Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon

Udah lama ga baca fantasi. Agak bosen di awal BUT IT'S BARTY! Tengah ke akhir seru bangET and you can always count on his savagery for the fun. Jadi pengen baca ulang triloginya.

I think I'd really give this one 4.5 stars out of 5, but I'll round up because of how many times I openly cackle at Bartimaeus's little quips in the footnotes. This one could technically be read as a standalone story, being a prequel to his trilogy, but I found all the characters in this one to be way more interesting. As it only has minimal bearing on the future stories, you can read this book without any spoilers for the future. But, if you go back to read the prequel as I did, you'll note little nods to things referenced in the trilogy. Pretty much, you can read this before or after the trilogy and still enjoy this book. However, I think the explanation of the magic in the Amulet of Samarkand is infinitely better than the explanation in this book. For that reason, I heavily recommend reading the trilogy first and coming back to this one. (As much as I disliked Nathaniel, they do a lot more explaining about how the magic works.) Ultimately, it was a really cool world in this one. If you've read the trilogy, the world in the Bartimaeus Trilogy is much more heavily controlled by magicians than in this book, where they still hold positions of power but don't completely eclipse those without magical training. I also really loved Asmira as a main character. She does more growing in one book than I think Nathaniel did in three. It also called into consideration the concept of slavery on multiple levels. She goes from blind loyalty to concern to questioning to enlightened and it's pretty fantastic to read. As always, Bartimaeus is his usual sarcastic self with a brief appearance of Faquarl, who is a regular in the trilogy. I think Bartimaeus has a soft spot for people who summon him that don't really know what they're doing when it comes to summoning circles. All in all, this is definitely a series of books I would recommend to others. I think it's very fun and unusual, but not without the gruesome bits as well. It's always fun when Bartimaeus throws in a little anecdote about a grisly death.

Actual rating is 3.5 stars

Review can be found at Love at First Write