lionessramping 's review for:

The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

2.0

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I haven't wanted to strangle a main character so thoroughly in a long, long time. Cheers to Stroud for creating an obnoxious human you want to punch, and an "evil" djinn you want to, well, hang out with. Bartimaeus is unlikeable in a likeable way, and at least has some roundness, humor and personality to him. Nathaniel was simply tedious to read about, and, despite the writing in this book being a little basic, I still found myself slogging through the sections narrated by him. Overall a fun enough quick read with an interesting "magic" system (although [b:Furies of Calderon|29396|Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera, #1)|Jim Butcher|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329104514s/29396.jpg|3098584] has a similar system in which magicians are only as powerful as the creatures they can summon, but is a much better book)--but I won't eagerly pass this on to others, and I won't pick up the next in the series.