12-year-old Nathaniel lives in a fantastical London in which the ruling class are all magicians; as is the tradition, his parents sold him as an apprentice magician when he was only 6. He lives in the attic of his master's house, unloved by everyone except Mrs. Underwood, his master's wife. Seeking revenge for past humiliations, he instructs his djinn (genie) Bartimeus to steal a magic amulet from Simon Lovelace, the most powerful magician in London. Thus begins a Mission-Impossible type adventure to prevent Lovelace from recovering the amulet and using it in a grand, take-over-the-world type of evil scheme.
If you have been resisting Bartimeus because it sounds like a Harry Potter wannabe, don't-read it now. Although the parallels are obvious--a world of magicians, an orphan apprentice battling a supreme evil--the author is not out to mimic Potter but to offer a different and more pessimistic vision of what a magical world would be like. In Harry Potter's world, magicial ability is a sort of genetic artifact; there are good, evil, and silly magicians - just as in the `human' world; and themes of the importance of family and friends predominate.
Bartimeus' vision is much, much darker. Nathaniel lives in a world where magicians are a dominating ruling class, who thirst for wealth and power, and who will stop at nothing to get it. But all their power stems not from innate ability but from the ability to control the spirits (genies, imps, and the like) that populate the natural world. Here, the wizards are always on the edge of disaster created by losing control over these spirits. One word wrong in an incantation means disaster! There are no beneficent Dumbledore-like wizards here; all - and this includes Nathaniel - are driven by personal gain, revenge, and anger.
For all its darkness, author Jonathan Stroud has crafted an extremely well-paced and exciting book. Get past the first 40 pages or so and you won't be able to put it down until you find out just what evil Lovelace is up to and whether Nathaniel will be able to stop him. The ending is deliciously ambiguous - not all the villains are captured; a mysterious Resistance seems to be forming among the non-magical humans; Nathaniel may succumb to his own lust for power; and the sarcastic and clever djinn Bartimeus seems likely to reappear in future volumes. As Bartimeus is the first volume of the "Amulet of Samarkand" trilogy, surely there is more excitement to come.
Not, however, for people who thought that Harry Potter was dark or scary - if Harry disturbed you, this one will keep you checking under the bed at night and sleeping with the lights on.
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