Nathaniel, who was sold by his parents to the government when he was five, has been apprenticed since then to Mr. In the very first chapter, Bartimaeus is less than pleased to be summoned into the middle of a pentacle by a scrawny kid, shaking like a leaf, who pipes, 'By the constraints of the circle, the points on the pentacle, and the chain of runes, I am your master! You will obey my will!' Nathaniel commands him to bring back the Amulet of Samarkand, an ancient artifact now reposing in the house of Simon Lovelace, a powerful and vengeful magician politician, and the djinni has no choice but to bow to the boy's foolish command. The viewpoint alternates between the overblown, self-possessed, wisecracking and sometimes put-upon narrative of a 5,000-year-old djinni, Bartimaeus, and an omniscient narrator who follows Nathaniel, a twelve-year-old boy-magician-in-training.

Here's the first of The Bartimaeus Trilogy, a crackling and original English fantasy that takes place in an alternate London. And with the rights sold in more than a dozen countries, and a major motion picture in the works, the Bartimaeus trilogy is on the fast track to becoming a classic.Harry Potter fans, rejoice. Set in a modern-day London spiced with magicians and mayhem, this extraordinary, funny, pitch-perfect thriller will dazzle the myriad fans of Artemis Fowl and the His Dark Materials trilogy. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, Nathaniel finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, blackmail, and revolt.

With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all: summoning the all-powerful djinni, Bartimaeus. But when a devious hotshot wizard named Simon Lovelace ruthlessly humiliates Nathaniel in front of everyone he knows, Nathaniel decides to kick up his education a few notches and show Lovelace who's boss. Nathaniel is a young magician's apprentice, taking his first lessons in the arts of magic.

Presenting a thrilling new voice in children's literature-a witty, gripping adventure story featuring a boy and his not-so-tame djinni.

The amulet of samarkand book