A Wonderful End to a Wonderful Series...

books:

	• Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 3) Jonathan Stroud Disney-Hyperion, 2005 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 146 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

this book was phenominal

This book was very well written, it was an amazing peice of literature. It was full of twists and turns, revenge, magic, and freindship. if you like those in a book ptolemys gate is perfect for you.

A Wonderful End to a Wonderful Series...

Jonathan Stroud has finished the Bartimaeus Trilogy splendidly with "Ptolemy's Gate." There is a mixture of action, description, characters, and a storyline that made it enjoyable and even a touch sad. I can even see many more books stemming form this series. Who knows?

Nathaniel, or John Mandrake, continued with his pompous, arrogant, and self-righteous attitude and it really turned me off in the beginning. It took a while but Stroud does please the reader by bringing him down to earth, although not completely. Even in the last few pages I still didn't fully enjoy Nathaniel's character.

Nathaniel is now the Minister of Information in England. There is a war raging in the United States and Nathaniel needs to keep England cognizant of the positive and dull down the negative. Every one of his rivals has tried to find a weakness, but outwardly he shows none. The only problem is that h is finding his position very lonely and thinks of one person often.

Kitty has been pronounced dead to the magical world but continues to live and work in London under aliases. She has a newfound determination to discover the importance of Bartimaeus's favorite human form and is an assistant to a magician who gives her access to the information she needs.

Bartimaeus has been in the world for nearly two full years and his essence is suffering because of it. Even minute tasks tax him and his powers. He is still as funny, as likeable, and as clever of a character and the reason why I would love this series to continue on, but I know it has to come to an end sometime.

Stroud has woven his characters, storylines, and settings together beautifully, and the ending is very satisfying. I always worry about fantasy trilogy's conclusions, especially with the bad ones I have read, but I couldn't have enjoyed the more than 100 pages of it. I congratulate Jonathan Stroud and I heartily encourage readers to read this book and the others (Amulet of Samarkand, Golem's Eye, and Ptolemy's Gate). Everyone enjoy!

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A great book really well read

The three books of Jonathan Stroud are marvellous in themselves but the performance of Simon Jones is simply great. The only audiobook I know that rivals Jim Dale's performance of the Harry Potter series.

LOVED IT!

I bought this book for my son -- the third in a series. He LOVED it and read it in several days. He is in Jr. High. My third grader is now starting the series with equal enthusiasm.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

He's back! But this time around, the smart-mouthed djinni, Bartimaeus, is exhausted from too much work and not enough time to recover in his netherworld home. It's like they always say, "All work and no play makes Bartimaeus a dull supernatural being." Although, in this case, he's anything but dull. He's tired, weak, sharp-tongued, homicidal, and insulting. But definitely not dull.

In this third installment of THE BARTIMAEUS TRILOGY, the hero is again a djinni who has little respect for humans and even less interest in their petty wars and government squabbles. The magicians who rule England in this series of books insist on summoning Bartimaeus and scores of other demons to fight their wars, provide magical assistance of all sorts, and generally do their bidding. The demons see this treatment as slavery, and for good reason. What would you call forced servitude for no pay under threat of intense pain?

PTOLEMY'S GATE opens to find poor Bartimaeus stretched to the breaking point by his magician master, Nathaniel. A war in America is going poorly, the commoners of London are growing tired of the ruling class of magicians, and young Nathaniel is looked upon with jealousy and mistrust by his co-workers. As a result of all of these threats, Nathaniel rationalizes the need to keep Bartimaeus around to help him deal with the many problems that he faces. After a long association with the djinni, it is almost as if Nathaniel trusts his reluctant servant. And it is almost as if Bartimaeus has a shred of concern for human dealings. Almost.

PTOLEMY'S GATE is an excellent capstone to the extraordinary Bartimaeus series. I enjoyed all of these books immensely and recommend them to anyone who enjoys young adult fantasy. Like the first two books, The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1) and The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2), this one is filled with humor and excitement. These books also offer some social commentary for those who want to pay attention to such things. For example, the ruling class of magicians in these books take extreme measures to maintain their own positions, while claiming that they are really just interested in keeping the masses safe. There are resistance groups that oppose the government, and they engage in acts of terrorism to free themselves from the magicians' oppressive yoke.

The entiretrilogy is a fun-filled pleasure to read. Doubtless it would be possible to read PTOLEMY'S GATE without having read the previous two books, but I would not recommend it. There is quite a bit of background that would be missed, and the story would definitely suffer. While the first book in the series, The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1), could probably stand alone, the second two (The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) and PTOLEMY'S GATE) should be read together. And once the last page of PTOLEMY'S GATE is turned, readers will undoubtedly wish they could summon Bartimaeus back for more.

Reviewed by: K. Osborn Sullivan

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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