Editorial Review
Three years after the events of
The Golem's Eye, the young magician Nathaniel is an established member of the British Government.
But he faces unprecedented problems: foreign wars are going badly and Britain's enemies are mounting attacks close to London.
Increasingly distracted, he is treating Bartimaeus worse than ever: the long-suffering djinni is growing weak from too much time in this world, and his patience is at an end. Meanwhile, undercover in London, Kitty has been stealthily completing her research into magic and Bartimaeus' past. She hopes to break the endless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans -- but will she be able to get anyone to listen?
Before any of these problems can be resolved, disaster strikes London from an unexpected source and the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathanial, and Kitty are thrown together once more. They have to face treacherous magicians, a long-fermented conspiracy, and an enemy from 'The Other Place' that threatens London and the world. Worst of all, they must somehow cope with each other . . .
Bartimaeus fans will be entranced by Stroud's brilliantly conceived finale to the series -- sure to be a major best seller.
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Customer Reviews
What in the world happened to the Bartimaeus Trilogy? 
2009-05-03
I read and enjoyed both of the other books in the Bartimaeus trilogy, but this one quite simply bombed. I don't know how Stroud lost it, but he lost it. This might be the worst conclusion to a series I have ever read.
Firstly, the plot is getting stale in my mouth. Okay, there's a secret subfaction among the magicians who are up to no good. Didn't that happen in both previous books? Okay, the hero needs to get ahold of powerful and valuable objects to save the day. Yeah, I remember that. Okay, there's a super-dangerous demon unleashed upon the world that Nathaniel has to stop. I get it, already!
I'm tired of these repeated plot themes. It seems almost like Jonathan Stroud was taking writing advice from Terry Goodkind. Well, at least Stroud isn't beating a dead horse and churning about another 8 books like Goodkind did. I'm thankful that this is the end.
The characters are really getting on my nerves. We're treated to even more of Kitty's almost inhumanly hardcore bitchiness(seriously, there were times when I wanted to ask who shoved a Horla up her backside), and Bartimaeus, the witty and big-talking Djinni of the previous books, becomes weak and angsty. The only thing he seems to be good for nowadays is as a bystander to events perilously dangerous to him, where he stands back and mocks it all. For icing on the cake of idiotic characterization, they both bad-talk Nathaniel waaaay too much. All right, I'm all into dissenting opinions, but my favorite character getting railed on like this is not earning the author any points with me.
Nathaniel himself, however, almost deserves it. What happened to the morally ambiguous anti-hero that's kept things interesting? In a lame attempt to finish the series with extra character development, Stroud causes Nathaniel to revert to the soft, innocent demeanor he had before he became a magician. This was a horrendous disappointment for me, made me feel as if I had been betrayed by my favorite character.
Dishonorale mention: While Nathaniel is researching conspiracies and going from Mean Anti-Hero to Innocent Widdle Boy, Bartimaeus is whining about his diminished strength and down-talking other demons, and Jones is laying out more naive rebellion plans with the personality of a wet cat, the author continues to disrupt the pace of the story with flashbacks. This time, Bartimaeus' history with Ptolemy. This is a boring, underdeveloped, and barely interesting subplot that I hardly care to know about. Stroud would have been better off putting the content of those chapters into a novella and putting some actual good stuff in this book.
Last and worst, the ending was absolutely terrible. I won't put spoilers here, but suffice it to say that Nathaniel makes some decisions that are so abysmally stupid it ruined whatever little good there was in this book to begin with. The ending itself is rather similar to the endings of the first two books, and while the last couple of pages carry a strong amount of emotional volume, they weren't enough to quench my dissatisfaction. The conclusion was vague and didn't properly wrap up the plot, as if the author just decided to make everyone, both friends and foes go, "Oh, the trouble's over, let's all be one big happy family now!" Pathetic.
In conclusion, this book is a heinous crime against the Bartimaeus Trilogy, a piece of trash so bad it seems almost like the author picked up a piece of fanfiction and published it instead of his own work. If you've read the first two books, you should probably read the conclusion, but Ptolemy's Gate was, for lack of a better explanation, an epic fail.
Slow to start but gets really good near the end 
2009-01-05
Another outing with Nathaniel but slow to start and overwritten in places. This time he's the the Information Minister, and spends his time making up propaganda pamphlets. Three years have passed since the last book and the characters feel more jaded than ever and you almost feel sorry for the way Nathaniel treats Bartimaeus.
He does this by not allowing Bartimaeus to return to the Other Place until his essence is severely weakened. Mandrake is totally absorbed in his work and things aren't going well for the government as the commoners revolt. Kitty is back and through her the reader learns the secret behind Ptolemy and gets a look into Bartimaeus' domain. When a sinister plot unleashes an old evil, Mandrake, Kitty and Bartimaeus team up to defend the human race.
The last hundred pages or so is where it gets really good. Otherwise, it kind of moves slowly.
AMAZING!! 
2008-08-14
I read the previous two books and loved them so as soon as I saw the third and final one was out I jumped at it. This book was expertly crafted to make one completely absorbed in it. It was literally a book I could not put down. The storyline was intricate and well thought out. In the end I felt both a sense of peace, sorrow, and happiness. This is a must read for anyone with eyes and a mind thirsty for entertainment!
An amazing end to a great trilogy 2008-08-09
I will admit to not having read this book in a little while, but I have read it multiple times because of how much I liked it. The whole book struck me as a bit sad as the trilogy came to a close and the problems that the characters were facing did as well. Stroud's narative was as ingenious in this book as it was in the first as it switched back and forth between three very different personalities. Bartimaeus did a good job of lightening up what could have otherwise been an overly serious story. His characters continued to grow and I felt that they had gotten much farther along as individuals by the end. I thought that this was an entertaining original book that gripped and surprised me long after the last page was turned.
great book 2008-03-31
This is the last in a wonderful trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. I purchased it to listen to with my 9 year old son during long car trips. I have enjoyed it as much or more than he has! Get the other two books first as they build on one another.
Very good end to the trilogy 2008-03-15
Three years after the events of
The Golem's Eye, the young magician Nathaniel is an established member of the British Government.
But he faces unprecedented problems: foreign wars are going badly and Britain's enemies are mounting attacks close to London.
Increasingly distracted, he is treating Bartimaeus worse than ever: the long-suffering djinni is growing weak from too much time in this world, and his patience is at an end. Meanwhile, undercover in London, Kitty has been stealthily completing her research into magic and Bartimaeus' past. She hopes to break the endless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans -- but will she be able to get anyone to listen?
Before any of these problems can be resolved, disaster strikes London from an unexpected source and the destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathanial, and Kitty are thrown together once more. They have to face treacherous magicians, a long-fermented conspiracy, and an enemy from 'The Other Place' that threatens London and the world. Worst of all, they must somehow cope with each other . . .
Bartimaeus fans will be entranced by Stroud's brilliantly conceived finale to the series -- sure to be a major best seller.
WOW!!! What an ending to this series 2007-12-22
By the time I got this book I thought that I knew the characters well enough to predict the ending (how wrong I was). I read book two and book three after finishing Harry Potter 7, and thought that this series would be very similar. The characters evolve throughout the series and by the end you are surprised in many ways.
This book builds on the other two and makes it even more clear that class privilage is wrong. I missed this message in the first book, but saw some of it in the second, the third book it slaps you in the face. By the end of this book I was surprised where the evolution of the three main characters had taken them, but was pleased. The death at the end, one of of the three, surprised me; not because someone dies, but who dies and why. I was also surprised by the reaction of one of the characters to this death.
I recommend this series to someone who is willing to shake the cobwebs loose from the run-of-the-mill fantasy formula and go in a new direction, I promise you that you won't be disappointed
Oh well, had high hopes for this... 
2007-09-02
Book 1: Boy magician goes into training. Britain is ruled by an elite of wealth-&-power obssessed repugnant toads.
Book 2: Boy magician joins the ruling elite, turning into a wealth-&-power obssessed repugnant toad.
Book 3: Boy magician tries to recapture his humanity; kills off many chief repugnant toads. The junior toads step into their shoes, allowing some commoner input.
Yawn.
And: The jinni Bartimaeus is spunky and funny and has some cool stuff to say about the hidden underbelly of history.
A great book really well read 2007-08-23
The three books of Jonathan Stroud are marvellous in themselves but the performance of Simon Jones is simply great. The only audiobook I know that rivals Jim Dale's performance of the Harry Potter series.
Courtesy of Teens Read Too 2007-07-17
He's back! But this time around, the smart-mouthed djinni, Bartimaeus, is exhausted from too much work and not enough time to recover in his netherworld home. It's like they always say, "All work and no play makes Bartimaeus a dull supernatural being." Although, in this case, he's anything but dull. He's tired, weak, sharp-tongued, homicidal, and insulting. But definitely not dull.
In this third installment of THE BARTIMAEUS TRILOGY, the hero is again a djinni who has little respect for humans and even less interest in their petty wars and government squabbles. The magicians who rule England in this series of books insist on summoning Bartimaeus and scores of other demons to fight their wars, provide magical assistance of all sorts, and generally do their bidding. The demons see this treatment as slavery, and for good reason. What would you call forced servitude for no pay under threat of intense pain?
PTOLEMY'S GATE opens to find poor Bartimaeus stretched to the breaking point by his magician master, Nathaniel. A war in America is going poorly, the commoners of London are growing tired of the ruling class of magicians, and young Nathaniel is looked upon with jealousy and mistrust by his co-workers. As a result of all of these threats, Nathaniel rationalizes the need to keep Bartimaeus around to help him deal with the many problems that he faces. After a long association with the djinni, it is almost as if Nathaniel trusts his reluctant servant. And it is almost as if Bartimaeus has a shred of concern for human dealings. Almost.
PTOLEMY'S GATE is an excellent capstone to the extraordinary Bartimaeus series. I enjoyed all of these books immensely and recommend them to anyone who enjoys young adult fantasy. Like the first two books, The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1) and The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2), this one is filled with humor and excitement. These books also offer some social commentary for those who want to pay attention to such things. For example, the ruling class of magicians in these books take extreme measures to maintain their own positions, while claiming that they are really just interested in keeping the masses safe. There are resistance groups that oppose the government, and they engage in acts of terrorism to free themselves from the magicians' oppressive yoke.
The entiretrilogy is a fun-filled pleasure to read. Doubtless it would be possible to read PTOLEMY'S GATE without having read the previous two books, but I would not recommend it. There is quite a bit of background that would be missed, and the story would definitely suffer. While the first book in the series, The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1), could probably stand alone, the second two (The Golem's Eye (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 2) and PTOLEMY'S GATE) should be read together. And once the last page of PTOLEMY'S GATE is turned, readers will undoubtedly wish they could summon Bartimaeus back for more.
Reviewed by: K. Osborn Sullivan
