Ptolemy's Gate
By Johnathan Stroud
**Warning:This review contains information about The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye that may spoil the first two books.
The Bartimaeus Trilogy comes to an explosive ending in the third book, Ptolemy's Gate I was impressed, Stroud pulled off a difficult feat very well in this third installment. The first two books had plots that were hardly related to each other, in fact they seemed to be more or less two separate stories about the same characters rather than parts of a trilogy. However, Stroud reveals the mastermind behind both the Lovelace conspiracy and the golem affair, but you'll have to read the book to find out who. He nicely combines all three books in the finale.
Nathaniel spends most of the book involved in political savvy with his enemies/fellow politicians. However, when he gets swept up into a sickening plot to overturn the government from within, he finds out that some of his closest allies, and an elusive member of the Resistance, have been planning his demise since Book 1. If he is to survive, he'll have to trust his old rival, Kitty, and Bartimaeus.
Due to the fact that Nathaniel has kept him earth-bound for far too long, Bartimaeus's powers are about equal to those of an imp. He can barely change shape, he struggles to fly and do things that in the first two books wouldn't have even made him bat an eyelash. As such Nathaniel sends him on recon missions instead of the normal action-packed escapades that we enjoyed in the first two books. Finally Bartimaeus becomes so weak that Nathaniel is forced to dismiss him to the Other Place for the time being.
At the beginning of each Part of the book, we get an insight into what makes Bartimaeus so sad and pessimistic. We soon find out that the only master who ever truly trusted him, Ptolemy, ended up dead in the effort of saving Bartimaeus. As such Bartimaeus has always assumed Ptolemy's shape, and we eventually recognise him as the egyptian boy that is Bartimaeus's prefered guise. It is a sad insight, but it does shed some light on the elusive references to Ptolemy in books 1 & 2.
Kitty is now working as a commoner secretary to a low-level magician. She occasionally "borrows" (steals) some of the magican's books and learns and practices summonings. Eventually she summons Bartimaeus, and asks him about Ptolemy and Ptolemy's gate. She finds out the relationship Bartimaeus had with Ptolemy and wants to have that with him too. So she visits the Other Place using Ptolemy's methods, and we finally get an insight into what it is like there. This is one of the best parts of the entire book, and a particular reason to go and buy it.
The explosive conclusion to the Bartimaeus Trilogy is nothing short of Stroud's finest work. By far the best of the three books, the fates of Nathaniel, Bartimaeus and Kitty collide in an action-packed finale. All of the loose ends from books 1 & 2 are tied up tighter than a drum. If you're only going to read one of the books in the trilogy, read this one.
**Parental Warning: This book contains some breif crude humor and some voilence. This book may not be apropriate for young children.**