Jonathan Stroud’s Ptolemy’s Gate is the third Bartimaeus book, a very funny and very dark fantasy for 11 year olds.<\/p>\n
Bartimaeus is a djinni who has been around for five thousand years. He would like you to know about the temples he carved and the armies he fought.<\/p>\n
We meet him pinned flat under an upturned public lavatory that has been thrown at him by a djinni with a pig’s head.<\/p>\n
That gap, between what he says about himself and what is actually happening to him, is the whole pleasure of these books. He tells the story himself, in the first person, with footnotes running underneath where he adds the bits he’d rather you didn’t repeat. The footnotes are where the best jokes live.<\/p>\n
And he is tired. Two years of being summoned without a break have worn his essence thin. He can barely change shape. His master no longer bothers to send him home.<\/p>\n
That master is John Mandrake, a government minister who eats curried eggs off silver and signs off propaganda posters before nine in the morning. Readers of the first two books will know exactly who he used to be. What has happened to him since is the sad, sharp heart of this one.<\/p>\n
Three years have gone by since the last book, so this is a story that assumes you were there. Names, grudges and whole plots are picked up mid-sentence. Starting here would be a real slog.<\/p>\n
Worth knowing before you hand it over. The book opens in Alexandria in 125 BC with four assassins climbing into a sleeping boy’s bedroom to murder him. Within that one scene all four of them are dead, and it is written with a light touch rather than a gory one, but it is still four killings in the opening scene. Britain here is an empire losing wars abroad and cracking down at home, children are taken from their parents to be trained as magicians, and Stroud never softens any of it.<\/p>\n
For a reader who likes their fantasy with teeth and a narrator who thinks everyone in charge is an idiot, it’s brilliant. For one who wants comfort, it really isn’t.<\/p>\n
The place to start, though, is The Amulet of Samarkand. A twelve-year-old apprentice is humiliated by a senior magician, so he summons something far too big for him to hold and sends it out to steal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jonathan Stroud’s Ptolemy’s Gate is the third Bartimaeus book, a very funny and very dark fantasy for 11 year olds. Bartimaeus is a djinni who has been around for five thousand years. He would like you to know about the temples he carved and the armies he fought. We meet him pinned flat under an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10708,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":6873,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Amulet of Samarkand","lr_seo_hook":"A five thousand year old djinni, worn thin by a master who won't let go.","lr_series_id":5,"lr_series_name":"Bartimaeus","lr_series_position":3,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[27],"age_group":[28],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[496],"class_list":["post-6875","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-fantasy-books","age_group-books-for-11-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-jonathan-stroud"],"yoast_title":"Bartimaeus 3 – Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A five thousand year old djinni, worn thin by a master who won't let go. For ages 11+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n