Summary

The Amulet of Samarkand is a very interesting fantasy book. It is placed in the 18th century in Europe. This world has magicians and commoners, with the whole government being controlled by magicians. The main character, Nathaniel, was sold to a middle-class magician named Underwood, when he was six. Nathaniel was tutored under Underwood as a mage, until he was around ten. Nathaniel is an overconfident, vengeful, and silly boy. During Nathaniels eleventh year, Underwood has a party with a group of up-and-coming aristocrats. Nathaniel barges in and upsets a coldhearted mage named Lovelace. Lovelace proceeds to have his djinn, demon, paddle Nathaniel in front of the whole party. This humiliates Nathaniel and furnishes a great hate for Lovelace. Nathaniel decides to get his revenge by studying advanced magic on his own. He proceeds to summon a very powerful, ancient djinn to steal the Amulet of Samarkand. After this he goes through very thrilling adventures with his djinn, Bartimaeus. Will he, or will he not stop the dastardly Lovelace through this cunning tale?

Recommendation
I think anyone who likes fantasy novels will enjoy this book. Its a very fast paced book with action happening on every page and it also doesnt fail to leave out a storyline. It threw in a few pieces of comedy that I also loved the detail that Stroud put into the book. He also described the characters very well without interrupting the book with footnotes at the bottom of the page.

The Amulet of Samarkand

Jonathan Stroud