Kitty completes the trinity of main characters, and gives our third point-of-view, that of a commoner fighting the oppression of the magic users. At first eager, then disillusioned, and in the finale more enlightened than any one, she provides a good balance to the goings on of Nathaniel and the upper-class of magicians. After only the opening chapter, I was in love with the writing style Stroud uses in this book. The characterization of the djinni, Bartimaeus, is absoutely amazing and delightfully enjoyable to listen to. Nathaniel's character was not as interesting, but held true to what one would expect in a child that age. The demon Bartimaeus is disgusted to be successfully summoned by the ambitious twelve year old and, even more so, when Nathaniel compels him to undertake a dangerous and difficult mission. Their relationship is not cosy, but governed on either side by fear and constraint. The perspective of Bartimaeus, the millennia old demon who relates a great part of the narrative, provides a cynical, humorous and entirely unsentimental view of events. On the other hand, I might be wrong about that last bit. I’m not sure how receptive I would have been to the idea of a “hero” like Nathaniel, who is clearly on the path to the Dark Side, or whatever. This is a hilarious, fast-paced book about a world where many state governments are ruled by magicians. Great Britain, for example, is governed by an elite group of magicians--many of whom are greedy, ambitious, and uncaring for other people. Magicians themselves have limited powers; most of their strength stems from their ability to summon powerful demons who are obligated to do their bidding.

The other half of the story shows how the apprentice, Nathaniel, was torn from his parents as a five-year-old and dumped in the household of an uncaring master to be force-fed with magical learning. You are just beginning to think you understand how the magician politicians of this world grow up so nasty, when Nathaniel suddenly - albeit arrogantly - begins to display some decent qualities. There is a bad wizard out there. Lovelace is power hungry, greedy, and just a nasty piece of work. He embarrasses this young, powerful wizard and this child is not playing games. He is now out for revenge against Lovelace. His journey of vengeance causes him to lose everything he ever loved... I don't find Nathaniel here all that likeable. He's a whiny know-it-all who's only really interesting for a possessive crush he has on his art teacher. With the look of this tome the standout, this is the best preteen-read-to-graphic-novel book I've yet seen, making it better than the Alex Rider, Charlie Higson young Bond, and even our co-adaptor's Artemis Fowl tie-ins. It's a lengthy book, for it doesn't appear wordy yet contains a satisfying amount of bulk. It reads fine, and looks splendid, and I have no problem recommending it. The Bookbag I find it amusing how many people compare this book to Harry Potter. Yes, they both involve magic, but that's the end of the similarity. The very basis of magic in this book is that magicians are evil, scheming, and enjoy enslaving other beings. In Harry Potter Magic itself was pure, free to be used in any way desired. But that's all I'll say on that, as this is a review of Bartimaeus, not Harry Potter.In Stroud's world, magicians have no power of their own - their power lies in the knowledge of how to summon (and enslave) spirits, like the djinni Bartimaeus, to do their will. These magicians are the proud, arrogant, entitled upperclass that pretty much oppress the commoners who work the city's factories and low-life jobs. They are bred for government, are not allowed to themselves breed, and thus take on apprentices instead to further the magical profession. Start Media has optioned the film and TV rights to Jonathan Stroud’s fantasy series The Bartimaeus Sequence.

Nathaniel becomes an apprentice Magician after his unknown family forfeit him (at the age of five) as part of a government program which pays parents to give up their children to become part of the ruling class of magicians. His master, Arthur Underwood, is a mediocre magician and the Minister of Internal Affairs. Underwood is unwilling to having an apprentice while his wife, Martha, warmly welcomes Nathaniel. Over the following years, he progresses through his training as a magician which includes an intense academic education as well as lessons in matters relating to magic.We’ll start with the plot. It is well developed and interesting enough on itself, but what makes it really shine is the narrative structure. The story is told from two perspective. One is a third person perspective which focuses on young Nathaniel, a magician apprentice. A very lonely boy, for magicians do not have children, they simply take apprentices (children of commoners and the parents seem not to have much saying in this).Nathaniel’s master cares nothing for him. Not surprisingly, this very intelligent boy can’t stand him but he likes his wife, whom he sees as a substitute mother of sort. That first part of the book was developed perfectly and I really felt for the boy- for most of the novel I quite worried about him even if I knew that it was highly unlikely for the protagonist to get killed. So, the plot is mostly focused on Nathaniel. The way the plot developed was something I quite liked. When another magician Lovelace offends Nathaniel, his mater doesn't stood up for him and Nathaniel is determined to take revenge. He does an unthinkable and summons a jinni on his own. It is an unheard of someone so young to attempt it, but Nathanial does it. Whom does he try to sum up? That brings us to our second narrative. Jonathan Stroud's 2004 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book acceptance speech". The Horn Book Inc. 1 January 2004 . Retrieved 17 July 2021.