Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand. NY: Hyperion Books, 2004. 462 pages. (Fantasy Series )The book, The Amulet of Samarkand, is the first book in The Bartimaeus Trilogy. It is about an eleven year old boy named Nathaniel. When he was six years old, he became the apprentice to Arthur Underwood, a middle-ranking magician who worked for the Ministry of International Affairs. One evening when Nathaniel was about ten, he was introduced to some of Underwood’s fellow magicians. One of them was Simon Lovelace, who tested Nathaniel while he was meeting him. He embarrassed him very much by asking him some of the hardest questions about magic. Nathaniel wanted revenge, so he summoned a five-thousand-year-old djinni, a type of genie, called Bartimaeus. Nathaniel ordered him to steal Lovelace’s most prized possession: The Amulet of Samarkand, which protects you so that magic can harm you when you are wearing it. Bartimaeus carried out this order and stole it for him. After Nathaniel has the amulet, he thinks that everything is fine until he realizes how valuable it is. Soon after this happens, catastrophes start to break out and everything goes wrong.
I really liked this book and felt that it was very well written. The author knows how to capture the characters feelings and put them into your own heart. When you read this book, you feel warm and fuzzy inside, and then you will feel hatred for some of the characters: Lovelace, Arthur Underwood, Bartimaeus, and even Nathanial sometimes. At one moment they seem so kind and innocent, and then one of them does something terrible that makes you hate them such as trying to kill someone or stealing something. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to read a good novel.
Reviewed by: Lesh
