Bartimaeus Trilogy -Jonathan Stroud

// A slightly long review as I have attempted to capture the essence of the entire series here//

The Books: 1. The Amulet of Samarkand
                   2. The Golem's Eye
                   3. Ptolemy's Gate
Genre: Magical Fantasy
Unputdownable Quotient: High
Overall Rating: 4/5

I have a confession to make. You may look down upon me or silently snigger at me or tsk-tsk me with pity. But the fact is -I have not read Harry Potter series till date...nor have I read Lord of the Rings. In fact, I have not read any fantasy novels bar the Bartimaeus Trilogy. But, you have to trust me when I say you cannot afford to miss this piece of brilliance.

Like all good things in life, the first book of this series -"The Amulet of Samarkand" happened to me by pure luck. Some 5 years back, being bored of all the regular authors, I randomly chanced upon the cover of this book which featured a grinning gargoyle. I even took the book without bothering to read the plot summary at the back cover. And when I started reading this book, I finished it in one night without even putting it down. I loved it so much.

Along came other books but The Amulet inspired me to at least glance the back covers of other fantasy books. But nothing captivated my attention and in due course, I forgot all about Bartimaeus. Then again, the lovable devil grinned at me from the library shelf 2 months back and I ended up devouring the 2nd ("The Golem's Eye) and the 3rd book ( "Ptolemy's Gate") in this series. They were as brilliant and as funny and as un-put-down-able as the 1st book -whose plot I had forgotten but remembered enjoying every single page.

 Well, the trilogy is set mainly in London. The time of this story is somewhere post 1914AD.  London is a powerful empire which has conquered half the world and in this series, it is on the decline. The empire is on futile war with North America, which is demanding its independence from the empire Characters have limousines, planes and electricity. But they don't have cell phones or computers or other technological advances. London is ruled by magicians who suppress the commoners -the other nationals who have no magical knowledge. The magicians themselves have no "special" magical abilities, but they study magic and learn the spells and summon spirits from the "Other Place". They then enslave these spirits and order them to carry out the magician's wishes. There are varying levels of magicians based on their magical knowledge and different levels of spirits -in order of increasing strength they are: imps, foliots, djinni, afrits and marids. Above these levels exist even more powerful entities, who are rarely summoned..

These books tell the story through 3 narratives of the 3 protagonists -Nathaniel alias John Mandrake (Third person), the immensely talented and ambitious young magician who wants to become the next Prime Minister of the Empire. Though the series you will follow his rise from an ordinary apprentice to the Minister of Internal Affairs and his fall from a little uncorrupted boy to that of a nearly unscrupulous, self serving magician so full of himself.

Second narrative (third person) is that of a commoner -Kitty Jones. She makes a brief appearance in the first book and is a main character in the second and third book. Fiery and inquisitive and bold and noble, Kitty is highly disgusted with the way magicians rule over the commoners and longs to overthrow the government. She has "resistance" to magic. This is an ability that commoners develop when they have been under the rule of magicians for generations. They develop the ability to see through the demons' disguises, they are not greatly affected by magical attacks and so on. Kitty and Nathaniel start out as adversaries and finally fight a common enemy in the last book.

Finally we have the first person narrative of Bartimaeus. The best part of these books are the narratives of Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus, like the other two protagonists is a well thought out and well defined character. Quirky, unpredictable, happy go lucky Djinn who hates it when he is called a demon, Bartimaeus will conquer your hearts with his witty narrative peppered liberally with foot notes. Bartimaeus will keep you in splits with his sarcasm and observations and anecdotes from his 2,500 plus years of experience as a Djinni, who has been serving various masters from Solomon to Ptolemy to our Nathaniel.

I don't want to tell the actual story of these books here. Each book has a strong plot but the main plot that gains strength though the series is how the empire falls from the clutches of magicians and begins to be ruled by the commoners as well. Surprisingly touching, sharp and witty, the series will leave you wanting more.

Jonathan Stroud describes the empire and the magician rulers of it with detail and insight. Especially commendable is the way he has described the "other place" in his 3rd book. I feel that the most difficult part of writing fantasy books is that you need to pay so much attention to detail and logic so that the fantasy world becomes a reality to the readers. The author has done this wonderfully and has not left any loopholes in his plot or his world. Overall, a good read.

Coming up next "When Will there be Good News?"