My main gripe with the first Bartimaeus was how much Nathaniel’s chapters dragged as compared with Bartimaeus’s. The Golem’s Eye ameliorates this problem by giving us plenty of the ever-delightful Bartimaeus, and adding a third point of view: Kitty, the young Resistance leader. Nathaniel is also older now, and more of a love-to-hate antihero as he acclimates to the vanity and power struggles of magicians — which are played for laughs as well as drama.
The Resistance was the most interesting part of the first book for me, so I was pleased to get a look inside their “organization” (which, as we see in this book, definitely requires quotes). I’m intrigued by the story of ordinary people fighting back against the totalitarian rule of the magicians, all the more so because the freedom fighters aren’t the sort of people I’d want running my government, either.
It’s a good thing these books are funny, because if they weren’t, they’d be damned depressing. I’m looking forward to making time for Ptolemy’s Gate!
Also reviewed at: Reading Matters, Grumpy Old Bookman, and Seasonal Plume.
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