The Amulet of Samarkand: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1

By: Jonathan Stroud

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Nathaniel is eleven-years-old and a magician's apprentice, learning the traditional art of magic. All is well until he has a life-changing encounter with Simon Lovelace, a magician of unrivaled ruthlessness and ambition. When Lovelace brutally humiliates Nathaniel in public, Nathaniel decides to speed up his education, teaching himself spells far beyond his years. With revenge on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a five-thousand-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni out to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder and rebellion.

Set in a modern-day London spiced with magicians and mystery, The Amulet of Samarkand is an extraordinary, edge-of-your-seat thriller with many unexpected twists. Following Bartimaeus and Nathaniel in turn, the story introduces us to two wonderfully memorable characters destined to go through many adventures together and bound by a spell that is nearly impossible to break.

©2010 Johnathan Stroud (P)2010 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"One of the liveliest and most inventive fantasies of recent years." ( Booklist)

"Spun into surprisingly colorful cloth." ( The New York Times Book Review)

Amazing Narration

Simon Jones does an amazing job bring life, personality, and pizzazz to Bartimaeus and the rest of the cast of this incredible book.

Audible 20 review sweepstakes entry

As good as I remember it.

I loved the book 15+ years ago when it was released and the audible version didn't disappoint.

Great book!

Engaging story and well developed characters, along with a fabulous natation, make for an excellent overall listen.

I love this series except for the last book

I have read this book several times over. I love the characters and only wish that the author would rewrite the last book to give the series a more satisfying ending.

1 of the Best Fantasy Novels ever written

Where does The Amulet of Samarkand: The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the Best

What did you like best about this story?

It's smart, & not written for the puerile xenophobic violent and sexist interests of teenaged apes.

What about Simon Jones’s performance did you like?

His wonderful English Accent, and reading.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

It's sweet taste like the younger parts of "Harry Potter"- the pre-teen bits not the dark moody adolescent decent into pubic haired depression and hate.

Any additional comments?

London. Modern day. Magic is real. A wide range of imps & demons are enslaved by an upper-class aristocracy of magicians and wizards to rule over commoners, and battle other nations & their magic. A moderately powerful djinn named Bartimaeus is our villainous & humorous anti-hero. Bartimaeus is "summoned" from the "other world" into an ever-so-English twisting tale of adventure and intrigue by a 12-year-old Wizard's apprentice who is a spoiled brat seeking revenge against a cruel adult who is in turn revealed to be a black-hearted super-villian sorcerer plotting some sort of world domination. Wanting to avoid a darned good spanking (which he needs), our apprentice quickly is entwined with his supernatural-slave into a harrowing adventure escaping greater and expanding threats of "treason against the empire" or a fate like that of the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred, author of the "Necronomicon", who was "seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses." The djinn Bartimaeus is a shape-shifter. He changes from smoke to spiders to birds to gargoyles, but most often takes on the form of "someone he once loved" - a handsome Egytian boy who he calls "Ptolemy". This can only be a tantalizing reference to the famous boy-king Ptolemy V Epiphanes (204 -181 BC), the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty who sat on the throne at age 5, had a life full of dramatic treachery, revolt, and war, and who's adult-hood saw the creation of the Rosetta Stone - all, I suppose, with the help of a djinn named Bartimaeus. I bought this book after getting "burned" by too many fantasy novels that seemed "dumbed down" and written for the puerile xenophobic violent and sexist interests of teenaged apes. I looked up "The Best Fantasy Novels Ever Written" and found this book in many top-ten lists. This story is cleaver and fun. It's not filled with vile characters drooling over their bloody gory crimes. I still mourn for the "Best Fantasy Novel of all time" which is "The Hobbit" and I weep over the terrible atrocities that were committed on film in horrific hyper-real CGI in it's flawless innocent and perfect name.

One of the best characters ever

I love the characters in this story! This is my 3rd time reading/listening to this story and the t just keeps getting better.

Always Worth the Read

A Classic Story and a great performance of it. Haven't read it since I was a kid and still provides a thrilling sense of excitement and a wonderful conclusion.

A fun, imaginative story read by a great talent

I would watch anything Tom Hanks makes, I will listen to every book narrated by Simon Jones. Thanks for a great escape

Just Amazing

I’ve always loved the Bartimaeus trilogy (and of course, the later came out prequel) and when I find out it available on audible, I just had to hear it… and Oh My God… isn’t it just such a treat! Simon Jones nailed the ever beloved sarcastic djinni perfectly.
It was such a pleasure and joy listening to it, I feel like I want to buy my whole gank of Bartimaeus trilogy fans the audible version. Seriously.

Oh, and in case it hadn’t been implied by the previous sentences, the book itself (I mean, the whole series) is such a gem. Love it!

Entertaining story, wonderfully read

Simon Jones does an fabulous job as reader, especially when reading the first person chapters as the genie Bartimaeus. In fact, I'd say I enjoyed his reading more than even Jim Dale with the Harry Potter series, or Gerard Doyle reading Eragon and Eldest, both of whom did excellent jobs. The story line itself keeps a good pace with richly described scenes. The characters are relatively one dimensional but interesting and appropriate to the young adult fantasy genre. In short, thoroughly entertaining!