Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand, a novel by Jonathan Stroud

Nathaniel is eleven years old and a magician’s apprentice, learning the traditional arts of magic. All is well until he has a life-changing encounter with Simon Lovelace, a magician of unrivaled ruthlessness and ambition. When Lovelace brutally humiliates Nathaniel in public, Nathaniel decides to speed up his education, teaching himself spells way beyond his years. With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a five-thousand-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal Lovelace’s greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

This book is some kind of diary, of Bartimaeus and Nathaniel. On Bartimaeus chapters, he gave the footnote of what happened before to the same situations or anything that give extra explanations. And I thought of same thing in Nathaniel chapters. Apparently, not. Nathaniel chapters wrote his story before meeting Bartimaeus until working together with the djinn, in first person point of view. Often, when I was on the beginning of the book, I had to read it carefully to understand.

Bartimaeus is a cunning, funny and strong djinn. I like him. I think of one djinn for one magician for a life time. But I was wrong. Everyone can summon him, or other djinn. When one task is done, magician can free the djinn and the djinn can be summon by other magician. It’s weird.

The second weird thing. Apprentices of magicians won’t allow to remember his/her names. They have to forget all the past and they will be named with new one after twelve. In the mean time, their master call them with just “Boy” or “Girl”. Other magician can call them with their master’s last name.