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''The Golem's Eye'' is the second book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy written by Jonathan Stroud . It was first published in the UK in 2004 by Doubleday Books. PLOT INTRODUCTION As the rest of the Bartimaeus Trilogy The Golem's Eye is set in modern day London in an alternat history in which Magic is commonplace and Magicians are an accepted part of society. In fact most magicians are in power and make up the government with commoners treated as Inferior . The Main Character is Nathaniel , a magician who works for the gverment in the minsitry of internal affairs. His Sidekick is the wisecracking Demon Bartimaeus . Together they embark on a quest to discover the secret behind the commoners resistance and the mysterious beast that is stalking London. The book begins two years after the events of , Stanley and Fred. (He knows this because Fred and Stanley tried to beat up Bartimaeus in the previous book and were strangely resistant to his magic). He tries to search for these three but to no avail. He disguises several minor demons as commoners and sends them out to find the Resistance, but they too find no trace of the elusive group. The book then switches perspective to Kitty, on a mission for the resistance during a performance of The Swans Of Araby in a posh London theater. The play is written by Quentin Makepeace. (His role in the story is unimportant now but becomes important later). Kitty is having doubts about the point of her working for the Resistance and she begins to remember her past, and why she joined the resitance. She remembers back to her childhood, where she lived, somewhat poorly, next door to a Jewish family who owned a factory that printed books for the magicians. Kitty often played Cricket with her friend Jackob Hynek son of the family that lived next door. One day, that Kitty often remembers throughout the book, she accidentally hits a ball through the window of a magicians car as it passes. The magician comes out and sets his demon on Kitty and Jakob, it hexes them... But suddenly Kitty is woken up by Fred and Stanley before we find out the rest of her memory. They tell her to stop sleeping on the job as the interval of the play has started. They leave the theatre and go to a carpet shop that sells posh carpets for magicians. They break in, steal some documents and magical items and set fire to the shop. Kitty is worried about being caught but Fred and Stanley don't care. They return to the theatre in time for the restart. The next chapter is from the perspective of a demon named Simpkin who serves a rich shop owner named Sholto Pinn. (Pinn was a member of the Lovelace Conspiracy from The Amulet Of Samarkand ). Simpkin has been left in charge of the shop while Sholto Pinn is out. The shop is attacked by an unknown attacker (Later revealed to be a Golem ) and almost completely destroyed the block. The attacker then kills Simpkin. The book then returns to Nathaniel who is investigating the incident of the previous chapter. It turns out that six policemen and eight demons were also killed by the creature, most of the government suspects the Resistance of the attack but Nathaniel (Rightly) suspects otherwise. Then Nathaniel and his master, Ms Whitwell are called to meeting with the Prime Minister . He tasks Nathaniel with finding the resistance nad putting a stop to their activities. Nathaniel returns home and finally decides to summmon Bartimaeus again after many unsuccesful attempts at summoning others. He tasks him to find the unknown attacker, identify it and destroy it if he can. Next the book returns once again to Kitty and her memories continuing from where it left off earlier. Kitty and Jakob had both been sent to hospital and Jakob is badly burnt. Kitty escapes mostly unharmed, although she doesnt know it at the time, this is due to her magic resistance powers. Kitty attempts to sue the magician but soon finds the justice system tilted in favor of magicians and the magician gets away without charge, claiming Kitty and Jakob were trying to rob him. Kitty is fined £600 for compenation to the magician for the damage to his car. REACTION While the book was well-received, some critics deemed that Bartimaeus's role was diminished too much in the book. Nathaniel also seems "meaner", which may cause fans to sympathise less with him. However, many did not see this as a problem, and despite this most critics gave it positive reviews. |
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