The Bartimaeus Trilogy, THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND

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THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND by JONATHAN STROUD starts off with a newly selected magician's apprentice named Nathaniel who is abused by his master's friend Simon Lovelace, and decides to take revenge. Summoning a potent demon he steals an amulet from his enemy Simon Lovelace to smite him. However when Simon comes to Nathaniel's master's home and burns it to the ground, Nathaniel is forced to hide in an abandoned library while he makes a plan to ruin Simon's scheme of killing all the members of parliament. While hiding in the library Nathaniel reads in the newspaper that Simon is holding an event in Heddleham Hall and Nathaniel goes there for the event. However when Simon gets all of parliament into a room to make a speech, Nathaniel realizes that Simon is summoning an entity from the amulet of Samarkand capable of destroying cities. While the ministers of parliament cower in a corner, Nathaniel takes on the duty of sending the demon back to the darkest reaches of the "Other Place."

pull of a summons he attempts to withstand for a few seconds but knowing it is futile he allows himself to be sucked to Earth and appears in a "grotty town house in the congested city of London." Being charged with retrieving the Amulet of Samarkand from Simon Lovelace he quickly goes on his way and breaks into Simon's villa, conducts snappy conversation with an old rival named Faquarl, and nearly gets burnt to a crisp by a red-skinned jackal all in the time of trying to steal the amulet. As Bartimaeous returns to his master, Nathaniel, Simon Lovelace arrives at Nathaniel’s home and burns it down in search of the amulet. With no-where else to go Bartimaeus flees with Nathaniel and takes shelter in an old library only to have to trek all the way to Heddleham Hall where Simon Lovelace performs a scheme to kill all the members of the government with a forgotten demon entity.

The secret of magicians is that all of their power lies in demons. They bend them to their will, making them do their conniving business while the magicians themselves grow fat and corrupt in their secluded villas. Even though London is the strongest power in the world and has colonized Prague and America, civil unrest among the "commoners (non-magicians) is rooting itself deep into the foundations of London's society along with corruption rising into the seats of parliament

This book portrays demons differently. Demons are usually thought upon as hell spawn that serve the devil while here they are peaceful society that live in a different dimension, and it is only when they are summoned is it that they are violent. Demons are the tools of magicians, being used in everyday tasks or in large-scale wars so the magicians themselves do not actually have to participate in such tasks. Without demons, magicians would not have any source of magic or power and would be the same as commoners. This book is an interesting portrayal of demons and reason enough to read it, but with an outstanding plot and amazing characters, this story is truly fantastic.