The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. The first title is The Amulet of Samarkand. A more challenging series, but brilliant stuff. A young London magician summons an ancient djinn to help him with his problems. Grades 6th-8th. Rick Riordan

Londres. XXIe siècle. La ville est envahie de sorciers qui font appel à des génies pour exaucer leurs désirs. Lorsque le célèbre djinn Bartiméus est appelé par une puissante invocation, il n'en croit pas ses yeux : l'apprenti magicien, Nathaniel, est bien trop jeune pour solliciter l'aide d'un génie aussi brillant que lui. De plus, cet adolescent surdoué lui ordonne d'aller voler l'Amulette de Samarcande chez le puissant Simon Lovelace. Autant dire qu'il s'agit d'une mission suicide. Mais Bartiméus n'a pas le choix : il doit obéir. Le djinn et le magicien se trouvent alors embarqués dans une dangereuse aventure... Sur le front britannique, c'est une nouvelle histoire d'apprenti magicien qui retient l'attention. Mais Jonathan Stroud ne marche pas sur les brisées de J. K. Rowling ou de Philip Pullman, même si la Trilogie de Bartiméus est considérée comme la première rivale sérieuse d'À la croisée des mondes. Son Nathaniel, apprenti surdoué qui veut se venger d'un magicien l'ayant humilié, n'est pas le véritable héros de l'histoire, ni son narrateur. Ce double rôle échoit au djinn Bartiméus, que le jeune garçon a réussi à invoquer, le contraignant ainsi à lui obéir et le précipitant sans pitié dans une succession d'avatars et de mésaventures. Le rythme est échevelé ... Le résultat est un roman fort savoureux, à l’ironie mordante, dont les notes en bas de page sont les plus goûteuses friandises. Et l’on peut apprécier aussi l’évolution des personnages dans les deux tomes suivants. La variété des récits, faits par l'un ou l'autre des héros, donne une vision complète des événements, assez violents, et accentue certains traits de caractère. L'humour acide de Bartiméus est ainsi mis en avant et s'oppose à l'ardeur enfantine avec laquelle Nathaniel s'emploie à réaliser ses ambitions au mépris de sentiments qu'il s'efforce d'oublier. La spontanéité de la courageuse Kitty, entrée dans le Résistance et soucieuse du sort de l'humanité, vient judicieusement s'intercaler entre eux. Quant aux parties qui narrent l'antique histoire de Ptolémée et de Bartiméus, elles donnent du corps à ce récit qui peut faire frémir. Bref, les romans pour la jeunesse de ces dernières années sont devenus une vraie littérature à part entière, qui ne prend plus les enfants pour des imbéciles en arrêtant ces visions schématiques de la vie, du Bien et du Mal, tout en apportant un souffle épique qui laisse plus d’un adulte « accro » à ce genre de saga et bouleversé par un vrai final apocalyptique. ( )

Libro che mi ha fatto compagnia per più di tre mesi, e che senz'altro ricorderò con piacere grazie al personaggio di Bartimeus. La narrazione, spesso sviluppata secondo il suo punto di vista, ha rappresentato qualcosa di diverso rispetto a ciò che ero abituato a leggere precedentemente… e grazie alle sue note a piè di pagina mi sono ritrovato spesso a sorridere.

Caratterialmente è irriverente, fuori dagli schemi... e ha uno humour dissacrante: quando fa uso delle sue battute di spirito, o attinge ai ricordi delle sue millenarie imprese, le condisce sempre di particolari esilaranti legati ai rapporti ce aveva coi suoi compagni/avversari. Il che restituisce davvero le innumerevoli sfaccettature di un personaggio che, da solo, di fatto tiene in piedi un romanzo di più di mille pagine.

Peccato per il finale, ma pare ci possa essere un seguito... chissà. ( )

Come non provare simpatia per Bartimeus? Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso il Possente, Serpente dalle Piume d'Argento...Edificatore delle mura Uruk, di Karnak e di Praga...che ha parlato con Salomone, ha corso nelle praterie insieme ai padri dei bufali, ha sorvegliato l'antico Zimbabwe fino a quando le pietre caddero e gli sciacalli banchettarono con le sue genti...costretto all'obbedienza da un mago ragazzino, ambizioso e sostanzialmente un po' antipatico. Piacevolissimo, 1140 pagine di puro divertimento. ( )

The Bartimaeus Trilogy is one of the best series I have ever read. I was so sad that it finished with three books. It is so well-written and the characters are so well developed... There is unbelievable wit and great plots. I read this set last year sometime, but since it is one of my favorites I wanted to add a review on here.

I can't believe some people call this a Harry Potter rip off. The main character is a magician- this one thing in common does NOT make a book a rip off! This especially is true when the young magician is Nathaniel- raised in a completely different atmosphere as Mr. Potter... with a personality that is on the other side of the spectrum. I DO recommend this book to people who do (and do not) like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and other fantasy books such as these.

Bartimaeus is the main character and he is a djinni that is 5000 years old. The djinni's in Stroud's world are the slaves of magicians. (Magicians aren't actually powerful- they're demanding things from the djinni that makes them seem to have the power.) The djinni must perform these tasks or they are punished by the wizards and one of the worst forms of punishment is never sending them back to The Other Place from where they are summoned. Because the djinni aren't really from our place, they can shift into almost any shape/disguise.

Now Nathaniel, our young 12 year old magician, is very gifted, naive, bitter and power hungry. To begin the first book, "The Amulet of Samarkand," he is the assistant of a crappy magician Arthur Underwood. Arthur treats Nathaniel horridly. He puts up with it though, mostly because Arthur's wife and one of his tutors helps him through it. This all changes when Simon Lovelace completely humiliates Nathaniel and Arthur is too cowardly to help or even stand up for him. Now he isn't just bitter, he is FURIOUS...

With all his anger he throws himself into some pretty outrageous goals that seem impossible for a magician as young as he. He wants to summon a powerful middle-ranking djinni to avenge himself. But our amazing djinni, Bartimaeus, is not as docile as Nathaniel had hoped. He is totally hilarious- and REALLY sarcastic. (He narrates, mostly... and leaves us footnotes that really make the book what it is.) Nate eventually avenges himself by attempting to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace, his new enemy.

In book 2, "The Golem's Eye, Nathaniel (now using his formal wizarding name John Mandrake) has to summon Bartimaeus once again. It is two years later and Nate has risen fast in the government. Nate is put in charge of hunting the source of some disastrous attacks that are devastating the wizarding community. The Prime Minister seems to think the Resistance is the source, but not everyone is so sure. (The Resistance is a team of commoners that rebel against the magicians' unfair government.) While Nate is going about his work, we have Kitty Jones, a leader of the Resistance, searching out magical weapons to use against the magicians' government... They're looking to overthrow them and regain control of London. We get a deeper look into the character of Kitty Jones. We figure out she is immune to magic.

Book 3, "Ptolemy's Gate," is THE BEST in the trilogy and is set three years after the previous book. I think that makes Nathaniel 17 years old and one of the most influential magicians in the British cabinet for the Prime Minister. He has tons of djinni as slaves at this point and doesn't treat any of them well, including Bartimaeus. Nate has a lot of problems- the resistance is getting stronger and the foreign war is getting worse. he has also been over using and abusing all his djinni to the point where Bartimaeus almost dies. In an act that surprises Nathaniel and the djinni- he sends Bartimaeus back to the Other Place temporarily to regain his strength. Ah, is Nathaniel's heart not completely black coal just yet?

We learn tons about Bartimaeus's past in this book- these are my favorite parts. He served a 14 year old boy named Ptolemy in the past who was very intrigued by The Other Place. Ptolemy wanted to end the slavery of the djinni and was very kind to Bartimaeus. Ptolemy was also the only human to travel to The Other Side and come back to write about his experiences.

Kitty has also been very busy in the 3rd book. She studies magic nonstop and has made the decision to try something that has never ever been done by anyone non-magical before.

The awesome fates of Kitty, Bartimaeus and Nathaniel are intertwined more than ever... and the government finally begins to crumble like it should. All hopes of magicians and commoners alike lie in the hands of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel and Kitty. The climax is intense and you will find yourself lost in the scene holding your breath until the ending.

Without giving away any spoilers, that's all I can say ;] The ending was super emotional for me, I think anyone who gets really into this series will find themselves grabbing a tissue by the end of this book.

Overall this series is intense, thrilling and amazingly written. The plots, dialogue and characters blew me away. I can't stop recommending this trilogy. I could read it a million times. I want Bartimaeus to be MY best friend. I have got to pick up some of Stroud's other work. ( )