Nathaniel who is adopted by a sour, strict magician at the age of five to train as magician himself. In this world the Houses of Parliament is full of magicians and they run the country using their own reckless methods, much to the distain of the commoners (Muggles in the Harry Potter world). As a way of getting revenge on his cruel master, Nathaniel summons a cynical, sarcastic djinni called Bartimaeus to steal an apparently ordinary amulet (of Samarkand) from his master's colleague's house to frame him. But the Amulet of Samarkand is a very special artefact indeed and is the centrepiece of a sinister plot hatched by evil magician Simon Lovelace. Of course Nathaniel realizes this all too late as he's soon in the middle of Lovelace's evil plan. Though he does have Bartimaeus under 'verbal contract' and with the help of this disgruntled djinni he attempts to foil Lovelace. The story is told from two narrators. Nathaniel's part is typical 3rd person perspective and Bartimaeus is first person. The book regularly switches between them after every three or so chapters. There's a lot of pathos to be had in Nathaniel's side of the story and he's definitely a stronger character than Harry Potter or Artemis Fowl and Bartimaeus's version of events are always interesting especially with his often amusing footnotes at the bottom of every page. Stroud's world seems much more probable than JK Rowling's too. The word wizard is only mentioned twice in this book (tho it would have made more literal sense to have not been mentioned at all) and no one uses wands (magic is either done with the hands on inside pentacles with incantations instead of spells). Plus Stroud seems to stick to ancient middle-eastern mythology as his source of inspiration rather than just make up silly sounding words to add a bit of light humor (the Harry Potter books are extremely guilty of this). His cold London winter setting and slightly oppressive tone make this harder than normal children's fantasy and (for a first novel in a series) it's a highly detailed world to be immersed in. Giving the impression that Stroud thought about all this beforehand and it's not something he'll develop as he thinks about it over the course of three books. The Amulet of Samarkand is a long book. And takes some time to get thru. I was a little put off by the middle of the book, which sagged somewhat. For this reason I cannot give the book 5/5. But it's still the most superior and intelligent children's fantasy I've read. I eagerly await 2 and 3. My copy is signed by the author.
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Summary: More violence, better writing than in 'Potter'
Review: Parents should know that the book contains quite a bit of violence: murders of characters occur throughout the book, children possibly commit violent crimes, and brutalities against people and magical beings are detailed. I'm not complaining! The darker passages are not gratuitous but contribute to the story's progress and fill out a captivating, believable world. If I were 12, I'd be grateful for someone not sugar-coating a good story. "The Amulet" is more tautly woven than the Harry Potter stories, and Stroud's writing is better and more disciplined than J. K. Rowling's. Then again, Rowling's characters are more vivid, and she creates more Atmosphere around them. I think bright young readers will appreciate the publisher's decision to leave in the British jargon for U.S. sales and not (as with the Harry Potter books) make an Americanized version. A boy wears trainers (not sneakers), a car has a bonnet (not a hood), a teen has spots (not pimples), etc.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn¿t put it down!
Review: This is a great book. You know when you read a book and after the first five pages you KNOW it's going to be awesome? That's what happened for me here. A small boy conjures a demon to steal an amulet. Little does the boy know what the amulet is worth. Set in "another" London, where magic is a way of life for some people (the Prime Minister is a magician), this book focuses on Nathanial (the boy) and Bartimaeus (the demon). Where Nathanial is dark, vengeful and serious, Bartimaeus is dark, vengeful and funny. He doesn't take things too seriously and, hey, why should he when he's been around for thousands of years and will probably be around for thousand more? It's hard with fantasy novels to describe imaginary things so that they're believable and so that the reader follows along. I had to no trouble with this book. The imps, the magic, the transformations, all of it was extremely entertaining and well played out. Bartimaeus even injects many footnotes into his narration and I didn't find unevenness in that. All I can say is that I'm so glad this is going to be a trilogy. I cannot wait for the next one. Bartimaeus is a very funny demon and Stroud weaves an engrossing tale.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: Just finished reading this aloud to my kids (12 years old) and we loved it. Very exciting and Bartimaeus is a howl. Definitely on our Xmas list to other families.
Rating:
Summary: Richie's Picks: THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND
Review: "The temperature of the room dropped fast. Ice formed on the curtains and crusted thickly around the lights in the ceiling. The glowing filaments in each bulb shrank and dimmed, while the candles that sprang from every available surface like a colony of toadstools had their wicks snuffed out. The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled. From far away came the sound of many voices screaming. Pressure was suddenly applied to the door that led to the landing. It bulged inward, the timbers groaning. Footsteps from invisible feet came pattering across the floorboards and invisible mouths whispered wicked things from behind the bed and under the desk.
"The sulfur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils; they licked the air like tongues before withdrawing. The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcano. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
"Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him." Meet Bartimaeus, a powerful djinni who is capable of adopting thousands of visible guises, observing things on seven different planes, and who enjoys dropping the names of (and telling anecdotes about) the famous people he has served over the course of many millennia. He is the title character of a new trilogy being written by British author Jonathan Stroud. Bartimaeus has been summoned by Nathaniel, a somewhat slight twelve-year-old who was sold at a tender age into a magician's apprenticeship. Nathaniel has been raised by that clueless and mediocre magician, Arthur Underwood, who serves in the British government's Ministry of Internal Affairs, and by Underwood's wife, who is loving and maternal toward the apprentice, while seemingly quite blind to her husband's shortcomings--particularly his harsh manner of relationship with the boy. Having been summoned by Nathaniel, Bartimaeus waits for his orders: "The kid cleared his throat. This was the moment. This was what he'd been building up to. He'd been dreaming of this for years, when he should have been lying on his bed thinking about racing cars or girls. I waited grimly for the request. What would it be? Levitating some object was a usual one, or moving it from one side of the room to the other. Perhaps he'd want me to conjure an illusion. That might be fun: there was bound to be a way of misinterpreting his request and upsetting him.
" 'I charge you to retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from the house of Simon Lovelace and bring it to me when I summon you at dawn tomorrow.'
" 'You what?'
" 'I charge you to retrieve--'
" 'Yes, I heard what you said.' I didn't mean to sound petulant. It just slipped out, and my sepulchral tones slipped a bit too." At first underestimating the boy--as so many characters do throughout the book--Bartimaeus assumes Nathaniel is being manipulated by some "real" magician to snatch the powerful charm. But unknown to all, Nathaniel is a brilliant apprentice with a razor sharp memory who has self-taught himself by devouring book after book in his master's library. Underwood's continuing attitude--that Nathaniel is worthless and untrainable--fuels the boy's quiet and tenacious determination to develop himself into an exceptional magician and eventually fulfill his aspirations of growing up to serve in Parliament. Bartimaeus has been summoned by the boy because Nathaniel is also determined to take revenge for the humiliating fashion in which he has been treated in the past by a group of Underwood's cohorts, led by the power-hungry Lovelace. It turns out that Simon Lovelace has acquired the Amulet in question through a deadly scheme. When Bartimaeus obeys his young master command and succeeds in gaining the Amulet, Lovelace is willing to do anything necessary to insure the charm's return. The unusual relationship that develops between Bartimaeus and Nathaniel winds its way through the 460 pages of this wild, action-filled tale. That relationship is both adversarial and interdependent, and involves gradually increasing levels of mutual respect. And, as you might have inferred, Bartimaeus has quite a wit. The author utilizes frequent footnotes to allow the djinni to provide explanations and historic tidbits, as well as share his many sarcastic asides (à la Groucho Marx). Jonathan Stroud, who, like his character, lives amid the outskirts of London, is currently balancing obligations to promote this first book with the need to keep an eye on his approaching January deadline for submitting the second manuscript. Miramax has spent a substantial sum for the movie rights to the trilogy, and after devouring the first book, it sure seems like a great investment. "The first grudging rays flickered in the eastern sky. A halo of light slowly emerged over the Docklands horizon. I cheered it on. It couldn't come fast enough.
"The whole night had been a wearisome and often humiliating business. I had repeatedly lurked, loitered, and fled, in that order, through half the postal districts of London. I had been manhandled by a thirteen-year-old girl. I had taken shelter in a bin. And now, to cap it all, I was crouching on the roof of Westminister Abbey, pretending to be a gargoyle. Things don't get much worse than that." I carried this book around the show with me all weekend, taking full advantage of any and all free moments to read another chapter of our heroes matching wits, wills, imps, and illusions against the bad guys. Oftentimes, traipsing through Stroud's complicated world, I was in total awe: It was like watching someone use a truckload of paper clips to build a life-size model of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and you're just waiting for it to fall apart--but it all just keeps holding together...like magic. Richie Partington
Rating:
Summary: A Darker Harry Potter
Review: Young wizard apprentice Nathaniel has been belittled and held down his entire life. The last straw is being humiliated by the older and much more powerful wizard, Simon Lovelace. He concocts a plan to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace after he overhears the pains Lovelace took to obtaining it. The lynchpin of his revenge plan, however, rests in summoning Bartimaeus, a middle-brow Djinn to steal the amulet. Bartimaeus, while hardly pleased at being ordered around by a 12 year old is forced to obey and steals the amulet, setting off a much larger chain of events that Nathaniel could have never predicted. There's plenty of humor in THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND, courtesy of the Djinn Bartimaeus himself. But this is clearly not a case of good vs. evil as it is w/the Harry Potter series. The reader is given much to suspect that despite the sympathy the reader can feel for Nathaniel and his rough childhood, there is much to suggest he is hardly what you would label as "good." I'm eagerly awaiting the next installments to see which side of the fence Nathaniel falls on. The crux of this series lies in the love/hate relationship Nathaniel and Bartimaeus have and by god is it ever entertaining to read. Highly recommended for anyone who is not looking for a simple good vs. evil story.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing new fantasy voice
Review: Let's face it, fantasy is a well-worn genre, bloated with Tolkein ripoffs, tired generic plots and characters. There seems to be no end to the stuff...and no shortage of readers who'll swallow it. And to this we can add a new type of fantasy that is fast reaching critical mass for younger readers...the Harry Potter clone. Check the young readers section of your local bookstore and you'll find literally dozens of books about young boy and girl wizards. As the saying goes, everyone wants to be the first to do something second. There is nothing new in fantasy, only old wine in new bottles. So when a new fantasy comes along that actually feels new its a red letter day in my book. That rant is by way of saying that this wonderful book avoids the pitfalls of many fantasy writers simply by virtue of the writing. A few years back David (and Leigh) Eddings burst onto the fantasy scene with their original Belgariad books. Plot-wise they were simply Tolkein retreads without the epic mthology. But what made them so readable, and so popular, was the original and entertaining voice with which they told their tales. So it is with Jonathan Stroud. This is a fun, wry, funny, well-charactered piece about a modern London where magicians rule the land and magic comes in the form of controlling various levels of demons (or djinn). Set amidst the political intrigue is a story of a young apprentice magician's quest for revenge via the use of the some-time narrator djinn Bartimeus. He is the main reason to read the book. His amusing, ironic take on events is worth the price of admission alone. The world itself is well drawn and realised, as are all the characters. Yes there are shades of Harry Potter (a young apprentice wizard in a world of magic where commoners are virtually cattle) and various other genre books (Randall Garratt's Lord Darcy series spring to mind) but it's all done with such verve and charm that it quite rightly transcends its influences and becomes a classic in its own right. Buy it. Read it. You won't be disappointed. I look forward to the next chapters of this trilogy.
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