#the amulet of Samarkand

[lejay-the-impossible]

The memory of Ptolemy

[winter-wise]

Nathaniel aged 12:

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[ironyscleverer]

Ok I reread the first chapter of the Amulet of Samarkand yesterday because I’m trying to write a screenplay and it’s so telling that when Bart gets his command to steal the Amulet, his FIRST thought is that Nat is being manipulated. He sees this tiny child asking for something dangerous and is immediately all “where’s your terrible evil master? Who’s making you do this?”

Obviously it turns out Nat really is just a menace, but it’s funny that we’re only like 3 pages in and Bart has already outed himself as a total softie

[littlelapwing]

“Is that so? In that case—” the counterfeit boy stepped forward and was suddenly very close—"I might as well kill you myself right now. What have I got to lose? I’ll be in the tin either way, but I’ll have the satisfaction of breaking your neck first.”

The Amulet of Samarkand

Jonathan Stroud

[silverfeatheredserpent]

а disgruntled Bartimaeus

[jewishicequeen]

Fuuuuuuuck

I'm listening to the Amulet of Samarkand and the final battle is such, SUCH a clear parallel to Ptolemy's Gate final battle-

And the end. Nathaniel knowing the incantation, being the only one able to DISPEAL THE SPIRIT but BREAKING AN ARTIFACT at the correct time and I'm just-

Boy. My boy. You know it was set up from the start.

[kathea]

A birthday gift for my friend @yonetee ❤

She got me to read the Amulet of Samarkand and then she asked for fanart of it. :D So I drew the djinn Bartimaeus in his favourite form.

I've never really heard anyone else mention this book (other than Yone), and it's a pity because it's such a great book! I love how both the main characters are arrogant and mostly following their own goals instead of being the cliché perfect heroes who save everyone. XD

[soufpawk]

hey do any of you remember the bartimaeus trilogy

[deadiez]

books I read in april 2024

[lejay-the-impossible]

𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍...

𝑺𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝑲𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆.

A perfect ending that manages to break me every time. I recently finished my Bartimaeus reread and that day I decided to go somewhere nice and quiet. I went to a park near the sea, found myself a perfect tree to climb on, brought my backpack with disgusting bitter tea and some cookies to make it more bearable and proceeded with reading. I think I was on that tree for about three hours. When the ending finally hit I cried a little bit and felt a small emptiness but also a grand satisfaction.

Now it's time to reread Ring of Solomon to finish off the sequence and leave Bartimaeus on a nice humorous note.

[e-b-reads]

Books of the month: March + April 2023

Failed to do any post like this for March, so now I am catching up all at once! For new followers/those who do not know, I am both a part-time PhD student and work at a summer camp (which is a retreat center in the off-season, but summer is the really busy time of year). Anyway, between the end of the semester and getting prepped for camp, the busy season has started earlier for me than usual. Doesn't mean I'm not reading! Just means I'm posting less about it. Here's books I read in March and April that I would recommend:

The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud): Had one of those impulses to use inter-library loan and reread a series I last read sometime in middle or high school. This time it's the Bartimaeus triology. (I also reread The Golem's Eye in the past two months; waiting on the third.) Anyway, I remember the books as engaging and funny, which they are; this time around I'm spending more time thinking about all the political and ethical questions raised by this fantasy society that's like our world except magicians rule everything. (i.e. I'm spending more time admiring Stroud's worldbuilding.) A series worth reading/rereading!

The Best American Mystery Stories 2020 (C.J. Box, Ed.): These were fun and fascinating, sometimes at the same time and sometimes by turns. When busy, it can be nice to have some short stories to dip into, and I always like mysteries. I especially spent time considering what exactly makes a "mystery" - some of these are more whodunnits (occasionally with a twist), others are mysterious but the reader knows what happened, others have crime and/or action but no one's solving anything. All good in different ways!

A Free Man of Color or One Extra Corpse (Barbara Hambly): Right, so I have already written about my love of the Benjamin January mystery series at least in passing. A Free Man of Color is the first in that series: 1830s New Orleans, very focused on the slave/free colored (the term at the time) community, murder mystery. I keep hesitating to recommend the series outright because it is 19 books long and, at this point, full of my blorbos, so I'm not sure I'm totally objective about it. However! One Extra Corpse is the second in a new historical murder mystery series by the same author, this one set in inter-war Hollywood but with a transplanted English protagonist. Reading this one, full of likeable characters but not the ones I feel unreasonably affectionate about, I realized: actually, I do think that Hambly's attention to historical detail, flawed but human characters, sense of humor, detail-driven mystery plots, etc., make for good books. So I do recommend either of these mystery series to anyone who likes that kind of thing! They are not flawless, but they are lots of fun.

[reviewsthatburn]

Bartimaeus is a djinni, enslaved by apprentice magician Nathaniel for the purpose of revenge against a magician who bullied him. When it turns out that the titular amulet is more than just a valuable possession, Nathaniel and Bartimaeus find themselves tangled in a plot against the government itself.

Full Review at Link

[littlelapwing]

Prompt from someone in the discord.

[silverfeatheredserpent]

The Amulet of Samarkand

By the way, I wasn't joking about the artifacts

This sample was created specifically for cosplay. I think I'll try to do it another way, but I like this one too.

[bobbys-not-that-small]

Bartimaeus fandom can you help a gal out?? What would you say is a recognisable symbol/symbols of the trilogy as a whole? Like Lockwood & Co would be a rapier/lavender/cup of tea, and Scarlett & Browne would be… a gun?? A hat?? Actually, S&B fandom help me out too