The Bartimaeus Trilogy
Many, many years ago, a friend lent me a book series called The Bartimaeus Trilogy. The first book came out in 2003, and two more followed. I was totally caught up in the world of this djinn, and have reread the books twice since my first read. If you like the following stuff in a book, you might wanna give it a try:
- Fantasy/Lore in a "real world" setting (a little like American Gods, but also not at all like it)
- Humour
- Clever use of foot notes
- The dynamic power relationship between mighty otherworldy beings and their not very powerful but cunning human enslavers (I'm clearly taking the djinn side with this choice of words)
The author of the trilogy is Jonathan Stroud, and in the beginning of 2024 I decided to check out if he had written anything else worth reading. Visiting his site I found out that he has released a prequel to the trilogy, set in the time of King Solomon. I definitely have to check that book out. Unfortunately they did not have it in my local library. Instead I found another book series called Lockwood & Co. In my library it was sorted under youth literature, but that did not scare me off1. I read the first book, and it was amusing. It was not Bartimeus, but it was well worth the time.
So I borrowed the second book. Having read a few chapters I missed my favourite djinn so much I had to take a break and read the first book with Bartimaeus again instead. Now I'm back to the ghost chasing kids in Lockwood & Co, and the second book is evolving well, after a slow start. More about that in another post. Now go try the Bartimaeus books! Or not. It's up to you.
On the contrary, I often find youth literature to be very well written and easy to get into. I believe it takes some extra skill to write in a way that attracts the young. Especially in this day and age.↩