the bartimaeus trilogy – Cannonball Read 17

A strong finish to this series about magical oppression.

Ptolemy's Gate (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, #3) by Jonathan Stroud

January 22, 2019 by narfna Leave a Comment

Worth slogging through book two just to get to this one. (And I’m still not convinced my reaction to that book wasn’t just me trying to read it at the wrong time.) This is the third and final book in the original Bartimaeus Trilogy (he wrote a prequel in 2010 but I think I’m going to pass on that one). It takes place three years after the events of The Golem’s Eye. Nathaniel/John Mandrake is high up in government now, in charge of what is […]

Middle book syndrome? Or just me?

The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, #2) by Jonathan Stroud

January 18, 2019 by narfna Leave a Comment

I read the first book in this series a couple of years ago and liked it, but I never got around to finishing the series. Probably should have read it closer together . . . This was a perfectly serviceable follow up to The Amulet of Samarkand, and honestly I think my ‘meh’ reaction to it is mostly on me. The only real criticism I have of the book is that it was too long. This is supposed to be children’s/middle grade book, and it’s […]

A book where the magical orphan does bad things, makes bad choices.

September 15, 2015 by narfna Leave a Comment

Like many people in the early 2000s who found themselves clasped in the claws of fierce Pottermania, I was fond of trolling the internet for Potter related stuff. Somewhere, on some website (probably Mugglenet), some industrious soul listed a bunch of books to read while waiting for the next book to come out. This series made the list. I added it to my Amazon wishlist pronto, because that’s how I kept track of books I wanted to read before Goodreads was a thing. And then […]

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