The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) (Bk. 2) | Jonathan Stroud

The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) (Bk. 2) | Jonathan Stroud | Refreshing type of fantasy book!

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The Golem's Eye (T...

	The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) (Bk. 2) Jonathan Stroud Miramax, 2006 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 137 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud

"The Golem's Eye" by Jonathan Stroud was a great read. It had thrill, excitement and told the story from three people's point of view. With the resistance attacks and the creature wreaking havic in London, Nathaniel has a lot on his mind. So he summons the djinni, Bartimaeus, to help him. But as Nathaniel and Bartimaeus travel to Prague to stop a second Golem (the creature that was causing panic in London) from being created. But as Nathaniel is away, the resistance trys to rob Gladstone's tomb but does not prevail, except Kitty manages to steal the staff. But when the Golem trys to get the staff from Nathaniel, Kitty saves him and destroys the Golem.
This story takes place in London and Prague. The conflict is that a Golem is causing havic in London and that Kitty stole the staff. The resolution is that Kitty gives the staff to Nathaniel, who returns it back to the Prime Minister, and Kitty destroys the Golem and they find that Henry Duvall was controling the Golem.
One event in this story I enjoyed was when Bartimaeus and Nathaniel escaped the police in Prague. They escaped because Bartimaeus flew them away from the seen. I liked it because there was lots of suspense because all of a sudden, they were surrounded by police and narrowly escaped. Another event in this story I enjoyed was when the resistance was robbing Gladstones's tomb. Kitty found bodies behind an illusion of a wall, and when they opened the tomb to get the treasures in it, and an afrit popped out and killed them all except Kitty and Nick. I liked it because I didn't know if they would succeed, and the skeleton afrit was a surprise to me. I also liked when Kitty destroyed the Golem. When Nathaniel got the staff, he tried to operate it but failed and was knocked out. So Kitty destroys the Golem and saves Nathaniel. I liked this part because I never thought that Kitty would try to save Nathaniel and I didn't think Kitty could destroy the Golem.
This was a good book and I would definitaley recommend it to anyone who likes thrill and adventure.

-Douglas McGuire

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Refreshing type of fantasy book!

I wish Mr Stroud and other writers had more books like this. It's a fun read, as a few other readers mentioned it's not the often repeated Tolkien copied fantasy. The footnotes can make you laugh as he explains things as if they are truly for real and make perfect sense. The character development is excellent and you'll quickly feel a keen liking for some and a distinct dislike for others increasing your interest in the book. I rarely find myself wanting to stay up at night and read but this book did just that. I enjoyed this book more than the first which usually is not the case.

Enjoy!

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The Golem's Eye

Nathaniel was your typical everyday young magician. He tried to summon monsters way beyond his level. But somehow, he managed a level five summoning. The creature he summoned was jinn named Bartimaeus. The first task for Bartimaus was to steal a rare jewel, named the Amulet of Sanarkand, which he did easily, but then there was a war. The owner of the jewel was killed after fighting the duo which afterwards the jewel was destroyed. This book is a great read that every teenage reader would enjoy.

The Golem's Eye had many interesting ideas that most books don'. For example, Nathaniel was a poor kid that was brought in by a wizard as his pupil. Though he was taught many things, Nathaniel always wanted more, so one day he summoned alone. He followed all the instructions he was taught and was able to summon jinn far beyond his power. But since he summoned him while in a very powerful circle, the jinn couldn't kill him and was bound by him until he was set free. Another example is that Nathaniel actually was respected by all members of Parliament and was considered to be a Member of Parliament.

This book also had many interesting names and characters. One such example is the powerful jinns Bartimaeus and Ptolemy. They each can see things most can't due to the fact they are creatures from the seventh plane of existence. Due to this, they can shape shift, cast powerful spells, and control other people. Another example is the young magician/Parliament member Nathaniel. In the first book of the series, he exceeded all limits and risked all he had. Though his master was surprised, he was also furious for young magicians should never summon without their master present. For if they do, they may use all of their life energy and die due to the fact that certain things cost too much to accomplish.

One last thing this book had was that the chapters were actually different people's story. For example, instead of chapter one or chapter two, it went Nathaniel and then Bateaus and went back and forth. For though summons were only creatures, they existed and had their own story to tell as well. And because of this unique layout, the reader is able to tell more things about the other people from each perspective.

All teenage readers who enjoy magical and fantasy related books would enjoy The Golem's Eye. If you like this book, read the first one called The Amulet of Sanrkand and the third one Ptolemy's Gate. This series will always renew the reader's spirit to want to stay up all night until the books are finished. Yes, it does have slow parts, but fantastic battles and scenes follow soon after.

N. Koester

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A sequel that surpasses the original

This next book picks up a couple years after the first one ended. The young boy Nathaniel is no longer an apprentice magician, and is now a high level government official at the age [..].

(Which is the first problem with this book. In the first book Nathaniel was an [..]boy, and I thought his portrayal as an [..]boy was pretty believable. In this next book however I couldn't believe he is [..]. He acts like he's a [..]yuppie.)

In the first book, brief hints were given that this was a separate universe from our own, but now this second book were learn a lot more about the world the magicians inhabit. It turns out to be kind of a disutopia 1984 esque world in which the magicians rule everything and the common British people are forced to be subservient.

In addition to Nathaniel and the sarcastic Bartimaeus, this book focuses on Kitty Jones, a resistance fighter to the magicians rule. Kitty appeared briefly in the first book, but in this book we find out a lot more about her. In fact, because this book covers a lot of the narrative from Kitty's perspective, as well as going into all of Kitty's back story, this book is more about Kitty than Nathaniel and Bartimaeus.

Because all of Kitty's back story has to be told, it takes a while before the forward story gets going. But once all the elements are finally set up (about 300 pages into the book), then the story really gets going with a vengeance. Once the story finally got going, I enjoyed this book much more than the previous one.

Despite being a children's book, there is once again a high body count in this book (the standards must have changed since I was young). There is a scene in which the Resistance fighters are on a dangerous mission to rob a haunted tomb, and the author really does his best to draw out the suspense as long as he can. And because you know he's crazy enough to kill off some of these characters, it really does get suspenseful. I was completely hooked. And then when the trap finally does spring, the horrifying pay off is well worth the wait.

Although political movements in these kind of fantasy disutopia books tend to be mainly stock characters and plot devices, I thought the characters in the Resistance were all very life like and their internal dynamics and squabbling were very realistic and believable.

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Decent Continuation (No Spoilers)

If you have already read and enjoyed Book 1 of Stroud's "Bartimaeus Trilogy", you might as well finish the saga. Viewed as a whole, the trilogy neither succeeds spectacularly, nor fails miserably. It has much to recommend it, but quite a few flaws.

In this volume, the narrative focus suffers a bit with the introduction of a third main character (Kitty), whose perspective now competes for space with that of Bartimaeus and Nathaniel. This is part of a more-or-less necessary buildup to the third volume, but in the meantime, there is rather less of Bartimaeus and his humorous commentary.

Certain narrative ploys repeat themselves. Stroud's imaginative repertoire is not quite so varied as one might hope. On the other hand, Stround, to his credit, does not merely rest on his laurels and repeate the formula of Book 1. Instead, the story becomes increasingly, and intriguingly, subversive, but without losing its moral compass.

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