Adventure

El ojo del golem
Jonathan Stroud
Publicado: 2004 | 496 páginas
Novela Fantástico
Serie: Bartimeo #2

En cuanto vi que Nathaniel volvía a invocarme, supe que algo no iba bien. La primera vez que osó molestarme tuve que ayudarle a robar el amuleto de Samarkanda. ¿Qué querrá esta vez? Parece ser que el niño tiene algún que otro problema: en Londres medio barrio de Picadilly ha sido destruido y le han dado seis semanas para descubrir al culpable. ¡Qué pereza! Con lo bien que estaba yo tomando el sol. ¿Por qué me hará trabajar? ¿Por qué no invocará a un espíritu inferior? En fin, no puedo negarme, pero eso sí, hemos llegado a un pacto: seis semanas, solo estaré seis semanas a su servicio, yo después me piro…

I wish id read these books as a kid they were exactly the sort of thing i would have really liked. i still enjoyed them now but its different when youre a kid, books have a different impact on you, especially as thats the agegroup these books are aimed at. but anyway they were good, well written and interesting and engaging. and its nice to read books like this again, i prefer this sort of style of writing over the more 'modern (american usually) ya' sort which seems to be popular these days. not that thats bad, i just like this better ( )

En cuanto vi que Nathaniel volvía a invocarme, supe que algo no iba bien. La primera vez que osó molestarme tuve que ayudarle a robar el amuleto de Samarkanda. ¿Qué querrá esta vez? Para ser que el niño tiene algún que otro problema: en Londres medio barrio de Picadilly ha sido destruido y le han dado seis semanas para descubrir al culpable. ¡Qué pereza! Con lo bien que estaba yo tomando el sol. ¿Porqué me hará trabajar? ¿Por qué no invocará a un espíritu inferior? En fin, no puedo negarme, pero eso sí, hemos llegado a un pacto: seis semanas, solo estaré seis semanas a su servicio, yo después me piro...

Book 2 of the marvelous Bartimaeus series.
Please read my review of Book # 1 of the Bartimaeus Sequence! My review applies to the whole series:
https://www.librarything.com/work/56997/reviews/228006079

Here's the review of the prequel to the Bartimaeus sequence:
https://www.librarything.com/work/9741295/reviews/228005977 ( )

Oh gosh how did I get so behind on book reviews?!! Anyway, I enjoyed this book although I really began to dislike one of the main characters, Nathaniel. Fortunately this book also introduces Kitty, who I love. Again the story wasnt what I was expecting but still very good, and features an interesting and thought provoking magical world. ( )

Excellent fantasy adventure. Well written, exciting, with good characters including , of course, the incomparable djinn Bartimaus. "Young Adult" in name only, this series has a very cynical, adult outlook (courtesy of Bartimaeus, whose observations of human foibles are frequently hilarious). If I had to knock it, I'd mention that some of the descriptions of setting, etc could have been more concise. Looking forward to volume 3. ( )

A very slow start. But keep plugging through, Bartimaeus will NOT disappoint. It's worth it! My laughter at a certain magician's summoning was the best stomach massage I have received in forever! My poor sister thought I had finally lost my senses... ( )

I enjoyed this book just as much as THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND. It had a desirable pace, intriguing detail and characters, but above all it had Bartimaeus's witty remarks. When starting this book I was a little wary, "how would the sequel compare to the first book?" normally I'm a bit disappointed with sequels but THE GOLEM'S EYE was just as good as THE AMULET OF SAMARKAND and I look forward to reading the third installment.

In the first book Nat has a little insignificant run-in with Kitty, Stanley, and Fred, who steal a certain something that was important to 12-year-old Nathaniel. Well now it's 2 years later and Nat works for Internal Affairs. What does he do there? He's in charge of bringing down the Resistance, a group of commoner's who disrupt the gov by stealing magical items and use them against magicians. What's so special about that? Everyone in the Resistance has Resilience (that is the Magicians magic doesn't have much effect on them)
( )

To as large extent, [b:The Golem's Eye|59263|The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus, #2)|Jonathan Stroud|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441130242s/59263.jpg|57689] continues where [b:The Amulet of Samarkand|334123|The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus, #1)|Jonathan Stroud|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528705815s/334123.jpg|1121748] left off. Nathaniel is a rising star, now climbing the ranks of government and Bartimaeus is just as snarky as ever. We get quite a bit more (including POV time) from Kitty and her friends, showing that it's not all fun and games in this particular echo of London.

On one hand, it's interesting that Nathaniel grew up so quickly and is in government now. To go with the inevitable comparisons to Harry Potter the first book raised, it's as if we'd skipped right by books 2-7 and went straight to Harry's training as an Auror. I actually really appreciate that; it's something new. EVen if it does strain credulity somewhat. He's 14 for crying out loud...

Overall, the world building is a solid extension on what we had before, with a look into the variety of djinn and other creatures underpinning the magic of the world, along with a few other ways that things can be done (such as the golem before and a certain animated skeleton towards the end--hints of things to come...).

The characters? Well, Nathaniel is growing up and... I really don't like him. I get that is likely Stroud's intent, but any time you have an unlikeable protagonist, you have to try twice as hard in other aspects to make up for it and we don't quite get there. Bartimaeus is still quite a lot of fun though.

Overall, I don't think I liked it quite as well as Amulet, but I'm still glad I read it. Curious where the third/final book in the trilogy will go from here... ( )

Weiterhin sehr unterhaltsam. ( )

Considering that when I last read this book I found it so mediocre that I never finished reading the series, I was a bit surprised at how much I enjoyed re-reading it. Which really shouldn’t have been a surprise at all, since it’s filled with much of the same draws as the first novel, but takes them to a whole other level. Not only do we get further into the workings of the magicians’ world in London, but we also get a hearty dose of magical history as Bartimaeus recalls the last major historical event when golems were used as a means of magical warfare - the battle of Prague in which the Czech’s seceded their domination of the world to the English magicians led by Gladstone. Nathaniel (aka John Mandrake) is now well ensconced in his place in magical society - a new master, a high profile job with the Ministry of the Interior, and a bevy of imps at his command - , but he must rescind his promise to not summon the wily, sardonic, and endlessly entertaining Bartimaeus when mysterious semi-magical beings (revealed to be the golems) and the Resistance prove to be more than he can handle. Off again our at-odds protagonists are, as they travel to Prague, investigate magical happenstance, and once again put a stop to the shadowy characters trying to bring down the British Government - I can’t wait to read the next (and final) book in the trilogy! ( )

Ok so finished the Golem’s Eye by Jonathan Stroud, and while I had a little harder of time getting into it than I thought I would, I did wind up getting sucked into it towards the end and enjoying it immensely. I loved having Kitty’s POV in this book because it added so much more character to it and it was great getting away from Nathaniel cause he was sooooo bratty. As alway Bartimaeus is just one of the best characters ever, i love the snark, sarcasm and footnotes. ( )

Enjoyed; skimmed parts, especially liked footnotes. ( )

So much stronger than book one, this book reaches the potential of Stroud's fantasy universe.

> "What choice do you have, Ms. Jones? You are already in something of a corner. A savage demon stands guard over you—" She looked from side to side in puzzlement. I coughed. "That's me," I said. ( )

It’s such a different experience listening to the Bartimaeus trilogy rather than reading them. Neither is bad, they’re just different. I’ve read these books a couple times in hardcopy, and while I’ve listened to The Amulet of Samarkand a couple times… this is the first time I have listened to The Golem’s Eye. In my memory, I liked The Golem’s Eye least of the series (I like The Ring of Solomon best) and never really felt the need to go on when a wave of nostalgia incited me to pick up something from my high school years. I’m not sure if it’s the audiobook or the time that has passed since my last read, but I definitely like The Golem’s Eye more than I used to.

Somehow, over the years, I had forgotten there was an epic grave robbery?!

Don’t get me wrong – generally speaking, I am not a fan of desecration. Even though we historian do a lot of that, well, it’s incredibly disrespectful to the dead. But any sort of adventure sequence in a fantasy book… I’m all in for something like that. Especially because I remember not liking Kitty in my initial reads (I was hooked on Nathaniel’s walk between good and evil) and as I’m re-reading it, I’m realising… Kitty’s storyline in The Golem’s Eye is awesome. There’s great pacing a bunch of adventure. I still don’t love her character particularly, but she gets into a lot of interesting corners and I’m noticing a lot of nuances to her character that make her more complicated than I remember. So if I’ve ever preached about not liking Kitty… I retract it. I retract all of it.

Nathaniel, aka John Mandrake, continues to be a frustrating disappointment. I liked the bit about the hat in Prague, of course, but I just… I want so much more from his character. But here’s the thing, and here’s one of the ways I can tell that I like a book when I’m waffling… when I am more concerned about the characters’ moral dilemmas than their actual characterization… they’re well-written. So while I’m disappointed in Nathaniel as a person, I’m not disappointed in him as a character. The Amulet of Samarkan got me invested, and now I’m rooting for him to make the right choices. Which he does not make when I want him to.

The Golem’s Eye falls a bit short in the plot department.

The golem itself appears early in the book, but for most of the middle and until just about the very end, it disappears and the characters follow other leads, do other things. I personally found it a bit frustrating to feel like there was a complete departure from the plot until a last minute wrap up. While I understand that all the intervening events make the wrap-up possible, they just didn’t seem as cohesive as they could be. For that rambling, roundabout solution, this book loses a bit of points in plot for me.

For anyone who read The Amulet of Samarkand, please know that The Golem’s Eye is not a dealbreaker. In fact, as far as second books go, it’s rather good. There’s no filler slump here, not really. Each Bartimaeus book is a self-contained story, and the worlds of London and Prague are honestly fantastic. The djinn himself amuses me to no end. The first three stories do create an arching plot (Nathaniel’s journey) so I recommend reading this one to get the whole story. It’s good, it’s just not as good as the rest of the books in the series. But I still recommend it! ( )

Witty and clever, book two in the trilogy expands the greater world and the players from the first book. Bartimaeus is a particularly entertaining as the perspective shifts from him as a character to his own self-serving and hilarious narrations. A great story to share with my kid and an easy to love work of fantasy fiction in its own right. ( )

Just as adventurous as the first, with an introduction on a new character I hope is in the last book. Kitty kicks ass, and Nathiel is turning into a douche! ( )

A great read by one of my favorite authors. ( )

I think my memories coloured this book a lot. There's much more history and politics and much less Bartimaeus and Nathaniel friendship than I remembered (I guess the latter only really happens in the last book), and Nathaniel still hasn't even started letting go of his stupid prejudices.

Also, I can accept teens being heroes when most characters are teens, but a 14-year-old becoming a minister among adults is ehh. It's pushing my suspension of disbelief more than the djinnis. ( )

EL OjO DEL GOLEM

Han pasado dos años desde que Nathaniel
frustró el complot de Simon Lovelace, que a
punto estuvo de acabar con la vida del primer
ministro. Aquel heroico acto le permitió entrar
a formar parte del aparato ministerial, rodeado
por las principales figuras de la brujería
británica, y ascender, con sólo catorce años,
al cargo de ayudante del ministro de Asuntos
Internos. Una posición de enorme
responsabilidad dado el delicado momento
por el que pasa el Imperio, que prepara una
gran campaña contra Estados Unidos y a la
vez sufre el ataque constante de la Resistencia,
oculta en los bajos fondos de Londres y cuyos
ataques se han hecho cada vez más osados.

La paciencia del jefe de la Policía, de los
miembros del Gobierno y del primer ministro
se está agotando, y la carrera de Nathaniel
como hechicero empieza a peligrar seriamente.
Pero lo que ni él ni sus superiores saben todavía
es que tras el último atentado no se hallan los
rebeldes, sino algo impulsado por una magia
que se creía desaparecida hacía siglos.

A su pesar, y aun a riesgo de provocar el enfado
de un genio (cosa poco recomendable cuando
éste sabe tu nombre auténtico) a Nathaniel
sólo le queda una opción: romper la promesa
que hizo dos años atrás e invocar de nuevo
a Bartimeo para que le ayude a resolver el
misterio. No obstante, en esta ocasión tal vez
ni los inagotables recursos de los que hace gala
el diablillo sean suficientes ante un enemigo
cuyo poder supera lo que tanto él como
su amo puedan llegar a imaginar.

2-6-2016
Bartimaeus breaks the Rosetta Stone. Oh my God. How did I miss that?

Obviously, this book is brilliant. I am entirely incapable of speaking rationally about it. I went to Prague since the last time I read this, so I have a much better visual of the locales (the graveyard where Bart and Nat meet Harlequin? Been there. It's pretty tiny, but probably very creepy at night).

I love this series so much. ( )

Jonathan finds himself in a pickle again and calls upon Bartimeus to help him out. Unfortunately, he's become nearly as loathsome as his magician colleagues. Bartimeus is still fun to listen to, but Kitty is the real hero of the story. We learn more of her history and motivation and I'm interested to see what she'll do in the next installation. ( )

Nathaniel, now using the alias John Mandrake, with his exploits in the previous book and diligence in his studies and work has earned himself the government post of assistant to the head of internal affairs. What he hasn't earned himself though are any friends. His colleagues at work eye him with a certain amount of distrust and often unfriendly rivalry and more than a little envy. Those below him in the pecking order are waiting for him to fail so they can advance their own careers and those above are watching anxiously over their shoulders hoping Mandrake doesn't take their job next. To the relief of those around him though John Mandrake's career might be in for a halt to his prominent rise as he's been tasked with rooting out the resistance and putting an end to their actions and everything he's tried so far has been without success. That doesn't bode well when the resistance seem to be increasing their activities and causing some considerable damage at some famous city landmarks. So Mandrake has little choice and despite saying he would never call him again he reluctantly summons the djinn Bartimaeus. Can the duo discover what's behind this new chaos and destruction in London and if it's connected to the resistance before Mandrake is no longer flavour of the month? We also get to learn more of Kitty, the young girl who stole Nathaniel's scrying glass and left him for dead, as she becomes a viewpoint character showcasing her activities with the resistance.

Nathaniel/Mandrake has become a more obnoxious young man since last we met him but that fits the development of the character well. It's been a year and a half since the conclusion of events from the first book and he's thoroughly enmeshed in the rivalry of his fellow magicians where any weakness is pounced upon with alacrity. It's hard to remember he's still only a 14 year-old boy who's had very little love in his life. So it's a good job the other two POV characters are more likable and help carry the reader through the story. We get Kitty's back story and how she came to be a member of the resistance and also more snippet's from Bartimaeus' past. Overall it's a decent sequel that is once again a fully formed story that leaves enough room for a follow-on book which I'll pick up at some point. ( )

I love so many different things about this book! Simon Jones narrations beautifully. Humor weaves through, sometimes subtle and dry, sometimes slapstick, and always supporting the story and the characters. The characters are all very real with depth and complexity.

I hope to get my nephew to listen to this trilogy. Without any hint of pedantry, the story teaches about loyalty, bravery, and honor. While the world is far from perfect, the characters manage to make a difference by their choices. Sometimes it's a very small difference, and sometimes it's a more far-reaching effect than the characters realize.

I'm a bit afraid to start another young adult series. This one and Ranger's Apprentice have quite spoiled me :) ( )