The best of the three

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

A worthy sequel

I enjoyed this addition to the Bartimaeus canon - they all read oddly but interestingly -- I particularly enjoy the demon Bartimaeus's commentary, full of humor and footnotes.
A fun romp though London in the past/future when magicians are the ruling class.

Best of the Best

Stroud really excels as a writer in Ptolemy's Gate, the third installment of the Bartimaeus Trilogy. It has twice the excitement of the first two, which is saying a lot because the first two were some of the most suspenseful and thrilling books I have read in years. Ptolemy's Gate takes it up a notch. The story weaves all the characters together in a complex web, much like Holes, by Louis Sachar. This is definitely a page-turner. When I finished, I was left wanting more. It all comes together in a superb conclusion. Way to go, Stroud.

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meh...

I fell in love with the vibrant character of Bartimaeus right from the start. I basically inhaled the first two books. The third however didn't live up to the standards of the series for me. Although there were some scenes which I found very satisfying, there were also times when the reading became tedious and outright boring.
All in all, it would have been okay, but then came the ending. It was so abrupt, without much explanation and leaving many loose ends. I wouldn't have minded having the main character killed off in dramatic powerful way, going out with a big bang, but this hardly did this series justice. It seemed as if the author just got tired of writing.

In the previous instalments, the story gained so much momentum, this book seemed a mite deflated and I felt short changed.

Although still worth reading, I was expecting more from Stroud.

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An unexpected finale

Another excellent edition - with plenty of our favorite Demon, er, Genie. This one is a bit darker than the first two, but a nice tying together of all the threads. I'll listen again!

The best of the three

Gone are the somewhat tedious descriptions of the Golem's eye: the three strands of the story, told through Bartimaeus, Nathaniel and Kitty, are tightly woven together. By far this is the best book of the trilogy.

We find out who masterminded the Golem and what other powergrabbing schemes he/she is up to now; we go back in time to learn about the relationship between Bartimaeus and his master Ptolemy; and Kitty learns magic to visit the Other Place in Ptolemy's footsteps and request Bartimaeus' help for one final encounter with the enemy.

Apart from all the adventure and fun, this is a sad and profoundly anti-war book. Through Nathaniel, we get a glimpse into the government's propaganda machine, which creates the ideas that people give up their lives for. Bartimaeus' opinion of heroes at the end of the book puts the finishing touches on the author's case against war.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

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