View From the Middle

Hello all!  I have, unfortunately, not finished a sci-fi/fantasy book this week to share with you.  I am, however, in the midst of two!  May I tell you about them, and about how they are going so far?  Then you can have a full review from me next Thursday!  (In my defense, I am quite pregnant.  I may not have finished a book, but I have finished a nursery.)

First book:  Ice Whale by Jean Craighead George.  This book features a relationship between an Eskimo family and a pod of whales.  In 1848, a young Eskimo boy witnesses the birth of a whale-a very rare sight-and he names the whale.  Then he unwittingly leads a group of whalers to the whale pod.  For generations afterward, the Eskimo and his descendants are cursed until a young girl can rectify the whole situation.  What makes this book extra cool (aside from the Eskimo culture and the curse, both of which are cool enough on their own) is that the story is told in alternating points of view from the Eskimos and the whales!  So there's "whalish" (I just made up that name for the whale language) in the book!  Here's part of a page (no spoilers):

Don't worry- there's not so much whalish that you can't follow the story.  Such a unique thing in a book!

Second book: Ptolemy's Gate by Jonathan Stroud.  It's the "third and final" book in the Bartimaeus "trilogy."  Why all the quotation marks?  Because five years after this was published, Jonathan Stroud ended up writing one more Bartimaeus book... so it's not really the "final" book in the "trilogy" as the back of the book proclaims.  I'm not complaining- I love, love, love the snarky dry-humored Bartimaeus and look forward to the series continuing at least one more book!  I'm listening to this one on CD in my car and it's such fun.  I literally laugh out loud at parts!  Poor Nathaniel the magician, bumbling through his government bureaucracy job while trying to keep a handle on his often-wayward djinni, Bartimaeus.   Also in this book: Kitty.  She's not gone after all!  She's so super smart; I totally enjoy reading about her jobs and her research, and how she manages to get so much done in a time period when girls/women were expected to be quiet and keep home.  In this installment, the three of them will end up working together to try to create world peace between magicians and the public and djinnis.  I'm only about halfway through, so I have no clue if they survive each others' company, or succeed at their task!  ;)

So, that's what I'm up to!  I hope everyone has a great week.  I'll be back next Thursday with a legit review, I promise!

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by Tynga at Thursday, April 07, 2016

 Ice Whale, Jean Craighead George, Jonathan Stroud, Personal, Ptolemy's Gate  2 People left their mark

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The Golem's Eye by Jonathan Stroud

The Golem's Eye is the second book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud.  If you haven't read the first book, The Amulet of Samarkand, I recommend checking out that review first to avoid spoilers.

Quite a bit of time passes between The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye.  Nathaniel is now 14 years old, and working for the government in Internal Affairs.  He's very into keeping his profile low and his fashion high.  He is happiest when his life is plodding along serenely.  Unfortunately, there's a Resistance movement building up in London; a rogue group of young people staging small attacks around town, trying to discredit the magical government.  Nathaniel is tasked with investigating and disbanding this group, led my a young lady named Kitty.  Nathaniel soon finds himself traveling to the enemy city of Prague and summoning his old "friend," the djinni Bartimaeus, to help him.

A slight sidebar to the book itself:  my local library classifies it as "Juvenile," and I'd recommend it to middle grades readers, based on writing style and language, etc.  However... the main characters are both young teens (older than middle grades readers), with no characters at all under 13 years old.  Also, the book is chock full of political intrigue, which is great, but some of it may pass over the head of younger readers.  I think it's a great book, and I can totally see myself recommending it to 8th or 9th graders.  So please don't let the "J" category put you off trying this book; I think it's a YA in masquerade!

In The Golem's Eye the reader gets an additional p.o.v.  From the first book, we've become acquainted with Nathaniel and Bartimaeus; in this book we also get the p.o.v. of Kitty, the young leader of the Resistance movement.  I don't want to give any spoilers, but I'll say that seeing through Kitty's eyes makes a big difference in the tone of the book.  Not everything is black and white; there is some more gray when you get to see the reasons or motivations behind someone's actions.  Not to condone attacks on the government, but Kitty and her friends may be more "lost" than "vicious."

We do, however, still get to enjoy Bartimaeus' witty repertoire!  I totally nominate Bartimaeus for Sassy Djinni of the Year.  His blunt honesty and appraisal of situations has me laughing out loud.  Literally.  I get these books on CD for my commute and sit at red lights laughing to myself, possibly worrying the other drivers around me.  :)  I could recommend this series on the basis of Bartimaeus and his sarcasm alone!

And then there's Nathaniel.  Poor Nathaniel is just trying to do his very best job in Internal Affairs when all the mess hits the fan.  Next thing he knows he's traveling undercover to an enemy country, investigating an anti-government group and their attacks on magic.  In The Amulet of Samarkand I felt a little pity for Nathaniel and his circumstances.  Even the circumstances he created for himself; I was still rooting for him, like you root for an underdog.  Unfortunately, in The Golem's Eye, I felt like he came across kind of wimpy and whining.  The action and Bartimaeus was enough to keep me listening, though.

So as I mentioned, I listened to this on CD.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Simon Jones narrates both, and he's got a delightful British accent.  And I love how he reads the Bartimaeus parts!  Good cadence, maybe just a little bit low and accented, but always understandable.  Two thumbs on the narration!

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by Tynga at Thursday, July 16, 2015

 Action amp; Adventure, Bartimaeus Trilogy, djinni, Fantasy amp; Magic, Jonathan Stroud, Library, Listening Library, Review  2 People left their mark

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The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

The Amulet of Samarkand is the first book in an older series, the Bartimaeus trilogy.  And I'm so glad that it's an older series!  This first book was so good, I'm already excited to binge the series.  This middle grades book was just as enjoyable for me (supposedly an adult, lol) as it would be for an actual middle schooler.  One of the main characters, Bartimaeus, has a great, snarky sense of humor that had me chuckling out loud.

The other main character, Nathaniel, is super relatable.  Yes, he's an 11-year-old boy, but he's got the same impatience and also desire to do good that we all have.  The entire plot comes about because Nathaniel is insulted by a leading magician in the community, and he seeks a rather petty way to exact revenge.  Then when the consequences start to hit, he quickly tries to backpedal in order to avoid any blame falling on those he cares for.  Are you familiar with the phrase "what a tangled web we weave when we first endeavor to deceive?"  That's Nathaniel's situation in this book.  He's an apprentice magician, young and with just enough knowledge to get himself into trouble and not enough to get him back out of it.  When a local magician bigwig belittle's Nathaniel, and the magician that Nathaniel is apprenticed to doesn't stand up for him, Nathaniel concocts a plan to get revenge on both of them at once.  His plan:  summon a djinni (also referred to in the book as a demon or genie; I imagine the "demon" reference makes a few conservative parents of young readers a little nervous, but I digress) to steal an amulet from the powerful magician and hide it in Nathaniel's magician's study.  Both magicians will be insulted when the cops get involved and find the stolen item!  But of course the plan falls a little short of expectations, and the situation spirals out of control.

Now you'll notice that I've referenced magicians and djinni/genies/demons and magical amulets as though they occur every day.  Well, in Jonathan Stroud's world they do!  This book did a fantastic job of introducing all these fantastic elements and making them seem everyday.  The reader never feels lost in this world.  I listened to this book on CD in my car, so it was a bit disjointed, and I was able to easily follow the story.

And as I mentioned at the beginning of the review, the other main character is fantastically snarky, which I love.  The Amulet of Samarkand is told in two viewpoints:  young Nathaniel and the djinni he summons, Bartimaeus.  Bartimaeus is very, very, very old; centuries old.  And he is, of course, a bit put-upon that a mere slip of a boy could summon him and force him into his revenge plot.  I loved hearing his internal monologue as he gripes and whines about his task.  Like it's so hard to travel a short distance and pick up an amulet.

Overall, I'm liking this series.  I love how the characters of Nathaniel and Bartimaeus play off of each other.  Just when Nathaniel's timidness would start to get under my skin, we'd switch to a Bartimaeus chapter.  (By the way, the chapters are all headed with a character's name, so there's no question of POV.)  I wanted to take Nathaniel under my wing and love him, and I wanted to be friends with Bartimaeus.  I listened to this first book on CD, and I would continue to do so.  The narration is great; good, even tone and good pacing.

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by Tynga at Thursday, May 21, 2015

 Bartimaeus Trilogy, Fantasy amp; Magic, Jonathan Stroud, Library, Listening Library, Magic, middle grades, Paranormal, Review  Leave your mark

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