"Nathaniel gets along tolerably well over the years in the Underwood household until the summer before his eleventh birthday. Everything changes when he is publicly humiliated by the ruthless magician Simon Lovelace and betrayed by his cowardly master who does not defend him.

Nathaniel vows revenge."

Nathaniel is sold to the government by his parents when he is just 5 years old, to be apprenticed to a magician, even if the magician doesn't want an apprentice. Powerful magicians run Britain and apprentices are raised to believe that this is a noble profession, and they should consider themselves lucky to have this chance. And Nathaniel is suitably impressed, but he is much smarter than his master knows, and he begins to experiment on his own without his master's knowledge. When Nathaniel is humiliated by another magician and his master doesn't stand up for him, Nathaniel vows revenge. He summons a very powerful djinn, Bartimaeus, to help him enact this revenge, and let's just say that things don't go quite as planned.

"I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the Mighty, and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus! I recognize no master. So I charge you in your turn, boy. Who are you to summon me?"

Yeah, Bartimaeus is anything but malleable and willing! But if he wants to be freed eventually, he has to cooperate, and this is where a lot of the humor in this story comes from. Nathaniel is a bit arrogant, but then he's been told since he was 5 that he will one day become a great magician and help run the country, if he's lucky, so you can see where he gets it. The situations that he and Bartimaeus find themselves in are very entertaining, and you start rooting for them even more. The story itself is a fun and easy read, and I'm looking forward to continuing the story in book 2.

In summary, I enjoyed this book very much and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.