Sorry that I’ve been sort of unresponsive over the last week, but I’ve sort of been… gone. On a road trip actually! And I happened to finish exactly three books on that road trip, two of which I shall be reviewing today. I do have a bit of news as well, I’ve decided that my ‘No reviewing second books in the series’ rule is silly, and that what I meant by that certain obligation is that I don’t want to review second books on here when I read the first one before I started this little blog. So, there we go – and here I go.
Taken away from his family when he was young, and then sent of to a strange place with a new home and master – Nathaniel is goes through what happens to every apprentice. He is there to learn the art of magic, and all it’s principles and even if progress is slow, all is well for Nathaniel. Until one day, when a high ranked magician embarrasses and puts him to shame, fully unaware of how intelligent the boy is, Nathaniel vows to take revenge. And when his plans finally unfold, and everything seems to be justified – something goes terribly wrong, and it’s up to Nathaniel to fix it.
One very good reason why I loved this book, would be because of the cold hard reality that it shows. Usually in books when a main character is doing something that they are not supposed to be, they don’t get caught. They are too clever – and too willing to take the risk, that nothing ever comes out of it and nothing goes wrong like it so often does in real life. This novel however, took a realistic turn, a turn that I was glad to take to be honest. It was a nice change to have the main character in trouble, shamed even. Because we all know that feeling of getting caught, whether it’s stealing a cookie or something less innocent than that. The feeling of dread is displayed not once but twice in this wonderful story, and it is quite a breath of fresh air.
The writing style was nice and sharp, I loved the way that Strout described certain things. In the opening paragraph, there were some really full words that I liked. When Bartimaeus was telling his part of the story, there were even foot notes to explain things. Those footnotes were often the funny part of Bartimaeus’ side and a lot of the little comments at the bottom of the page made me laugh out loud, or at the least – smile.
This was a great book, and I can’t wait to read the other two in the series. I give this one a great big 4.5
Well, here is the pretty official website. http://www.bartimaeustrilogy.com/ Take a look there, maybe play some games…. I honestly don’t know.
Chow Mr. Cow,
MRR
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