The Golem's Eye
From AwardAnnals
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| Author(s) | Jonathan Stroud |
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| Series | Book 2 of the Bartimaeus Trilogy |
| Publisher | Miramax |
| At only fourteen, Nathaniel is a rising star: a young magician who is quickly climbing the ranks of the government. There is seemingly nothing he cannot handle, until he is asked to deal with the growing Resistance movement, which is disrupting London life with its thefts and raids. It’s no easy task: the ringleader Kitty and her friends remain elusive, and Nathaniel’s job—and perhaps his life—are soon as risk. As the pressure mounts, he is distracted by a new series of terrifying attacks in the capital. But is it the Resistance again, or something more dangerous… | |
At only fourteen, Nathaniel is a rising star: a young magician who is quickly climbing the ranks of the government. There is seemingly nothing he cannot handle, until he is asked to deal with the growing Resistance movement, which is disrupting London life with its thefts and raids. It’s no easy task: the ringleader Kitty and her friends remain elusive, and Nathaniel’s job—and perhaps his life—are soon as risk. As the pressure mounts, he is distracted by a new series of terrifying attacks in the capital. But is it the Resistance again, or something more dangerous still? To uncover the perpetrators, Nathaniel must take desperate measures: a journey to the enemy city of Prague and—worse—summoning once again the troublesome, enigmatic, and quick-witted djinni Bartimaeus. Meanwhile, Kitty and her fellow rebels are planning their most daring exploit of all—one that will make their fortune and change the history of London forever.
A thrilling sequel to the best-selling Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem’s Eye is a roller-coaster ride of magic, adventure, and political skullduggery, in which the fates of Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, and Kitty explosively collide.
Reviews
Amazon.com
Due to the success of his first campaign involving the Amulet of Samarkand, Nathaniel, now fourteen, has been appointed the youngest representative ever to the Office of Internal Affairs, and has been devising traps to capture members of the Resistance—a secretive group of commoners who are determined to undermine the ruling class of magicians. When a magic-sapping Golem’s surprise first attack is labeled an act of Resistance terrorism, Nathaniel reluctantly summons Bartimaeus for help. Meanwhile, a zealous young member of the Resistance, Kitty Jones, is planning to rob the sacred tomb of the great magician Gladstone, and turn the power of his buried magical instruments against the spell makers. The towering clay Golem and its shadowy master unites the destinies of Nathaniel, Bartimaeus, and Kitty together in one fateful night—unfortunately, that night is much too slow in coming. Stroud’s second book is far too long and gloomy, focusing more on the priggish Nathaniel and wronged Kitty than the dijinni readers have come to adore. Fans of Jonathan Stroud’s breakout hit, The Amulet of Samarkand, may be a little disappointed to discover that Bartimaeus features so little his second book. While Stroud cleverly uses the class war between the ruling magicians and the disgruntled commoners as a metaphor for current political and social clashes, the text suffers overall from a lack of the dijinnis famous facetious footnotes. Avid fans are left skimming the slow parts and hoping that when Bartimaeus escapes his servile bonds he will be given more space to make them laugh. —Jennifer Hubert
Barnes and Noble
Jonathan Stroud’s mischievous djinni makes a thrilling comeback in this magically delicious sequel to the bestselling The Amulet of Samarkand. Starring Bartimaeus, the boy magician Nathaniel, and Resistance fighter Kitty, Stroud’s follow-up takes readers again to London, where a string of mysterious breaks-ins at high-profile buildings has officials scratching their heads. Now 14 and working in the government’s Internal Affairs office, Nathaniel has been assigned to determine the cause of these crimes; unfortunately, the magician is able to make little headway until he summons Bartimaeus for service. Is it the Resistance causing all of these problems or something much more dangerous? Audiences will sit agog as they follow the interconnected stories of Nathaniel, Kitty, and the famous djinni, especially as they learn how Kitty’s run-in with a nasty magician develops into her allegiance to the Resistance. As with his previous book, the author packs enough punch to delight fans of Artemis Fowl and Harry Potter, brilliantly weaving plotlines together and developing his characters so that none is totally admirable. Given the success of Stroud’s first book and the merit of his second, it’s no doubt that audiences will surely be salivating to see what will happen in Book Three. Matt Warner
