Bartimaeus (book series)

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The Bartimaeus book series includes four novels by the fantasy author Jonathan Stroud . The fictional main characters are the genie Bartimaeus and the young sorcerer's apprentice Nathanael, who in the course of the tetralogy becomes a very capable magician. The first three volumes appeared between 2003 and 2005, the series was expanded to include a book in 2010. 6 million copies were sold worldwide in 35 languages.

Style and genre

Bartimaeus is a series of books for young people, but it can also be read by adults. Furthermore, numerous elements typical of fantasy can be found - for example, magic , wizards and demons play an essential role.

The style is characterized by the change between several perspectives and the associated change between the views, perspectives and narrative styles of the different characters. In many chapters, Bartimaeus acts as the first-person narrator . His narrative style has a high density of sarcastic comments and footnotes and is very personal. The other chapters are told almost exclusively from the point of view of Nathanael and from the second volume also from that of Kitty Jones. They are written more objectively and without footnotes. Although they are written in the third person , the narrative style is colored personally.

The fantasy world

Despite strong references to the actual present and history of mankind, the plot takes place in an alternative reality in which history has developed differently.

In this world prevail magician in London , the center of an empire that also parts of Europe and North America includes. The power of wizards is based on the power of demons . You alone master the magic , but are forced by the wizards by means of pentagrams and spells to use them in their interests.

The magicians only pass on this secret of their power from master to student and hide it from the ordinary (non-magicians). They are denied more important government posts while wizards administer the empire, indulge in luxury and enjoy any other privileges. In the Bartimaeus series, therefore, the “ordinary” begin to rebel against the supremacy of magicians. At first only a small group does this; In the course of history, however, the resentment among the population grows, in particular due to the high losses in the war against insurgents in the American colonies and the ever stricter laws that severely restrict the freedoms of the commonplace. In addition to internal unrest and insurgents in the colonies, the British Empire is also threatened by other states. Prague in particular , formerly the center of the Holy Roman Empire and seat of the emperors , seeks revenge after Gladstone wrested centuries of domination in Europe from the city in a bloody war in 1868.

Demons

Demons are beings of different elements and are proficient in magic. They live in the other place , where they do not have to take on a physical shape and where their substance, which represents their life force, is regenerated. In the other place they are not individual beings, but all part of a larger whole.

If demons are called into the human world, they have to shape their substance into a shape that they can change at will. Only on the higher levels do the demons have a fixed form, which mostly reflects their character. But since they are shapeless in the other place , their stay on earth causes them toil and pain. This pain can only be relieved temporarily through regular changes in shape. Above all, however, the contact with silver and iron causes them pain and damages their substance. B. Silver is used as a powerful weapon against them.

Demons can be roughly divided into seven classes based on their different magical powers. These classes are in turn divided into different categories. The most important of the classes are (in ascending order of power):

There are still gradations within the class of the Djinn (e.g. Horla, Succubes and Ghouls), which are only summoned for certain tasks (e.g. Horla as guards), as well as in the class of Kobolds (e.g. Mauler or stechlings), which magicians rarely summon, but just like the more powerful of them e.g. B. be banned into objects and thus can cause damage. Above these classes there are much more powerful beings, such as Ramuthra (part 1), Nouda (part 3) or the ring spirit Uraziel (part 4). They cannot normally be summoned due to their power. In exceptional cases (see Volume 1), when they are locked into objects (e.g. the ring spirit or the being in the amulet of Samarkand) or are bound to them (e.g. to an incantation horn), their magic can be used.

Levels

The levels also play an important role in the Bartimaeus series . There are seven levels of relevance, but there are others that are insignificant. These levels are all part of reality and are on top of each other. While the material things (i.e. all objects and non-magical living beings) are on the first level and their actions take place, the higher levels are reserved for magical beings and activities. Humans only see the first, cats also see the second, magicians can also perceive the second, third and vaguely the fourth level with the help of special contact lenses or other visual aids. Demons have different levels of access depending on their power.

wizard

The power of wizards is that they have learned to summon demons. To do this, they use precisely defined lists of candles, incense, certain pentagrams around which special runes are drawn, and magic formulas . By summoning a demon, the magician gains power over him and the demon has to obey him. If he does not do this, the magician has penalties available. Therefore, most demons hate the wizards and kill them when they have the opportunity. This also makes the conjuration dangerous for the magician: If the magician leaves his own pentagram with part of his body (even if it is only a hair), blurs a rune (which is drawn in chalk) or if he makes a mistake in the incantation, lifts he unties the demon and can be killed by it.

The magicians only pass on the knowledge of how to summon and enslave demons to their students, thus forming a community of initiates separated from the rest of society. However, there is strong rivalry within the wizarding community. Powerful wizards constantly fear for their lives and therefore surround themselves with magical protection. In addition to lust for power and paranoia, most magicians are also characterized by gluttony and ostentation.

Every wizard has a wizard's name in addition to his birth name. Only he knows his maiden name; he received it from his parents when he was born and discarded it when he joined the wizarding community. As an apprentice, he has no name until the age of 10-12. Then he chooses a name that will represent him from now on. A demon who knows a wizard's maiden name has power over him because he can ward off the punishments that have been imposed on him. There is also the danger that he will pass on the name of an experienced magician to other beings or people and can therefore practically no longer be conjured. That is why every wizard avoids revealing his maiden name.

Bartimaeus trilogy

The amulet from Samarkand

Main characters and perspectives

In this volume the story is told alternately from the point of view of the genie Bartimaeus and the sorcerer's apprentice Nathanael.

  • Nathanael , later John Mandrake , is the apprentice of the poorly qualified Minister of Internal Affairs, Arthur Underwood. He is extraordinarily intelligent and talented, but Underwood does not promote his talent and considers him a somewhat simple-minded student. Nathanael is very impatient with his education, but soon learns not to show it, while he takes his education into his own hands through books.
  • Bartimaeus of Uruk , also Sakhr-al- Dschinni , N'gorso the Mighty , Necho , Rekhyt and the Silver- Feathered Serpent , is a 5000 year old Djinn. Once powerful and the accomplice of great deeds, he now shines above all with high intelligence and witty comments, with which he often manages to pull himself out of the affair (see: Trickster ). Like most demons , he abhorred sorcerers and slavery, but, unlike most others of his kind, knew a benevolent sorcerer: Ptolemy, with whom he was friends and whose shape he preferred to adopt. He also developed a closer relationship with Nathanael. Although this cannot be described as friendly, at least it does him less harm than he could.
  • Arthur Underwood is a rather poor wizard and serves as Secretary of Home Affairs in the government. He is not of a strong character and when dealing with stronger wizards he quickly gives in. However, he treats his apprentice like a fool and often calls him that. The boy's potential is misunderstood by him. He dresses very clichéd and has a long white beard to cover his inability to the ordinary eyes, but in wizarding circles he unwittingly branding himself a wizard of little power. He and his wife die in the middle of the book.
  • Simon Lovelace is a magician of great power but only acts as deputy trade minister. He is intelligent and, like most wizards, arrogant and unscrupulous. It will be eaten at the end of the book.
  • Faquarl is an arch enemy of Bartimaeus and like him is about 5000 years old. Since Bartimaeus managed to poison Genghis Khan while Faquarl was his taster, he has appeared very often in the appearance of a fat cook. He has an intelligence similar to Bartimaeus, is very strong, and serves Simon Lovelace.
  • Jabor is a brutal and extremely powerful genie of low intelligence. Unless otherwise possible, he appears in the shape of a jackal-headed person with red skin. He and Bartimaeus are united by a long and deep, if somewhat exaggerated, feud. Jabor dies near the end of the tape after Bartimaeus has tricked him.

action

The mediocre wizard Arthur Underwood, Minister of Home Affairs, has to take on an apprentice, as every wizard has to do. Reluctantly, he takes little Nathanael into his home. He is intelligent and inquisitive and tries to learn well; however, his master does not recognize his talent and treats him more like a fool. This is one of the reasons why Nathanael is very impatient and wishes his lessons went faster.

One day his master receives guests and wants to show them his apprentice . Among these is Simon Lovelace, who tests Nathanael. Although he can answer all the questions correctly, Lovelace is unimpressed and humiliates Nathanael, who seeks revenge. Because of this conflict, Nathanael's drawing teacher is dismissed, who tried to take sides for him and is an important reference person.

Nathanael alone, now despising his master and long before his first official summoning, conjures a low goblin, which he locks in a bronze disk. He now has a magic mirror that he uses as a spy against Lovelace.

When he feels experienced enough, he conjures the genie Bartimaeus, who steals the Amulet of Samarkand , a powerful artifact, from Simon Lovelace for him . Nathanael orders him to hide the amulet in his master's study, while Bartimaeus can move freely around the house. So he finds out Nathanael's real name. Nor does the young magician suspect that by stealing the amulet he got caught up in a political conspiracy, because with the help of the amulet Simon Lovelace wants to overthrow the government and seize power himself.

Nathanael orders Bartimaeus to find out more about the amulet. This ends up in the Tower of London . Faquarl and Jabor, who are in the service of Lovelace, free him to get the amulet. Bartimaeus escapes them, but unintentionally leads them to Underwood's house and thus to the hiding place of the amulet. Lovelace then kills Underwood, whom he believes to be the thief, and his wife. Nathanael escapes with the help of Bartimaeus. However, he is believed to be his master's murderer and has to work underground while he tries to stop Lovelace. They learn that the coup is supposed to take place in Heddleham Hall Castle, a property a little way from London , and go there.

Nathanael and Bartimaeus just make it into the room where all the important ministers have gathered and the attack is planned. While Lovelace is giving a speech, the final preparations are made to call Ramuthra , a very powerful being from the Other Place. This is supposed to kill everyone in the room, only Lovelace believes that the amulet from Samarkand is safe. However, the duo manage to take this from him, which is why he also falls victim to Ramuthra. Nathanael manages to release Ramuthra with the help of a complicated formula and thus saves the most important members of the government. After the incident at Heddleham Hall, Nathanael gets a new master: the security secretary Jessica Whitwell, head of the London Tower and supervisor of the penitentiary bells, in which Bartimaeus was trapped during his time in the tower.

Nathanael dismissed Bartimaeus when they were alone and promised never to summon him again, whereas Bartimaeus promises not to tell Nathaniel's name to anyone.

The eye of the golem

Main characters and perspectives

In the second volume a total of four perspectives are used, namely those of Nathanael, Bartimaeus, Kitty and that of Foliot Simpkin, the latter only being assigned one chapter.

  • Nathanael, officially John Mandrake , made a leap up the career ladder between the first and second volume, but his character developed rather negatively. Even more than in parts of the first book, he shows himself obsessed with power and at times arrogant.
  • Bartimaeus would like to do without it, but is threatened by Nathanael once again to help him for six weeks.
  • Kathleen "Kitty" Jones is the daughter of two common people in Southwark, London. Her mother works as a receptionist at Palmer Federkiele , later as a cleaning lady in a print shop, while her father works as a department manager in a London department store. She is a member of the Resistance Movement and appears to work in Mr. Pennyfeather's shop. She has defenses.
  • Mr. Terence E. Pennyfeather is the leader of the resistance movement in London and has quite strong defenses against magic himself. He leads his troop tactically and shows great determination, which later degenerates into fanaticism.
  • Quentin Makepeace is a successful playwright and a close confidante of the Prime Minister.
  • Ms. Whitwell is the chief of security for the English state. Whitwell seems unselfish and trustworthy at first by accepting Nathanael as a student, but later drops him when he cannot end the golem affair in time, which leads to the fact that he forfeits the Prime Minister's benevolence and is therefore no longer of any use to her.
  • Henry Duvall is the power-hungry, scheming and unscrupulous police chief of London who tries to expand his power with the Golem affair. He is forced to resign and shortly afterwards commits suicide when his involvement in the Golem conspiracy is exposed. In addition, like all members of the night police, he is a werewolf.
  • William Ewart Gladstone is a real politician who is portrayed in the book as one of the greatest magicians of all time and founder of the British Empire.
  • Honorius is an Afrit who went mad during the lonely years in Gladstone's crypt, who was a personal servant of William Gladstone and who upset London. Immediately before his death, Gladstone captured Honorius in his skeleton and ordered him to guard his remains and grave goods. Honorius is involuntarily freed from the resistance movement when it breaks into Gladestone's grave, and then causes fear and terror before he is killed by the golem.

action

Nathanael has continued his career quite successfully and is now an apprentice to Jessica Whitwell, Secretary of Security. He works as an assistant to Julius Tallow, the head of the internal affairs department, and is responsible for finally putting an end to the resistance movement. All his attempts remain unsuccessful for the time being, which is why he comes under criticism. Police chief Henry Duvall wants to take advantage of this and is urging the Prime Minister to transfer responsibility for this matter to the night police.

Meanwhile, Kitty and the resistance movement she belongs to carry out another little foray. It is learned that the girl was insulted and attacked by Julius Tallow years ago and lost a lawsuit against him only for the fact that she was a common man and he was a wizard, even though he had badly injured her friend Jakob with a spell. She herself was hardly damaged in the attack. The court fined her six hundred pounds. Surprisingly, the strange old Mr. Pennyfeather appeared. He paid off the debt and accepted Kitty into the Resistance, intrigued by the fact that Kitty displayed innate defenses against sorcery.

A great disaster then happens in central London. Something unknown destroys several shops and effortlessly breaks through the magical wall that was erected for protection. The so-called resistance is held responsible for this happening, but one is not sure. All the ministers, including Nathanael, are at a loss, so that, having already been ordered to talk to the prime minister, he brings himself to summon his old servant Bartimaeus again. He convinces the jinn to help him for six weeks.

While the resistance ponders what is going on in the city, this unexpected help, Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Pennyfeather's ominous helper, announces a great action that is to upset all of London.

Bartimaeus is meanwhile on a foray into London with many other jinns to find the perpetrator. The unknown figure reappears and Bartimaeus' friend Queezle falls victim to him. Bartimaeus follows the noise and arrives at the British Museum , which is devastated in the course of the persecution. The Djinn at least comes to the conclusion that the troublemaker must be a golem. Golems, beings from earth, rob all demons of their magical powers so that they cannot harm them. To conjure it up, you need knowledge from the Prague era, which you have to write on a parchment and stick in the golem's mouth. You also need one of the golf eyes, which are actually in the hands of the Czech government.

Bartimaeus survived with luck and was able to present his theory to Nathanael and the ministers. At first little faith is given to him, but Nathanael is supposed to travel to Prague , because the last golems were created there before the English magician Gladstone took the city in 1868.

When the young wizard has left, the resistance movement opens Gladstone's grave and unintentionally frees a powerful Afrite who seems to have gone mad after years of imprisonment in Gladstone's bones and kills four of Kitty's comrades. Now he's breaking out of the grave and terrorizing London. Nicholas Drew and Kitty escape first. Kitty manages to take Gladstone's staff with her.

After an unpleasant incident with the local police in Prague, Nathanael met a magician named Kavka. He reports that he was forced to write the parchments for the creation of the golem. He and Bartimaeus have to escape an old acquaintance - a gigantic mercenary who was once in the service of Lovelace. When Nathanel returns, London is in chaos. Thus his results, for which he is unable to provide any evidence, interests nobody and all responsibility is transferred to the night police. Julius Tallow dies in the mass summoning to stop the mad Afriten. During the search, the crazy Afrit, Honorius, jumps into the Thames in front of Bartimaeus and two other Djinns .

Mr. Makepeace secretly meets with Nathanael and proposes that he cooperate against Henry Duvall. Nathanael captures Jakob, Kitty's friend, in order to reach her and Gladstone's staff. The operation fails due to the intervention of the night police. Nathanael then has to answer to the Prime Minister for going it alone and is given the task of bringing the staff back if he does not want to be locked in the Tower of London. He gets Kitty to hand him the baton in the secret camp by promising her the release of two rebels. Meanwhile, Bartimaeus sympathizes with Kitty and learns from her important details about the resistance movement and other things that could be of use to Nathanael. The ambitious young magician does not keep his promise for the time being and when Kitty still wants to flee with Jakob, Honorius lies in wait for them. Just as he is about to destroy the four, the golem appears and kills the Afrite. Nathanael is unconscious after the unsuccessful use of Gladstone's wand, but is saved by Kitty through Bartimaeus' verbal relenting by pulling the parchment out of the mouth of the giant clay man. Then she flees with Jakob. Bartimaeus later tells Nathanael for her protection that the two died during the magic fight.

Since golems always return to their creator before they die, Henry Duvall is exposed as the author of the destruction. Gladstone's baton returns to government ownership and Nathanael occupies a higher position than before. He becomes the head of internal security . Kitty watches her friend Jakob as he goes to Bruges, but prefers to stay in London herself.

Nathanael keeps his promise to Kitty. Bartimaeus, however, withholds the important details he learned from him in conversation with Kitty, because he is of the opinion that the boy did not deserve it. The glowing friendship and sympathy between him and Nathanael has noticeably deteriorated (as indicated throughout the book, but clearly worked out at the end). Before his release, Bartimaeus indicated that he was very disappointed in the boy's character, which he misunderstood.

The Magician's Gate

Main characters and perspectives

The book is divided into five parts and comprises around 600 pages. There is a prologue before each part. It is written from 3 perspectives (Bartimaeus, Nathanael, Kitty), only changing at the end of the chapter. The only exception is the 36th chapter, which is divided into three parts (alternating views of Kitty, Nathanael and Bartimaeus).

  • John Mandrake alias Nathanael : He has made another leap up the career ladder and is now Minister of Information .
  • Rupert Devereux , the somewhat plump, incompetent and party-addicted Prime Minister of England
  • Jane Farrar , the new police chief
  • Quentin Makepeace , a playwright and, as the tape turns out, the man behind all the conspiracies to overthrow the British government.
  • Bartimaeus , the 5,000-year-old Djinn who has been in Mr. Mandrake's service for some time
  • Kitty Jones , a common man with skill and a former member of the resistance movement
  • Ptolemy , a young magician from Alexandria , (fictional) nephew of King Ptolemy VIII and thus cousin of Ptolemy IX. and Ptolemy X , former friend and conjurer of Bartimaeus
  • Jessica Whitwell : Secretary of Security and former Master of John Mandrake

action

In the first chapter of each of the five parts into which the book is divided, the reader returns to the years 126 to 124 BC and gets to know the unique friendship between Ptolemy , a young magician, and Bartimaeus. Ptolemy was interested in the homeland of Bartimaeus from the beginning and believed that the rule of wizards and demons was a friendly relationship, like that of him and Bartimaeus, who in the course of time received complete freedom on earth through him, could walk. However, Ptolemy was always hunted by his cousin, who (in his opinion) was a competition for the throne. Although Bartimaeus advised his master to flee Alexandria for this reason, Ptolemy decided to stay, so that he was killed by jinns hired to do this. To save Bartimaeus, who was persecuted with him, from death, Ptolemy released him shortly before. Before his death, he spent most of his life in libraries and invented the so-called "Ptolemaic Gate", with which magicians can use a simple formula to visit the Other Place. This requires the will to leave oneself behind and the help of an entity in the other place who leads one there. However, the body is left behind and is dying in the absence of the person concerned. If you stay away too long, it is noticeably weakened, and it can also happen that you have forgotten how to move with it. The knowledge about the Ptolemaic Gate is handed down in the "Apocrypha".

The main plot takes place three years after the Golem Conspiracy from Volume 2. Nathanael, now 17 years old, has been promoted to Minister of Information, but also takes on other tasks. In contrast to the second part, his character has improved, but still contains a strong negative tendency. England is now in a protracted war with America , which is used by other European states to launch isolated attacks on England. Rioted by the war and the attacks, resistance is forming among the ordinary.

Bartimaeus was often summoned by Nathanael after the golem conspiracy to help him with a few smaller conspiracies that are only reported insignificantly. At some point Nathanael uses him for all kinds of things, like cleaning shoes or the like, and after a while Nathanael fails to fire him. So Bartimaeus stayed on earth for two years, which severely attacked his substance and made him largely incapable of fighting. Since Nathanael was in dire straits, he was given the seemingly simple assignment of finding a former member of the resistance, Hopkins, and informing his master of his whereabouts. Before that, he is given the promise to be released after this assignment.

In the course of the search it turns out that some Ministry employees, under the guidance of Hopkins, had the idea of ​​appropriating the supernatural powers of demons by capturing them into their bodies, suppressing their minds and thus their own mind with physical powers optimize the demons. This was inspired by the Afrite Honorius in the second volume. After he arrives at Nathanael lying dying after a chase, Bartimaeus can no longer provide any information and, despite his colleague's urgent demands, Nathanael punishes the jinn (which in such a weakened condition would result in his death, but the information comes to light would bring), dismissed. Afterwards, Nathanael is under great pressure and is heavily criticized. But before one of his political opponents can take advantage of this weakness, there is a coup. During a theatrical performance, the conspirators, led by Quentin Makepeace, capture all members of the government. Nathanael and Kitty are among the prisoners. Nathanael had found out shortly before that Kitty was still alive, went to see her and took it with him to the performance. Soon afterwards, the conspirators carry out their plan, but do not realize that it has been manipulated by Faquarl. Hopkins had put the demon in his body before the coup attempt, but Faquarl turned the wizard's plan into the opposite and took control of his body, which is not noticed by the other conspirators and only in episodes between Bartimaeus and Faquarl in the course of the book is indicated. The demons that Makepeace and his allies banish into their bodies follow Faquarl's example and take control of the bodies of the wizards. As a result, they feel no pain and take revenge on the people with their leader Nouda, a powerful demon.

Bartimaeus pretends to join the demons and therefore receives permission from Nouda to return to the other place. Nathanael then dismisses him, but before that Bartimaeus puts in a good word for the two and asks Nouda to spare them. Kitty follows Ptolemy's example and walks through the gate that connects both worlds. There she can convince Bartimaeus to help her and Nathanael in saving people from the demons. Through a union with Bartimaeus, Nathanael can activate Gladstone's wand, together with Kitty free the surviving members of the government and master most of the demons. In the fight against the demons, Nathanael is seriously injured. Eventually he collapses a large iron building over the leader of the demons. However, he is also in it and is buried under the rubble. Before his death, Nathanael - like Ptolemy before him - releases Bartimaeus to the Other Place. He claims to only do this because he is of the opinion that Bartimaeus would otherwise cause another disaster. However, it is more likely that, since he can no longer survive himself due to a severe injury, he will at least want to save Bartimaeus' life and release him out of gratitude and affection.

Kitty, who has developed deeper affection with Nathanael as the story progresses, is offered a government post for her help in the liberation, but she turns it down. The wizards also declare their readiness to negotiate with the commonplace about equal rights.

Bartimaeus, whose affection and appreciation for Nathanael is clear, speaks at the end. Although he couldn't tell him anymore, he is convinced that Nathanel would have found out his feelings for him in the end because they were both one and could read each other's thoughts.

The ring of Solomon

Main characters and perspectives

The book is divided into three parts and consists of 38 chapters, which, as in the other three parts, bear the names of the people from their perspective. It is not a continuation of the third volume, but a story from Bartimaeus' past, an additional volume, so to speak. The peculiarity of this book is that in addition to the normal perspectives ( Asmira and Bartimaeus ) there are also those that only appear once or twice ( Khaba , Solomon , Balkis , ...). As always, the Bartimaeus chapters are written in the first person, the others from the third person perspective.

  • Bartimaeus is in the service of a wizard committed to Solomon. He is supposed to get treasures from all over the world for Solomon, which he doesn't like. He often changes masters at this time.
  • Asmira is the first guardian of the Queen of Sheba and comes from Marib. She gets the order from her to kill the king of Israel, Solomon.
  • Khaba the Cruel , a sorcerer who is in Solomon's service. After Bartimaeus killed his former master Ezekiel, he was assigned to Khaba. Khaba is very cruel to Djinn. He commands the mighty Mariden Ammet, who disguises himself as his shadow.
  • Solomon the Great , King of Israel.
  • Ammet , Marid in the service of Khaba. He has known Khaba since he was a little boy and is one of the few demons who like their master, or in his case even love him.

action

The action takes place around 950 BC. Instead of. Bartimaeus is in the service of the magician Ezekiel, who in turn serves King Solomon. He instructs Bartimaeus to get a gilded statue from the ruined city of Eridu . When he returned to Jerusalem, he managed to use a trick to eat his master Ezekiel. Outraged by this incident, King Solomon, the most powerful ruler of the time, places Bartimaeus in the service of the magician Khaba, who drives him, together with seven other jinn, including Bartimaeus' favorite enemy Faquarl, to build a new temple.

Meanwhile, the Queen of Sheba , Balkis, receives the news that King Solomon is demanding frankincense from her as a tribute so that he does not destroy the capital Marib after a period of several days, which he would be able to do with a magic ring. When she refuses, the messenger destroys a watchtower, whereupon Balkis instructs her guard Asmira to travel to Jerusalem and kill King Solomon. With the help of a Djinn, she crosses the Arabian desert and arrives ten days later, battered, at the gates of the city of Eilat . On the way to her hostel, she is attacked by four robbers, but successfully defends herself and kills the bandits.

Work in the quarry is now in full swing. Bartimaeus notices that, strangely enough, Khaba's shadow is always a bit slower than the latter itself. When Khaba visits the construction site less and less at the same time, Bartimaeus and his staff become cocky. While he sings ridiculous songs about the king in the form of a hippopotamus , he is caught by Solomon in flagranti and ordered into the desert together with Khaba and the other jinn as punishment. There they are supposed to track down bandits floating around. During a sightseeing flight, Bartimaeus discovers an ambushed caravan , apparently none of which has survived. Surprisingly, he meets Faquarl there, and both of them feel the plains tremble. Disguised as bearded travelers, they are ambushed by a low jinn. He escapes when he notices the camouflage and leads Bartimaeus to the camp of three Edomite magicians. Faquarl meanwhile continued to search the street. Bartimaeus surprises the wizards and kills two of them. He comes across the young Asmira, who killed the third wizard. Khaba, who arrives a short time later, takes Asmira with him to Jerusalem, but has to promise her beforehand to dismiss Bartimaeus and Faquarl.

Khaba dismisses Faquarl, but wants to lock Bartimaeus in a bottle. In the ensuing fight with the Marid Ammet, Bartimaeus frees all the Djinn that Khaba is holding captive in his underground dungeon, but is defeated and locked in the bottle. Asmira steals this from Khaba, who was drunk in the evening, and releases Bartimaeus, but then immediately summons him again so that he can help her kill Solomon. With a clever trick, Bartmäus manages to distract the guards in the royal garden and thus get to the tower where the king sleeps. He climbs the tower with Asmira, where they are looking for the royal bedroom. They discover the king in a room where Asmira wants to kill him with a dagger. The king, however, was only a mirage and so the dagger triggers a trap that apparently calls a powerful entity. Bartimaeus fled immediately and left Asmira to her fate. In one of the rooms he finds a cauldron in which the Afrit Philocretes is locked. He speaks to Philocretes and finds out the only weakness of the king: he takes off the ring at night. He also learns that the mighty entity is only a mirage. Immediately he storms off to get the ring. Meanwhile, Asmira is talking to King Solomon, who "saved" her, and an argument ensues. Bartimaeus, who sneaked up from behind, replaced the real ring with an octopus ring. When Solomon, in a rage, picks up the ring, he notices that it is only a dummy. The king tells Asmira and Bartimaeus how he got the ring and where it came from. The ring is a burden and drains the life force of the wearer. Solomon also emphasizes that he is not taking any tribute from the other kings and queens. Rather, this is due to the unauthorized actions of his seventeen magicians. Asmira is irritated and orders Bartimaeus to keep the ring and not to return it to the king at his request. Then both disappear and leave the king alone.

Khaba appears on the balcony with his Marid Ammet, and Khaba manages to get the ring. Immediately he summons an army of powerful jinns, who are supposed to razed the palace to the ground. Khaba explains that he sent the jinn to Balkis to collect the incense as a tribute. With a skillful, albeit unsuccessful, dagger throw Asmira succeeds in severing Khaba's ring finger and thus the ring from his body. She sends Bartimaeus, who was able to free himself from Ammet's clutches, to sink the ring into the sea. He is pursued by Ammet. Above the sea, Bartimaeus changes his form in Solomon and calls there Uraziel , the mighty ring spirit. Through his power, Bartimaeus succeeds in banishing Ammet in a clay jug and sending him to the bottom of the sea. When the ring is used, its substance suffers considerably.

Meanwhile, Asmira has teamed up with Solomon. Together they defend themselves against Khaba's Djinn, but find themselves in ever greater distress. Bartimaeus arrives in the shape of Ammet and outwits Khaba so that he can knock him unconscious. He hands the ring to Solomon, with whose ring spirit he immediately throws Khaba into dungeon and orders the reconstruction of the palace. On Solomon's orders, the Ringwraith brings Queen Balkis to Jerusalem and explains the truth behind the wizards' conspiracy. Asmira then declines an offer from the king to serve as his bodyguard and from now on wants to hire herself to guard the spice caravans. In the end she dismisses Bartimaeus, who has grown really fond of Asmira.

filming

Miramax bought the film rights to the trilogy for $ 3 million. However, after Disney sold Miramax to Filmyard Holding in July 2010, the future of the project is unclear.

literature

Original editions

  • Stroud, Jonathan: The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus Trilogy) . Hyperion Books, 2003, ISBN 0-7868-1859-X
  • Stroud, Jonathan: Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus Trilogy) . Doubleday, 2004, ISBN 0-385-60615-X
  • Stroud, Jonathan: Ptolemy's Gate (Bartimaeus Trilogy) . Miramax Books, 2006, ISBN 0-7868-1861-1
  • Stroud, Jonathan: The Ring of Solomon (Bartimaeus) . Random House, 2010, ISBN 0-385-61915-4

German translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mike Fleming Jr .: Start Media Reignites Jonathan Stroud Fantasy Series 'The Bartimaeus Sequence' article dated May 30, 2019. Retrieved May 7, 2020
  2. ↑ Jonathan Stroud: The Eye of the Golem . Ed .: Jonathan Stroud. 1st edition. tape 2 . Random House, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-442-36642-2 , pp. 248-251 .
  3. ↑ Ghosts. In: wikia.com. Jonathan Strouds´s Bartimaeus Wiki, accessed on July 15, 2016 (German).
  4. ↑ randomhouse.de ( Memento of the original from January 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.randomhouse.de
  5. ↑ slashfilm.com: Miramax sold ( Memento of the original from August 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 24, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slashfilm.com

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