A young wizard, apprenticed to an ineffectual master, teaches himself advanced magic. When a powerful wizard humiliates him, he summons a djinni to steal a valuable amulet as revenge. The theft results in the murder of his master and leads him to uncover plans for a magical parliamentary coup and an anti-magic rebellion. Branded a renegade and a thief he has nobody to turn to and must defeat the conspirators without help. This he does and is rewarded by being assigned a new, competent and powerful master.
For the most part I enjoyed The Amulet of Samarkand. Although a children’s book there was enough in it to keep me entertained. A lot of the humour was obviously adult oriented (which is to say it was very subtle rather than risqué) and the story line complex enough not to drag.
I found the extensive use of footnotes, where the djinni explains how the magical world works and what the relationship between different characters is, annoying but their frequency lessened as the story moved forward so the irritation was eased by the time I finished the book.
This is the first part of a trilogy and I will read the other two. Jonathan Stroud has taken on the dominant ethos of children’s fantasy and successfully injected some originality and humour into the genre.-Lynn
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