Can't wait for July 16??
Jun. 10th, 2005 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tikistitchNeither can we.
But to give you something to read on the bus in the meantime, may we recommend....
The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud.
Nathaniel is an 11-year old apprentice magician when we meet him. He's been abandoned by his parents to an uncaring master, who is not appreciative of his charge's superior abilities.
Does it sound completely horrible? Well, it's not. Read on....
Now, imagine Aladdin, but written from the point of view of the genie. And not an eager-to-please Robin Williams suck-up of a genie. Bartimaeus is a cynical smart-ass demon who has survived many millennia in slavery to human magicians though, one suspects, healthy doses of Looking Out for Number One. Approximately half the chapters are in Bartimaeus's voice, and he writes in an amusing, digressive, footnote-laden (this is explained) style.
As for Nathaniel, far from being the typical object of identification one sees in fantasy novels, well, he's basically twit. Well, perhaps we are being unnecessarily cruel. He is in some respects a sympathetic character, but Stroud has entangled him in a rich, unsympathetic society. In Stroud's parallel universe, magicians are real, but far from being the wise, Merlin-like advistors to the powerful, magicians in Stroud's London have grabbed power to set up a sort of magical fascist dictatorship. England, and, we surmise, at least most of Europe, are being run by a cabal of squabbling, petty autocrats with magical powers--powers which are used in equal parts for warfare abroad and for oppression of the non-magical "commoners" at home.
Full disclosure: Actually, there are only two books out so far, The Amulet of Samarkand (in paperback) and The Golem's Eye. You'll have to wait for the third of the trilogy 'til 2006, heehee. So, there is a possibility that the trilogy will end on a completely terrible, "Oh gosh, it was all a dream" note.
But to give you something to read on the bus in the meantime, may we recommend....
The Bartimaeus Trilogy, by Jonathan Stroud.
Nathaniel is an 11-year old apprentice magician when we meet him. He's been abandoned by his parents to an uncaring master, who is not appreciative of his charge's superior abilities.
Does it sound completely horrible? Well, it's not. Read on....
Now, imagine Aladdin, but written from the point of view of the genie. And not an eager-to-please Robin Williams suck-up of a genie. Bartimaeus is a cynical smart-ass demon who has survived many millennia in slavery to human magicians though, one suspects, healthy doses of Looking Out for Number One. Approximately half the chapters are in Bartimaeus's voice, and he writes in an amusing, digressive, footnote-laden (this is explained) style.
As for Nathaniel, far from being the typical object of identification one sees in fantasy novels, well, he's basically twit. Well, perhaps we are being unnecessarily cruel. He is in some respects a sympathetic character, but Stroud has entangled him in a rich, unsympathetic society. In Stroud's parallel universe, magicians are real, but far from being the wise, Merlin-like advistors to the powerful, magicians in Stroud's London have grabbed power to set up a sort of magical fascist dictatorship. England, and, we surmise, at least most of Europe, are being run by a cabal of squabbling, petty autocrats with magical powers--powers which are used in equal parts for warfare abroad and for oppression of the non-magical "commoners" at home.
Full disclosure: Actually, there are only two books out so far, The Amulet of Samarkand (in paperback) and The Golem's Eye. You'll have to wait for the third of the trilogy 'til 2006, heehee. So, there is a possibility that the trilogy will end on a completely terrible, "Oh gosh, it was all a dream" note.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 08:49 pm (UTC)Last time, when we lived in Bremerton (not too far from Seattle) they had a guest speaker who was going on about all his theories about the next book. He had written a book about Harry Potter, actually. And I kept saying things like "Well duh!" and "Gee, ya think?". I thought I was just talking to my sister, but apparently the room was smaller than it seemed because he heard me and people came up to me afterwards saying how well informed I seemed about the book. XD
no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 09:39 pm (UTC)I got a book collecting the complete Chronicles of Narnia to tide me over till next month. And a whack of SW novels.
He doesn't read them? There's something wrong about that. You should fix that :)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-10 11:12 pm (UTC)