About the Author

Jonathan Stroud (www.jonathanstroud.com) is the author of four previous books in the Lockwood & Co. series as well as the New York Times bestselling Bartimaeus books, and the stand-alone titles Heroes of the Valley, The Leap, The Last Siege, and Buried Fire. He lives in England with his wife and three children.

Reviews

Gr 6 Up-The loquacious djinni introduced in Amulet of Samarkand (2003) and Golem's Eye (2004, both Hyperion/Miramax) is back, or, more accurately, he hasn't left in three years. While Bartimaeus retains all of his wit and wisdom, his essence suffers severely from lack of rest. Nathaniel, now Information Minister, spends his time writing propaganda to bolster the common folks' belief that England is winning its foreign wars and tracking down traitors within the government. Kitty Jones has gone into hiding, apprenticing herself to a magician and learning enough from her master and through research to summon Bartimaeus herself. When Nathaniel finds Kitty, the two of them and the djinni must use all their strength and cunning to defeat the most dangerous demons they have yet encountered, demons that take over the bodies of the government magicians. Ptolemy's Gate is an exciting and eminently satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, footnotes and all. This time, readers learn more about Bartimaeus's past and his connection to the loinclothed boy whose likeness he wears. Kitty's strength and intelligence shine through, and Nathaniel's inherent compassion emerges from the mask of John Mandrake. This is a must-have for libraries that purchased the first two books. For those that didn't, buy all three at once for readers who want something that is literate, entertaining, and exciting.- Lisa Prolman, Greenfield Public Library, MA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Three years have passed since the events of The Golem's Eye, but there's more trouble than ever in the young magician Nathaniel's London. At 17, he's climbed to the highest ranks of the British government but his now-"crippling" workload includes trying to sell an unpopular war in the American wilderness to the commoners who must fight it, and battling terrorist attacks and political corruption on the homefront. There's enough of an explosive plot in this final installment of Stroud's trilogy to fuel several novels. After two years of nonstop service to Nathaniel (known as John Mandrake), Bartimaeus has had it: "Irritable and jaded, with a perpetual itch in my essence that I cannot scratch," is how the djinni puts it. Kitty, the commoner and former Resistance leader, plays the Hermione Granger role of social conscience here: her new mission is to break the bonds that enslave the djinn to the ruling magician elite. The narrative shifts among these three, although as usual, Bartimaeus-even in his melancholy mood-steals the show. (It is an unusual novel whose best lines appear in the footnotes, but the djinni's wisecracking asides continue to be well worth the disruption in narrative flow.) This final volume fills in Bartimaeus's backstory, exposing a vulnerability not seen before, and preparing readers-after a galloping run against imps, Pestilence, Detonations, shields, charms and countercharms-for a potent ending that is at once unexpected and wholly earned. Ages 10-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.