Review by kanjisheik (2007-06-28)
Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy is set in a London ruled by magicians. Magicians in fact rule the whole world; a conniving and duplicitous lot, the world is in some strife thanks to them.

Nathaniel is a boy sold by his parents into apprenticeship to a magician named Arthur Underwood. Underwood begins tutoring in the boy in magic, but Nathaniel, being lonely and inquisitive, takes the initiative to advance his education well beyond his years (without his master's knowledge). When, at the age of ten, Nathaniel is humiliated by a charismatic political intriguer and magician named Simon Lovelace, in a fit of juvenile vengefulness he summons up a powerful 5,000-year-old djinn named Bartimaeus and charges him to steal an artifact called the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace. It turns out that Lovelace himself stole the Amulet — having its original owner murdered! — and will stop at nothing to get it back. He has big plans for all of England that involve the Amulet. And if Lovelace learns that the thief was nothing but a mere boy using incantations to bind a djinn even a veteran conjurer would think twice about, its curtains for Nathaniel.

At first it's hard to sympathize with Nathaniel, although his behaviour is believable as a consequence of having been sold by his family and having to grow up without friends or playmates. But as the story progresses, what begins as a petulant rebellion evolves into a truly sympathetic bid for esteem.

Bartimaeus is extremely likable, mainly because Stroud writes his chapters from his own first-person perspective. And having been around for five millennia, Bartimaeus is extremely jaded and glib about the world of magicians and their petty power squabbles. The footnotes on nearly every page of the book consist of really humourous comments by Bartimaeus.

In short, The Amulet of Samarkand is an interesting novel, but if you wanna know the entire story, you'll have to read the next two parts too!

Review by spiphany (2005-03-26)
Clever and refreshing. The story is set in an alternate London ruled by magicians who get their power by summoning various types of demons. The world is well-conceived and developed, and the story is built around it; the setting isn't just an interesting backdrop. Stroud shows us some of the darker aspects of a world ruled by magicians - the power struggles, the ruthlessness, revenge and betrayals. There are hints of a resistance movement among the non-magical humans.

The novel is narrated, for the most part, by none other than Bartimaeus - the djinni summoned by young apprentice-magician Nathaniel to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from a man who humiliated him. And this is what makes the book so wonderful: Bartimaeus. Although forced to obey his human master, Bartimaeus is not in the least subdued, and he narrates the story with a wry, cynical humor which is delightful. In the midst of his attempts to get the better of Nathaniel - which take the form of a battle of wits, never malicious or cruel, although often condescending - he adds little, amusing asides in the form of footnotes. His voice dominates the narrative and transforms it from an interesting story to an exceptional one. The sections narrated in third person, while they lack the wit of the Bartimaeus sections, are well-written and consistent enough in style that switching narrators doesn't disturb the flow too much.

There are, of course, the inevitable Harry Potter comparisons. It's really not that similar; the world that Stroud creates is very different from Rowling's, although there are a number of elements in both books which would appeal to the same readers. Stroud puts much more thought into the background of his story, and shows more skill as a writer. I wasn't bothered by the inconsistencies in the use of magic in the Harry Potter books until I read this, which made me realize how much better they could be. Stroud creates in Nathaniel a protagonist who's certainly more difficult to identify with than Harry; like many of the other magicians in the book, he sometimes seems to be more motivated by ambition than any other reasons. And we don't always get a very strong sense of his personality. This could be a turn-off for some readers, but the book has enough else to offer that it isn't too much of a flaw.