Monday, January 19, 2009

Review Blog: The parchment inside my mouth caught fire!

Hello fellow bloggers and my dear friends (:P),

Time here is deteriorating for me. I'm getting highly distracted by music and internet. While on the other side, my dad has stopped speakin to me for almost a fortnight now, due to my bad scores...(Rank 170 on 450, yeah, it is hell bad!) I tried my best this test, but ain't expecting too much now...*sad*

Anyway, I had promised you people for the book review on Golem's Eye, and here it is. I'm not really in a great mood, so I'll make it short and sweet:)

REVIEW: GOLEM'S EYE

Title: Golem's Eye, Book 2-The Bartimaeus Trilogy
Author: Jonathon Stroud
Genre: Fiction; Present-day Fantasy



The book is not much bigger than its prequel. Second volumes are generally big. The story starts with an action packed historical prologue where old King Gladstone invades the enemy territory of Prague(Czech). Our djinni Bartimaeus narrates the prologue, which ends as his master dies and he drifts back into The Other Place.
The main story starts about two years after the end of Amulet of Samarkand, and Nathaniel is now assistant to the head of Department of Internal Affairs in the Government. The head is now Julius Tallow, who succeeds Underwood. Unfortunately, Nathaniel gets caught up in the politics of the government, and different ways how people try to attack him and prove him inefficient due to his age(which is fourteen). At the beginning of the book, there is the rebel group, The Resistance, striving to overthrow the magicians' regime, and take over, on which Nathaniel is assigned to investigate. But no matter how hard he tries, there are no leads!
And then there is Kitty, the girl who once had attacked Bartimaeus while he was having the Amulet of Smarkand and also stole Nathaniel's scrying disc around that time. She is one of the members of the Resistance, and an important character.
Also, the great "man of the series" Bartimaeus is there, entrancing every reader of the book with his witty footnotes.

My Rating:

Story(4/5)
The story was particularly complex with its real good twists, and two different conspiracies which is handled tactfully by the writer, without messing up. But the end was a little too much of coincidence, where the Golem turns up exactly when the story has to end. I was surprised how late it ended, given most novels, like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Inheritance(Cycle) or any other novel, end about a hundred pages before the book does, giving a nice closure with many details. But this went on in a nice pace and ended up way too fast, with just about thirty pages to spare.

Characters(4/5)
Characters were really well desigened, including the ones like Kitty and her fellow Resistance members. Most importantly, the writer has given a sense of justification for every character, which would make you support each of them, when you read their respective storylines. But a few were a little aloof, for instance, Duvall, the Night Police head, also the judge of the courtroom where Kitty first goes looking for justice.

Concept(5/5)
The whole concept of this book is real good, and a must read for every fantasy liker. It gives a real serious plot, but presents it in a very funny, jovial and sattirical form. The things like Golem, the parchment, are completely original(to my knowledge) and coincide with no other creations, like other fantasy books. The Urgals in Inheritance somewhat resemble the Ogres in LOTR. Also Eldunari does, with Horcruxes...and so on.

Sense(5/5) *if possible, I'd give a 5+*
The whole story makes perfect sense. In fact, after reading this book, you'd looking for Greybacks and Search Spheres during your London visit(s)! All of this, and more, Bartimaeus makes a lot of things get great, like explaining why people tend to notice ghosts duing a time more close to midnight, and some fictitious secrets hidden bheing things like the Westminster Abbey, and some kind of Bridge in Prage, meant only for pedestrians.

End Note:

On the whole, this book is very entertaining, especially if you are bored of something. You'd enjoy it even if books have stopped appealing to you. Only one drawback I find is that, you just can't understand this novel in case you haven't read its prequel, Amulet of Samarkand. There are lot of values in this book, and if I'm not wrond, many old indian proverbs are demonstrated in t he book(may be thare just morals everywhere, and not any cultural work)
So do read it, and enjoy!

Cya,
Templar AKA Sumanth

4 comments:

Klaus said...

Hey Sumanth,

The following is my comment to your recent blog : "The parchment inside my mouth caught fire" :

I totally agree with your review. Golem's Eye is a fantastic book whose strengths lie in it's excellent narration and colourful characters. Have fun reading the final part of the Bartimaeus Trilogy.
I also wish you luck for your exams and hope you get a better rank next time. :)

Sumanth said...

@Klaus - Yeah, I'll read Ptolemy's gate once I'm done with my present priorities.
I'm working on scoring well next time. Thank you.

Kausthubh said...

Nice review Sumanth.

It is apparent that the book is a must-read for all fantasy lovers!

Finally, good job dude.

Bye!

Sumanth said...

@Kausthubh - yeah!