Recently I’ve been reading the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. I’ve just finished reading book one, The Amulet of Samarkand, and I’m now onto book two, Golem’s Eye. They’re set in and around London, except it’s not the London that we know, there are magicians ruling the country and magical creatures being summoned to do jobs for them.
The Amulet of Samarkand concentrates mainly on the adventures of a young boy called Nathaniel who summons a djinn called Bartimaeus and together they get into all sorts of trouble involving a plot by a power-hungry magician to overthrow the government. Along the way, Nathaniel and Bartimaeus run into Kitty and the resistance. The activities of the resistance are covered more extensively in Golem’s Eye, and along the way we learn more about some of the events from the first book.
I’m going to have to slow down my reading a bit though since the third book, Ptolemy’s Gate, doesn’t come out in paperback until October and I prefer the paperbacks as they’re a bit smaller and easier to carry around.