#the amulet of Samarkand

[lejay-the-impossible]

The memory of Ptolemy

[winter2468]

Nathaniel aged 12:

[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.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

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[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

[fedordostoevskij]

hey do any of you remember the bartimaeus trilogy

[deadiez]

books I read in april 2024

[incorrectbartimaeusquotes]

Mr Underwood: You wake me at night, you don't let me punch kids — this marriage has really gone downhill.

[wizardnaturalist]

I dont know what dots Im connecting but Im connecting them

[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.

[lejay-the-impossible]

The Amulet of Samarkand climax story beats

Drew a bunch in one day. Stroud's climaxes are always epic, but weirdly enough are mostly never the coolest part of his books, because the things that get me excited the most are character dynamics and witty dialogues with 30 layers of subtext and a million forshadowings.

@jonathan.stroud

[silverfeatheredserpent]

а disgruntled Bartimaeus

[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

[brave-symphonia]

I also really like how the footnotes make Bartimaeus seem larger, is that the right word?

Like, you can feel his experience as something that's been around and knows all kinds of things, has met all kinds of powerful people, knows all about his side of the world.

Like, that first footnote, he mentions that most of the time apprentices just get nightmares, but sometimes they step outside of their circle, and even mentions how it's risky because they may grow up and get revenge.

Like, that tells that he knows about other demons, tells you a bit about the functions of the summoning, and a bit of why a demon like him may want to be a bit cautious.

I just really like how you get insights into his thoughts like that without needing to distract from the story.

[jutenium]

"You're our hero", that's what Mr. Devereaux said

Oh, little naive Natty boy... Haha and little naive Mr. Devereaux too. They have this common foolish...ness. Devereaux is a bad role model for kids. Especially for this one.