Brilliant writing introducing interesting characters and a new twist on the boy magician story line. Stroud's tale is gripping and his style is reminiscent of Philip Pullman. I couldn't put the Amulet down until I found out how Stroud brought the many twists and turns to a close. Excellent for strong readers from 10 and up. ( )

Meh, I wasn't too thrilled about this one. Again, it has all the elements I would normally love, but I just didn't. Perhaps I was in the wrong mindset again. I might pick up the sequels, but only if I can get them from the library. ( )

Unique plot, entertaining and well written ( )

A young magician living in modern day London summons a powerful djinni, setting off a cataclysm of events. Rude, funny, adventurous and full of conspiracy and murder, this book will enthrall you and keep you reading, with believable and realistic characters, and what's more, when you finish it, you'll really wish it was true. ( )

Richie's Picks: THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND (Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1) by Jonathan Stroud, Hyperion/Miramax, September 2003, ISBN 0-7868-1859-X
"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).

Last year, Scholastic's Chicken Run division used the annual festivities of the Association of Booksellers for Children (which lead into the Book Expo weekend) as a launching pad for introducing THE THIEF LORD, a book which went on to become one of best-selling children's books of 2002 and was just voted a BookSense Book of the Year. Following in those footsteps, Hyperion and Miramax utilized this year's ABC festivities--and the rest of this past weekend's Book Expo in L.A.--to enthusiastically promote THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND. The stacks of advance copies were accompanied by the author's appearance at the Convention Center. 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
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com ( )

Magic, Mayhem, and Mystical creatures that are the basis for the existence of both. The Amulet of Samarkand is the start of an intriguing trilogy. Opening a different type of magical universe in this day and age where wizardry is beyond popular, an eleven year old boy, reaching above and beyond his means, attempts to become something more and drags a surly djinn along for the ride. The writing is sound. The characters are endearing. Good beginning. A refreshing take on the genie in a lamp idea, and one that I think appeals to all ages. ( )

Fairly well written and inventive, but I stopped reading it because the central character of Nathaniel was not particularly appealing or well devloped as a 12 year old boy. His actions and speech patterns were adult much of the time, and seemed there only to further the plotline. While Bartimaeus was a strongly developed and interesting character, he could not carry the story. ( )

Alright, alright, alright, I like it.

Props to Jonathan Stroud for making a new use of a magical character: the Genie of the lamp.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it took me a while longer than I would have wished before I was invested in the plot and characters in this novel. BUT - invest I did.

In it we have two main characters - Nathaniel, a boy apprenticed to a dull witted Magician, learning the magical trade and as we come to find out, one smart cookie (reminds me Artemis Fowl's character); Bartimaeus, a powerful Genie summoned by the novice young magician (without the knowledge or approval of aforementioned dull-witted master) to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Loveless in revenge for Loveless' "dissing" the young Nathaniel. Oh, how he'll pay! Loveless's Lesson learned: We young folk can pack a powerful punch, dare thee not diss us.

The narration bounces back and forth conveniently between Nathaniel and Bartimaeus to tell both angles of the plot. The audiobook is expertly narrated. LAST BUT NOT LEAST, must say, I got a few chuckles in, and there were quite a few artistically crafted sentences for the poet in all of us. ( )

I just wish Nathaniel would realize the brilliance of Bartimeaus. ( )

This is definitely a fun book worth reading. I was truly absorbed by the main character's wit and the author's use of footnotes throughout. ( )

I listened to this series with my children, and we all loved it.
The genie Bartemeaus, is so full of himself, he hasn't a clue about how others perceive him, which gives rise to a great deal of ironic humor. ( )

Six year old Nathaniel is sold by his parents into a magical apprenticeship in a modern-day alternate London, where magicians rule the country. The magicians draw their power by enslaving unwilling (and often quite cranky, or downright evil) demons of various stripes. Nathaniel is increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of his education, and decides to speed things up by summoning a djinni of his own.

This is a fun little romp through an interesting alternate world. The weakest point is the motivations of the characters. The story alternates chapters from the djinni, Bartimaeus's point of view, and limited-third-person about Nathaniel's point of view. Nathaniel is not terribly sympathetic, nor is it always clear why he does what he does. Bartimaeus is lots of fun, but ultimately a bit shallow. Neither character has much in the way of complexity. The plot is good enough, and I read the book quickly to see what would happen. I'll read the others in the trilogy, and hope that there is a little more character development. ( )

I enjoyed this fantasy featuring the djinii Bartimaeus. I liked his footnote asides and his trying to fulfill his missions without getting caught. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Golem's Eye. ( )

I read this book when it was first published, as I wanted something to read while waiting for Harry Potter. I enjoyed following the adventures of Nathaniel and his dijnn. ( )

This was my second time reading this series.There is a strange disconnect in the book-publishers here, who put some books at the children section, and some at the science-fiction and fantasy section. This is probably a more socially complex books than the others put there, and many put on the other shelf.I like the world of this series, and the books as well. ( )

An extremely action-packed, high-stakes adventure featuring a downtrodden young magician and the arrogant but likeable djinn who serves him. Stroud does a good job of making his main characters Nathanael and Bartimaeus flawed and allowing them to make some serious mistakes while still keeping them at least potentially likeable. I did find that the near-constant action wore on me after a while and that some episodes felt a bit like padding, but it all paid off in the end. Some intriguing loose threads to follow into Book 2 of the series. ( )

I enjoyed the book and adored Bartimaeus' sarcastic and ironic wit. ( )

Spannend weil sehr gut geschrieben. Guter Inhalt. ( )

This book was excellent. I really love the characters (especially wise-cracking Barty) and Nathaniel. I could not put this book down at all! From Nate wanting simple revenge for his public humiliation to the climactic battle with an other-worldly giant controlled by Lovelace, Nathaniel's enemy, this book has everything. ( )

Nathaniel is a young magician's apprentice, taking his first lessons in the arts of magic. But when a devious hotshot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates Nathaniel in front of everyone he knows, Nathaniel decides to kick up his education a few notches and show Lovelace who is boss. With revenge in his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all: summoning the all-powerful djinni, Bartimaeus. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, Nathaniel finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, blackmail, and revolt.

Nathaniel is arrogant, vengeful, power-hungry, impulsive, and not at all likable. He's not a sympathetic character, though I did want him to succeed in his quest for vengeance – only because Lovelace is an archetypical moustache-twirling villain. But Nathaniel doesn't learn any lessons as he escalates his program of revenge. The djinni, Bartimaeus, is a different kettle of fish – while undoubtedly wicked, he is archly amusing. We’re introduced in a room in London as the temperature plunges, ice forms on the curtains and ceiling, and the scent of brimstone fills the air. Bartimaeus appears in front of Nathaniel, who has summoned him ('Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him,' Bartimaeus explains). The djinni thinks of himself as omniscient, having been present for some major historical moments (as he explains in various footnotes, he gave an anklet to Nefertiti and offered tips to legendary architects — 'Not that my advice was always taken: check out the Leaning Tower of Pisa').

Debut novelist Stroud plunges readers into a quickly thickening plot: Nathaniel commands Bartimaeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace, a task that the djinn completes with some ease. Other factors quickly become more interesting: the motive for the boy's charge, how Simon came by the Amulet and the fallout from the theft. What these reveal about the characters of Simon and Nathaniel makes for engrossing reading. Stroud also introduces the fascinating workings of the 'seven planes' (magicians can see three of them only with special spectacles), the pecking order of magical beings, and the requirements of various spells and enchantments — plus the intrigue behind a group of commoners mounting a Resistance (this loose end, presumably, will be explored in the remainder of the planned Bartimaeus trilogy).

The Amulet of Samarkand is designed for young teens and kids who are hooked on Harry Potter will find this a good option. For me, as a grown up, it seemed too cluttered, too busy, all the better to keep short attention spans attentive. But I’ll be looking for the next instalment simply to see what mischief Bartimaeus leads young Nathaniel into. ( )

I really, really enjoyed reading this. I loved the characters, even Nathaniel, and both the plot and writing were tight and engrossing. Am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy, for sure.

Recommended for fans of fantasy, headstrong main characters, and jewelry. ( )

A wonderful magical journey. I really enjoyed the characters and the adventure. It was a. exciting read. ( )

My book review:
http://ganimede.dreamwidth.org/9180.h... ( )

a good book with lots of exsitment but needs to be longer with more enemys and challanges. ( )