The Amulet of Samarkand – Jonathan Stroud

Author: Jonathan Stroud
Title: The Amulet of Samarkand – Book One of the Bartimaeus Trilogy
Publisher: Miramax Books
Publication Date: 2003
Age range: 12 - 18
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 1 2 3 4 5

Plot summary: Nathaniel is a young boy in an alternate version of London, England, where magicians run the government and consider themselves above non-magical people. Apprenticed to an unremarkable and sometimes cruel magician, Nathaniel longs to prove himself in a world where being able to do magic earns the respect of other magicians. Magicians actually get their power from being able to summon imps, djinni, and similar magical creatures, and Nathaniel summons a high level demon named Bartimaeus to help him get revenge after a more senior magician from Parliament denigrates Nathaniel and his master stands by, doing nothing. The theft of the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace, the more powerful magician gets Nathaniel and Bartimaeus involved in a complex governmental scandal. Lovelace's plot to kill off all the other magicians and take over the government is uncovered by Nathaniel and Bartimaeus and they must act quickly to try to stop the coup

The story alternates between viewpoints, so the reader gets Nathaniel's point of view, which is largely dominated by his desire to show the world the level of his knowledge of magic. He is quite smart and has been trained to be very attentive to detail. Bartimaeus offers a more world-weary viewpoint, and more humor, as he is an ancient entity with many stories to tell and previous run-ins with other demons in the story. Bartimaeus is also fairly proud of his own abilities and misses no opportunity to tell the reader about how talented and wonderful he is. Though he pretends to be interested only in his own well being, Bartimaeus starts to become invested in Nathaniel's fate and cleverly helps the boy to save the lives of most of the Parliamentary ministers at the end of this first volume in the Bartimaeus Trilogy.

Comments: I was aware of the popularity of this trilogy before picking up the first volume, but I'm not convinced about the series after finishing the book. Nathaniel is a hard character to like; he is obsessed with proving himself and acts in many petty ways, holding grudges against people and behaving poorly to those he considers below himself. He believes that controlling magic is the most important thing he can learn to do, and doesn't understand people who have no magic. This is the prevalent opinion of most of the magicians Nathaniel encounters, so it is easy to see where he learned this concept. There are a couple of small scenes where Nathaniel does reveal his fondness for his art teacher and his master's wife, but for the most part Nathaniel comes across as a very cold boy. Bartimaeus adds some excellent description of the magical world and brings a much-needed dimension of fun to the story.

The writing is good and the story moves along at a smooth pace but I would have liked to see Nathaniel develop more as a character. He does act at the end to save the lives of many government ministers, but he also wants to act against the mastermind of the coup, who has treated Nathaniel badly in the past. Nathaniel is pretty self-interested and precocious for a young boy, and he takes life very seriously. Nathaniel does have to rely on his quick thinking and excellent memory for magical spells, but he possesses a self-confidence that is not entirely believable. I would expect that his character will get more complex in the future volumes, but I don't feel compelled to get my hands on them because I am just convinced that I want to read more about Nathaniel – for now.

Dates Read: 20 February – 3 March