#the amulet of Samarkand

[lejay-the-impossible]

The memory of Ptolemy

[winter-wise]

Nathaniel aged 12:

[silverfeatheredserpent]

а disgruntled Bartimaeus

[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

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[crickwater]

bartimaeus trilogy is possibly the best ya fantasy series of all time

[nikihawkes]

Book Review: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

Title: Amulet of Samarkand Author: Jonathan Stroud Series: Bartimaeus #1 Genre: Middle Grade + Rating: 4.5/5 stars The Overview: Nathaniel is a boy magician-in-training, sold to the government by his birth parents at the age of five and sent to live as an apprentice to a master. Powerful magicians rule Britain, and its empire, and Nathaniel is told his is the “ultimate sacrifice” for a…

[zisurru]

every time i open my copy of amulet of samarkand i am forced to remember that uh

as a child i loved this book so much i started EATING THE PAGES