Ptolemy's Gate

Ptolemy's Gate is the last book in the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, detailing the rise of a young magician named Nathanial in a right-wing Magician-run alternative version of Great Britain. Alongside Nathanial (against his will) is the enslaved djinni Bartimaeus - a wry, sarcastic and powerful entity whose attitude towards the current status quo goes beyond words like 'jaded', 'disaffected' and 'bitter'. This book takes place another three years after the previous novel, The Golem's Eye, with Nathanial well and truly established within the British Government. As the final entry in a much-loved trilogy, it has some big expectations to meet - wrapping up a story set across the timespan of a decade that involves many opposing characters. And kudos go to the author, Jonathan Stroud, for managing it so masterfully.

In keeping with the previous story, this novel is as much Kitty's as it is Bartimaeus' or Nathaniel's. While Nathaniel does his best in service to the government of the now-waning British Empire, Kitty has immersed herself deep in research - learning about the origins of the Magicians' power and the nature of their relationship with the demons they enslave. Meanwhile, Bartimaeus' powers have been getting weaker and weaker as Nathaniel mistreats him more and more, and things don't look so good for him. In fact, things don't look so good for anyone - unless Kitty can find a way to break the cycle that has kept the Magicians in power for hundreds of years.

The most exciting aspect of this last entry in the Bartimaeus series is that we finally get to delve into Bartimaeus' past - interspersed throughout the story are flashbacks to Bartimaeus' days of glory and his relationship with the Egyptian boy-pharoah, Ptolemy. It is these scenes that form the emotional core of Ptolemy's Gate and provide answers to questions that have been left unanswered since the trilogy first began. We go deeper and further into the mechanics of the relationship between the Magicians and the demons than ever before. It achieves a depth that Harry Potter never really matched, and it gives the entire trilogy an emotional resonance that will leave it embedded in the thoughts of even those with the most hardened of hearts long after they have finished reading it.

Ptolemy's Gate makes up for the lack of Bartimaeus in the previous novel, this is - once and for all - his story. The sequences set in his past break new ground and it becomes evident that he is a far more complex character than we might have believed when we first met him back in The Amulet of Samarkand. The ending of the trilogy is fantastic too - it really pushed the boundaries and I dare say it will take even the most jaded or optimistic of readers by surprise, it's the sort of ending I had no idea was coming. Bravo!