Adventure

This series (a trilogy beginning with The Amulet of Samarkand) was just meant to be an HP rebound for me, but I ended up really caring about it. Like the Great Rowling, Stroud's really good at making serious ethical questions exciting by giving them a magical spin; but where Harry is a sympathetic character that has greatness thrust upon him, Nathaniel is a total douche most of the time. It'd be like HP following Draco Malfoy's moral development. Also, in many ways this series is a bit more sophisticated than HP. It's got a lot of that dry British sarcasm going on and the alternative London Stroud imagines is way more unsettling than Rowling's. Imagine a world that's 98% Slytherin and you'll get the idea.

I'm not saying this is better than HP. I'll admit there were times when I thought about putting it down and just rereading Order of the Phoenix, but I'm really glad I finished it. It was worth it. ( )

A bit dark for tweens, better for teens. Story is interesting, but not interesting enough to want to finish reading it. ( )

-interesting world and magic system
-interesting how all the characters more or less were of dubious morality, including both main characters in different ways
-unreliable narration
-different sorts of point of view were used
-corrupt politicians who are magicians but power comes from demons they summon
-interesting conflicts between magicians and 'commoners' and magicians and demons, has some serious themes here
-it did leave some gaps and things i thought could have been done better but overall quite good
-a lot of politics for a kids book and morally dubious characters arent too common in this sort of book, but it definitely is a kids book not young adult and im sure kids can understand that sort of stuff, i didnt think it was generally more challenging than most kids books
- was slightly dense to read in its style but not that much i suspect im just not used to reading anymore ( )

Londres, 2003. La magia rige la política y los negocios. Por eso, cuanto más importante es un mago, más influencia y poder tiene. Desde pequeños, los futuros magos son separados de sus familias, pierden su nombre y un mago se encarga de su severísima educación; a los doce años, reciben el nombre oficial, según el cual serán reconocidos como magos y como hombres, así como su primer par de lentes, que les permite ver algo del mundo de los espíritus. El poder de los magos es ilimitado -en función de su saber- y la mayoría trabaja para el Gobierno. La corrupción está a la orden del día y la amistad es sólo una cuestión de estrategia. Cuantos más poderes tiene un mago, más capacidad tiene de convocar a los distintos espíritus y conseguir lo que quiere. Sin embargo, a los magos les ha salido un incómodo enemigo: la Resistencia, un grupo de personas normales y corrientes que, hartos de la corrupción, quieren que el poder vuelva a manos del pueblo....