The Golem's Eye
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| The Golem's Eye | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Jonathan Stroud |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Bartimaeus Trilogy |
| Genre(s) | Children's, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Mirage |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (paperback & hardback) |
| Pages | 562 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-552-55273-9 |
| Preceded by | The Amulet of Samarkand |
| Followed by | Ptolemy's Gate |
The Golem's Eye is the second book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy written by Jonathan Stroud.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Like the rest of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Golem's Eye is set in somewhat modern-day London in an alternate history in which magic is commonplace and magicians are an accepted part of society; in fact, most magicians are in positions of power. They comprise the government, and commoners are treated as inferior. The main character is Nathaniel, a magician who works for the government in the ministry of internal affairs. His (unwilling) partner is the wisecracking spirit Bartimaeus. Together they embark on a quest to discover the secret behind the commoners' resistance and the mysterious beast that is stalking London.
[edit] Plot summary
The book begins two years after the events of The Amulet of Samarkand with Nathaniel, apprenticed to the Minister of Security,(Jessica Whitwell) and working as an understudy to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Julius Tallow. At the exceedingly young age of fourteen he is now a government official and a competent magician, but he no longer uses his original servant, Bartimaeus. When the book starts, he is working on a case involving a shadowy group of rebelling commoners, known as the Resistance. Nathaniel knows only a few facts about the group including three of their members' names: Kitty, Fred, and Stanley. He tries to search for these three but to no avail. He disguises several minor spirits as commoners and sends them out to find the Resistance, but they too find no trace of the elusive group.
Kitty Jones is on a mission for the Resistance during a performance of The Swans Of Araby, in a posh London theatre. Kitty is having doubts about the point of her working for the Resistance and she begins to remember her past, and why she joined the Resistance. She remembers back to her childhood, where she lived, somewhat poorly, next door to a Czech family who owned a factory that printed books for the magicians. Kitty often played cricket with her friend Jakob Hyrnek, son of the family that lived next door. One day, she accidentally hit a ball through the window of a magician's car as it passed. The magician came out and ordered his demon to perform the "black tumbler", a magical attack, on Kitty and Jakob.
Kitty is then woken up from her dream-like reverie by Fred and Stanley, the Resistance members she is commanding, who chastise her for sleeping on the job, as the intermission of the play has started. They leave the theatre and go to the near-by carpet shop that sells posh carpets for magicians. They break in, steal some documents and magical items and set fire to the shop. Kitty is worried about being caught and harming Commoners, but Stanley and Fred disagree, ignoring her protests. They return to the theatre just in time.
Afterwards, several major shops in London are broken into; everyone sent to investigate or on duty there is killed. Nathaniel is investigating the incident of the previous chapter. It turns out that six policemen and eight spirits were also killed by the creature. Most of the government suspects the Resistance of being behind the attack but Nathaniel thinks otherwise.
Nathaniel and his master, Ms. Whitwell, are called to meet with the prime minister. He orders Nathaniel to find the Resistance and put a stop to their activities. Nathaniel returns home and finally decides to summon Bartimaeus again after many unsuccessful attempts at summoning others. He instructs Bartimaeus to find the unknown attacker, identify it, and destroy it if he can.
Later, we return to Kitty and her memories, continuing from where they left off earlier. Kitty and Jakob had both been sent to the hospital, and Jakob was badly burnt. Kitty escaped mostly unharmed -- although she didn't know it at the time, this is due to her innate resistance to magic. Kitty attempts to sue the magician but soon finds the justice system tilted in favor of magicians and the magician gets away without charge, claiming Kitty and Jakob were trying to rob him. Kitty is fined £100 for compensation to the magician for the damage to his car, and she also has to pay the magician's penalty (£500) for coming late, as per tradition which dictates that fines awarded to winners are passed on to losers of the cases. She thus has to pay £600. As Kitty distraughtly leaves the court, a man asks Kitty to meet up with him later assuring her he will pay the full fine. She is rather suspicious of the stumbling little old man, but when she returns home and talks to her parents, she finds out the only way they can come up with the money is to sell the house. Kitty quickly decides to meet the man who turns out to be the leader of a commoner Resistance group. This eventually leads to her joining the Resistance, and being placed in command of small groups.
In the meantime, Bartimaeus meets his old friend, Queezle, and the two hunt for the mystery attacker, commanding a force comprised of multiple djinnis and foliots. Eventually, as Bartimaeus and Queezle split up to patrol, they run across the attacker. Queezle is killed by it, and Bartimaeus returns, hearing her scream; he arrives too late, but is able to track to Golem to the British Museum. He destroys the attacker's concealing black mist, and discovers that it is a golem. However, the golem nearly kills him as he flees, eventually crushing him under an entire section of the Museum. Bartimaeus survives and reveals the identity to Whitwell, Duvall, Nathaniel, and Tallow. Whitwell then orders Nathaniel to travel to Prague and find out who controls the golem.
Kitty, while this occurs, meets with her friends in the Resistance and their informant, Mr. Hopkins, and they are told that they will raid Gladstone's tomb. After meeting with a magician, Quentin Makepeace, who gives them the materials to enter the tomb, they enter Gladstone's tomb at night. As they loot his tomb, Stanley is killed by a ninth-level afrit named Honorius. The afrit then engages Fred in a blade fight, delaying it long enough for the rest of the living Resistance members to flee the tomb. As Kitty urges her aged leader, Mr. Pennyfeather, up the steps, Fred is killed by the afrit's sword, and the afrit takes Mr. Pennyfeather. Kitty retreats and meets Anne. As they escape the Abbey, Anne is killed by the afrit. At this point, as Kitty flees, Mr. Pennyfeather is revealed to have survived, through his considerable resilience, and Kitty hesitates, unsure if he is the afrit. He is then killed by Honorius, and as Kitty flees, Honorius attempts to kill her; she is saved by a pendant of silver, and Honorius' rediscovering of the stars. She flees, escaping with only the staff of Gladstone in exchange for her friends' deaths.
Nathaniel travels to Prague to meet with a spy named Harlequin to discover who the magician that created the golem spell is. During the second meeting, the Czech police engage him and Bartimaeus, and kill Harlequin after Harlequin gives Nathaniel the magician's name. Bartimaeus easily evades the police with Nathaniel, and they arrive at the magician Kavka's house. They then convince Kavka not to create more golem's, but at this point, the dreaded Mercenary makes an appearance, and casually threatens the three of them. Kavka then destroys the golem manuscript, and the resulting explosion shifts the house, disarms the Mercenary, and stuns Nathaniel. As Verroq, the Mercenary, searches for Nathaniel, Bartimaeus saves Nathaniel by distracting Verroq. Verroq then throws his silver disc at Bartimaeus; Bartimaeus burns him with an Inferno as the disc returns, shearing through Bartimaeus' side and forcing Bartimaeus to attempt to escape. Verroq completely ignores the flames on him and prepares to slay Bartimaeus, but Nathaniel saves Bartimaeus. The Mercenary stumbles to a window, and Bartimaeus blasts him with a Hurricane, hurling him hundreds of feet away. Nathaniel then returns to London. Nathaniel is immediately whsiked away with Whitwell to an emergency meeting with the prime minister. Nathaniel learns of the resistance's raiding of Gladstone's tomb, and learns that Honorius is terrorizing all of London.
Nathaniel sends Bartimaeus to take care of Honorius, and Bartimaeus eventually drowns Honorius in the Thames (or so Bartimaeus thought). Bartimaeus returnsto Nathaniel, without much praise. Nathaniel then hatches a plan to lure Kitty Jones, who possesses a historical and powerful artefact, Gladstone's Staff, by kidnapping her childhood friend Jakob Hyrnek.
[edit] Literary significance & criticism
While the book was well-received, some critics deemed that Bartimaeus's role was diminished too much in the book. Nathaniel also seems "more aggressive", which may cause fans to sympathise less with him. However, many did not see this as a problem, and despite this most critics gave it positive reviews.[citation needed]
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- In one part of the book Bartimaeus speaks of a hermit who lived in the Jordanian desert and ate honey and tubers. This is supposedly John the Baptist.
- When in the British Museum, Bartimaeus describes the rock he is going to throw at the Golem as being old and having inscriptions on one side in two or three different languages. He makes an inference that the writings are to instruct museum visitors about museum rules. His description of the stone matches that of the Rosetta Stone, which is in the British Museum.
- The cover of the book is Bartimaeus in his Minotaur guise.
- Nathaniel's master(Jessica Whitwell), is the one who trapped Bartimaeus in the London tower in Book one, The Amulet of Samarkand.
- On the UK paperback version of The Golem's Eye, it features Honorius, the afrit whose essence is tied to Gladstone's bones.
- In The Amulet of Samarkand, Bartimaeus is said to be a djinni of the fourteenth level. But, in The Golem's Eye, it says that Bartimaeus is a djinni of the fourth level. Jonathon Stroud has admitted this to be a mistake.
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