The Amulet of Samarkand

Easy, fun read. Bartimaeus is funny as hell, and the story is engaging. It also has a few dark moments. Lots of fresh ideas!

Loved this one, though it was not a fast read.

Tales of magical London bear inevitable comparison to Potterdom, but this was so much more...snarky? Malevolent?

Imagine Griphook the goblin was the fearless narrator and not Harry and you'd be on track to the tone of this book.

One of the best books for children that I read lately. It could've been a little bit grey in a moral manner, but I enjoyed it tremendously. British authors do know something about how to write a great story.

Ukrainian translation by Volodomyr Panchenko is a great addition to the author's writing style. By the way, cover by Ivan Sulyma is amazing.

This was witty and fun.

Nathaniel is an apprentice to a magician. When Simon Lovelace scorns Nathaniel, the boy decides to take action. He calls a genie and bids him to steal Lovelace's prized Amulet of Samarkand. All kinds of funny. Love this genie.

My husband and I listened to this audiobook. It's a 1001 Children's Book You Must Read.
My husband's rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Absolutely loved this book! I read this a looong time ago and i still recall the pov of the djinn and how funny it was something i missed in the following books.

Nathaniel is an 11-year-old apprentice to a magician. When he suffers an awful humiliation at the hands of another magician, he studies incantations way beyond his years and summons the djinni Bartimaeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the magician. This story is told in alternating viewpoints, firstly from the first-person viewpoint of the wise-cracking Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni, and secondly from the third-person perspective of Nathaniel.

I plucked this book from the Independent Reader shelf for a read-aloud book to Luke (my 8-year-old son). It proved a good choice. We both like Bartimaeus and the other snarky little imps who must do a magicians bidding but are always looking for a way out so they can get back at their masters. It's a clever set-up. But I must say, for a book on the Independent Reader shelf, this one includes plenty of juicy vocabulary words. This book doesn't talk down to its audience at all. Occasionally I'd explain a word here and there to Luke, and occasionally he'd huff “I know that word!” Okay, then. I liked this book so much that I've snapped up books 2 and 3.

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.

Nathaniel as the main young protagonist is stubborn and at times indecisive. But his stubbornness and indiscretion often pays off. He crosses paths with the (not so) powerful genie Bartimaeus - a demon with a narcissistic nature that doesn't irritate the reader with its hubris, but instead greatly amuses and makes us adore him even more.
So we have two characters with completely different characteristics, but who complement each other so beautifully and go hand in hand. Although they would sometimes prefer to strangle each other, there is a strong bond between them and we as readers witness some bromance moments.

The trilogy had me laughing so many times that I was clapping at some passages for a week. It's been a while since I've read the series, but I remember it with a smile, and maybe I'll read it again sometime to remind myself of Bartimaeus' colossal drama.