501 pages
"Three years have passed since the magician Nathaniel helped prevent a cataclysmic attack on London. Now an important member of the British government, he grapples with numerous problems: foreign wars are going badly, Britain's enemies are mounting attacks close to London, and rebellion is growing among the commoners. Increasingly impervious and distracted, Nathaniel is treating Bartimaeus worse than ever. The long-suffering djinni is growing weak and vulnerable from too much time in this world, and his patience is nearing its end.
Meanwhile, undercover in London, Nathaniel's longtime rival Kitty has been stealthily completing her research on magic, demons, and Bartimaeus's past. She has a daring plan that she hopes will break the endless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans. But will anyone listen to what she has to say?" -Dust Jacket
Each book in this series was better than the one before. I liked that three year's time passes in between each book. Nathaniel is 17 years old in this book and he's become a bit jaded with the world of the magicians. He's started to see them for what they are: power hungry, greedy men and women who will betray and backstab each other to get ahead in their world. He's not really an exception to that standard either. He's constantly having to watch his back. He doesn't have any real friends. He keeps Bartimaeus around both for a connection to the past and for protection. He fears that Bartimaeus will reveal his real name. Bartimaeus spends most of the book exhausted and vulnerable which, admittedly, leads to some funny chases. His footnotes in this book are even funnier. Still, I felt sorry for him.
Kitty has also become a bit disillusioned with her world. She spends her nights working in a pub listening to commoners debate and never do anything. She realizes that the status quo can't sustain itself and that something has to change. She begins her own study of magic in an effort to contact Bartimaeus.
*SPOILERS*
I had sort of predicted who the real bad guy of this series would be. It's almost always the guy who plays the sidekick and doesn't seem to have much of a brain who is also secretly plotting behind everyone's back and masterminds the big climax. That was true here. What was surprising was how things went down after his identity is revealed. Kitty separates herself from her body and travels through Ptolemy's gate to find Bartimaeus to ask for his help. That journey forces a physical change on her body, leaving her a young person in an old woman's body. By this point she and Nathaniel feel some affection towards each other. For Nathaniel it's only about the third time he's ever truly cared about someone. It's touching to see how he tries to protect her.
I loved the conversation Nathaniel has with Ms. Lutyens on the street when she tells him that the boy she knew and tried to protect is gone and she doesn't recognize the man before her. It's kind of a slap in the face for him since all he wanted to do was thank her for what she'd done for him. He has a few other encounters like this that force him to take a figurative look in the mirror. I'm not sure he really likes what he sees. That creates an interesting internal dialogue and conflict throughout the story. He definitely becomes disenchanted with the world he's lived in for so many years.
Bartimaeus is really the main character; it's his story. I liked the flashbacks to his time with Ptolemy. You see how much Bartimaeus cared about his master then, and how much in the end, despite their rocky relationship, he cared about Nathaniel. Their constant nagging and bantering is evidence of a mutual respect. Bartimaeus has some interesting insight into humans. There was one footnote in which Bartimaeus said, "He was a human; always, always humans gravitate to surfaces." He was referring to Nathaniel looking at the outside of a person first, before the inside during one of the fights at the end. I thought that was a pretty accurate observation of human nature.
*MAJOR SPOILER*
I did not expect Nathaniel to die. I cried, I admit it. I didn't like him in the first book but about halfway through the second book I just felt sorry for him and that didn't change throughout the third book. He was lonely and basically just trying to survive a cutthroat world. He was just beginning to realize how off course his life was and I was hoping that he'd have a bright future, that he and Kitty would go on and do great things together so the ending was really sad. I think Nathaniel's death was a redemption of sorts and fitting in a way though. He sacrificed himself to save hundreds of people, and in the end to save Bartimaeus so that his story could continue. In that way, Nathaniel and Ptolemy wound up being very much alike. Who knows, maybe if the story were to continue Bartimaeus's form of choice would change from Ptolemy to Nathaniel.
No comments:
Post a Comment