The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud is about a young magician in training named Nathaniel. Nathaniel lives in London where the government is completely controlled by magicians. What's worse is that all these magicians are backstabbers who would slit each others throat the first chance they got. Nathaniel, after being humiliated by a very powerful magician named Simon Lovelace, summons the djinn Bartimaeus to steal Lovelace's most prized possessions: the amulet of Samarkand. Nathaniel unovers more than just an amulet, including a cult that could destroy reality as we know it. That's not all, Bartimaeus isn't about to just follow Nathaniel's orders. I liked this book because there are a lot of twists and turns and I love the 20th century rendition of London in which so many classics take place. What's interesting is that the story is told in two different perspectives: Nathaniel's and Bartimaeus'. Although Nathaniel's perspective can be rather droll Bartimaeus' perspective comes alive. He is hilarious and he always has witty to say to or about someone. Throughout his parts of the story you will find countless citations of quick things to note about the magician world or even funny anecdotes of his life with his previous masters. Another thing about the book that I liked so much was the psychological warfare that went on between the magicians. Magicians could be described as a cross between politicians and mafia bosses because they are deceitful and lie and they have the power to take out anyone who knows their secret or anyone they just don't like with the power of spirits. When you think about this, and the fact that these baddies are the ones the main character is after, you will probably think there's no way he can pull it off, but Nathaniel is also smart and has his own power.-Reviewed by H.S., grade 9.
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Abandoned by his parents as a young boy, Nathaniel is raised as an apprentice by a powerful magician working for the government of 1700s London. Nathaniel is extremely smart, though headstrong, and progresses to secretly summoning minor creatures while his master thinks he's still learning about herbs. After a particularly humiliating incident involving the powerful magician Simon Lovelace, Nathaniel works up the courage to summon Bartimaeus, a powerful djinni and charges him to steal Lovelace's amulet. His revenge plot goes awry, however, when he discovers a conspiracy within the high-ranking London magicians that he can only hope to stop with the help of Bartimaeus.
I really liked the book because of the moral complications lurking behind the main storyline. In this book's universe, magicians have no power on their own and must draw it from summoned creatures from the Other Place. The creatures, ranging from imps to djinni, are in a perpetual state of servitude to their masters, who force them to do their bidding or suffer the punishments. The magicians form the upper class of London's government and subsist mostly off the hard work of normal people: the "commoners". The book's varying viewpoints of Nathaniel and the cheeky djinni Bartimaeus not only help the story, but aid the exploration of the underlying themes of slavery and the ruling class in London. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in this type of fiction.
Reviewed by Anonymous, Grade 11 Central Library
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