The Amulet of Samarkand was the first book of the Bartimaeus Trilogy; the other two novels were The Golem’s Eyes and Ptolemy’s Gate. Typically magical novel that was full magical terms such as Orb, nimbus, incantation, amulet, talisman, magicians etc. It’s one of the many novels revealed the existence of witches, magician, sorcerer that intertwined within our world among others Harry Potter, LOTR, The Golden Compass, Stardust, etc. But unlike others, this novel unfolded the stories of ancient Jinni namely Bartimaeus. He, so the novel kept referring Bartimaeus as it, told his adventurous stories with his master from his point of view as if we were asking to go deep down with his thoughts, for instance he described the pain and sensation when his essence was summoned. That’s make him some kind of the hero in the novel. While other similar novels usually narrated the stories from the heroes’ point of view. The heroes took control on how the stories should be told, but this one was the opposite. Further, there were many humors embedded in some scene because Bartimaeus was a kind of gothic yet humorous and a little bit noble type of character. The scene where he bullied a messenger imp and the departing scene with his master was hilarious that made the readers laughed among many other humorous scenes.
While magician, sorcerer, witch in other novels relied heavily on their magic wand and incantation, the magicians in this book on their marid, afrit, djinni, and imp. Imp was the weakest in power while the most powerful was Marid. That’s how the classification was made. There’s also a folliot, mite, and other lesser beings that were summoned to serve a magician bidding. And the incantation played a great part in summoning those beings. A precise and correct spell would deliver the right being, while a slip of the tongue would be fatal. They also needed the correct pentacle to lock their slaves ( magicians always considered them as slaves). The world of the magicians was mingled with the commoners (the non magicians) and was divided in seventh planes. Planes…well it’s hard to put it into its exact meaning, may be it was a kind of perimeter such as in the first plane realm you could see Jinni as a child of whatever it imitated, but on the next plane you would gradually see their true form…some kind like that. Only in the second book, the meaning of plane was explained. The seven planes were layered one after another and each plane revealed different reality. The first plane was contained any material forms such as humans, water, stone, building than could be seen by anyone. The other six planes presented spirits in various forms that mingled in the human world. The magician could see the two up to three planes with their glasses. The only thing that were absent of those novels was the absence of God. As far as I recalled there’s no other greater power above their realm except their magic as if God did not exist at all…interesting to discuss but it’s not in this chapter.
The plotting was a bit confusing if you didn’t pay attention as sometimes it jumped to the past then it reversed to the present. Sometimes the story was narrated by third person point of view (when it unfolded the stories of Nathaniel) and in the next chapter it was by first person point of view, Bartimaeus, one after another. The conflict was smartly developed and crafted. It’s a kind of roller coaster …it got tense and more and more but then it slowed down, then it tensed again until it reached up the climax. The whole story was candidly thrilling and exciting. It was enjoyable and entertaining.
Starting with Bartimeaus (a 5,000 Djinni of middle rank) in his Other World, hoping to be summoned by a beginner in the business (young magician who had just his first chance for summoning) for fun and he would scare and bully him. Out of his expectation, a scrawny twelve years old boy summoned him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the young Simon Lovelace, an influential magician in the city. It was a surprise considering that this amulet had many great reputation and it was not easy to get it. It was forged by a Shaman in central Asia that shield its wearer from any magical attacks. Reluctant to go, Bartimaues could not reject the task as once being summoned in, he was bound to obey his summoner until the summoner released him from the spell of confinement. Bewildered by his new master as he would not give his name, Bartimeaus set for the job. He fretted a lot about the way magicians always treated a jinnee like him… slaving him. He described how it was like to live hundreds of years to serve his various masters from the time of Solomon, Pharaoh and to modern time like this where cars were invented. Magicians were always tricky and had less conscience. Their pride and greediness was all the same.
Lovelace residence was highly defended with magical spheres and two strong jinnies namely Faquarl and Jabor. The two was hundreds of years in age just like Bartimaeus …they were once comrades but then became enemies because their master was turned against each other. Similar in power yet Bartimaeus was smarter. With hard labors, he could steal the Amulet of Samarkand.
Then the story flipped to the past into Nathaniel’s. It was customary that a magician was chosen by the Parliament of the magicians. As soon as the child reached his age, he must be separated from his birth parents and taken into the custody of his mentor. The child must abandon the name given by his parents and by the age of twelve, he would be given a new magician name. If the beings he was summoned in knew about their birth name, then the result was damaging. It would be used to turned against him. Magicians must not have their own children. Thus, they were entrusted by apprentices to pass their learnings. A birth name must be hidden forever less it would be a fatal for the magician. At age of six, Nathaniel’s parents gave him away in the care of the Parliament. It was then decided that Mr. Underwood would supervise his training in becoming a magician. His new mentor never taken him seriously, regarded him as a kind of backward child that was capable of nothing. His ignorance and harsh treatment had hurt his pride greatly. The only consolation he got was coming from Mrs Underwood whom showered him with genuine affection and care. She decided to call him with his birth name until the time of his naming came. While, in his solace of study, he found serenity with Ms. Lutyen, a commoner who taught him drawings. Drawing was important for a magician because if he was to draw a pentacle for summoning, it must be in exact shape and form. He was a fast learner. Being underestimated and ignored by his teacher, he learnt himself from the books as his main source of knowledge and skill.
On occasion when he was introduced to Mr Underwood’s magician colleagues, Nathaniel received a fatal humiliation that changed his fate forever. Being looked down all the time enraged him badly especially when Lovelace would not admit that his continuous correct answers proved somewhat that he deserved so much better. Lovelace considered him as ‘capable of nothing’. Furious, he attacked Lovelace and his comrades with mites to show him that he could use magical spell. The result was fatal. Lovelace humiliated him deeply by casting a spell on him and beaten him badly. His teacher stood in a shame and left him alone in the torturing scene. He was grounded and Ms. Lutyen who was trying to help him was fired. His pride was badly hurt and he vowed he would seek revenge. His teacher was already dead to him from the moment he let him alone without his protection in the scene. To reach his goal, he studied harder and pretended to an obedient and submissive student. While, the truth was he had a plan of his own. On his first summoning, he could trapped a watcher imp in a round disc he made himself. This imp could spy for him. Its first task was Lovelace. With its help, Nathaniel, found out about the Amulet of Samarkand. Lovelace had ordered his man to murder its keeper. He would seek revenge by stealing the Amulet. He would reveal his crime and shaterred his reputation. Thus, he needed to summon greater being, and Bartimaeus was his choosing.
The story then shifted again on Bartimaeus point of view. His troubles in getting the Amulet made him despised the young magician more. He found him irritating and was eager to be realized. Now that he had performed his work well, he wished he should be released off duty soon. To his surprise, there’s another work yet to come. The boy ordered him to hide the Amulet in his teacher’s study room and found out what Lovelace up to with the Amulet. To Bartimaeus, it was a kind of set up for the boy’s teacher. If the police or Lovelace ever found the amulet in Underwood’s, it was a burial for the old man. Accidentally, when he was sneaking around in the house, Bartimaeus overheard Mrs Underwood calling the boy with his birth name. Yeah, now he knew his birthname, he could act against his will. However, it was not as easy as he imagined. The boy was persistent and clever… in fact he must admitted that he’s the cleverest magician boy he had ever met. Nathaniel managed to set another scheme to force him serving him.
Spying on Lovelace proved much more difficult, now that he and his comrades had formed a massive search for the Amulet. The boy was right, there was murder involved with the Amulet. It was formerly kept under the care of the government. Its keeper was sliced in the throat and no one yet to be a suspect. Lovelace would use it in a conference held somewhere in the city …to what purpose, he still had no idea as he soon got caught up and was imprisoned in the Tower with the most highest magical protection. The powerful Mrs Whitwell caged him in her Orb. Lovelace, upon hearing this capture, acted soon by sending Jabor and Faquarl to break Bartimaeus out of prison. He would not risk Bartimaeus told the government investigators that he formerly had the amulet in his possession. Lovelace’s two Jinnies forced Bartimaeus to hand over the amulet as a return favor after they broke him out of prison. He escaped them but unaware led his enemies to Underwood. Lovelace sent an attack to the house and seized the amulet. Mr Underwood died in fire with his poor wife while Nathaniel (that was already given a new name, John Mandrake) was saved by Bartimaeus. Nathaniel vowed he would avenge Mrs Underwood’s death. Now, the only person who really ever cared for him died because of his deed, he should go after Lovelace. He promised if Bartimaeus helped him, he would release him as soon as Lovelace paid the price.
Lovelace gathered some help from his master, Maurice Schyler, Rufus Lime, and a mysterious magician that had not been revealed in the book. The plan was to terminate all magicians serving the government that came to his trap. He would seize power once there’s absence of power in the government. He needed the Amulet to protect him from the Great Ramuthra…a giant being from the Other World that would be summoned in. He would create a giant pentacle that would trapped everyone inside by the time Ramuthra arrived. Nathaniel and Bartimaeus was the only hope to stop the misdeed. Would Bartimaeus and his master succeed?
Well… you have to read the book yourself. I don’t want to spoil the story. It was so thrilling reading the action of Bartimaeus and Nathaniel in fighting the Lovelace and his comrades…the way the rift sucked everything in and the way Ramuthra sent any magician to fire or gas was so tensing. Almost forgot, there’s a character in the novel that appeared twice in the scenes namely Kitty, a commoner girl that would play a great role in the second book. She was supposedly part of the Rebellion movement by commoners that tried to overthrow the magicians' ruling over the country.
All and all, I guarantee you will not regret reading the novel. It’s terrific …a great fantasy novel. There’s always an element of surprise in each chapter…and mysterious….
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