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nytephoenyx's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Still intrinsically good because it’s Bartimaeus, but this is the weakest of the series. It’s nice to have a little more of the djinn’s history and I will take these stand-alone a all day long, but they just aren’t as funny as the main trilogy. The world building is less remarkable as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, and Death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
THE RING OF SOLOMON features the djinn Bartimaeus, narrator of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, thousands of years earlier when he was enslaved to a magician working for King Solomon.
Bartimaeus discusses details about the world (both important and of importance only to him) in an upbeat, irreverent style. He does most things with irreverence, quippy to the utmost, with cheer and frustration alternating depending on the circumstances. I wish that fatphobia wasn't part of his banter. It's not often, but it happens enough that it got to be rather frustrating.
This is can be understood completely separately from the main trilogy, though this does provide a slice of Bartimaeus' past associations with a particular one of his fellow djinni who appears elsewhere in the series. Even in this distant past he's already been enslaved for thousands of years, though the way he's speaking (and using the Gregorian calendar to refer to dates) implies that he's narrating from some point much after these events, but likely before the rest of the series. Bartimaeus ends up in service to someone who came to kill King Solomon and take his ring, and most of the story revolves around how they end up attempting this. I like the setup of how the ring works and how King Solomon's court has been functioning, it allows for a cool reveal late in the book which is consistent with everything else that happened while still being a bit surprising.
Great for fans of the main trilogy and for those who like wisecracking narrators.
Bartimaeus discusses details about the world (both important and of importance only to him) in an upbeat, irreverent style. He does most things with irreverence, quippy to the utmost, with cheer and frustration alternating depending on the circumstances. I wish that fatphobia wasn't part of his banter. It's not often, but it happens enough that it got to be rather frustrating.
This is can be understood completely separately from the main trilogy, though this does provide a slice of Bartimaeus' past associations with a particular one of his fellow djinni who appears elsewhere in the series. Even in this distant past he's already been enslaved for thousands of years, though the way he's speaking (and using the Gregorian calendar to refer to dates) implies that he's narrating from some point much after these events, but likely before the rest of the series. Bartimaeus ends up in service to someone who came to kill King Solomon and take his ring, and most of the story revolves around how they end up attempting this. I like the setup of how the ring works and how King Solomon's court has been functioning, it allows for a cool reveal late in the book which is consistent with everything else that happened while still being a bit surprising.
Great for fans of the main trilogy and for those who like wisecracking narrators.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Body shaming, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Death, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Body horror, and Animal death
nicole_schmid's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
[read in the German translation]
Not having read another book of this series before, I went into this blind. I found the world fascinating and like Bartimaeus' snark. The story was well-written and thought-out perfectly.
However, I do not think that the topic is suited for children. We basically follow a slave, magically bound to follow orders to the word or die trying, as he tries to free himself and the other slaves. Whenever he does something his owner does not like, he is punished e.g. hurt immensely (yes, he is being whipped while held in place and unable to even attempt to escape, no matter that the whip has a funny prefix in front of it). Meanwhile, the owner threatens to kill him or put him into a bottle so that he will be tortured infinitely. In the background, we hear his other victims scream in pain. Does this not sound like a typical children's book?
In the end (though probably - hopefully - due to the book's nature as a prequel), Bartimaeus returns to his homelands with the bitter knowledge that he might be forced back into slavery any second...
There just is this huge chasm behind the language clearly aimed at young teenagers and these heavy topics like slavery, torture, gaslighting(one fellow enslaved creature proclaims that it likes being enslaved and hurting other beings like it and that it's actually its own choice to remain enslaved) that leaves me unable to recommend this book.
But maybe I am too uptight and in any case not of the demographic this is geared towards, so take this review with a pinch of salt.
Not having read another book of this series before, I went into this blind. I found the world fascinating and like Bartimaeus' snark. The story was well-written and thought-out perfectly.
However, I do not think that the topic is suited for children. We basically follow a slave, magically bound to follow orders to the word or die trying, as he tries to free himself and the other slaves. Whenever he does something his owner does not like, he is punished e.g. hurt immensely (yes, he is being whipped while held in place and unable to even attempt to escape, no matter that the whip has a funny prefix in front of it). Meanwhile, the owner threatens to kill him or put him into a bottle so that he will be tortured infinitely. In the background, we hear his other victims scream in pain. Does this not sound like a typical children's book?
In the end (though probably - hopefully - due to the book's nature as a prequel), Bartimaeus returns to his homelands with the bitter knowledge that he might be forced back into slavery any second...
There just is this huge chasm behind the language clearly aimed at young teenagers and these heavy topics like slavery, torture, gaslighting
But maybe I am too uptight and in any case not of the demographic this is geared towards, so take this review with a pinch of salt.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent and Gaslighting
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