The Baby and the Bathwater

[mtvessel]

Aug 2010
The Golem's Eye - Jonathan Stroud - Corgi, 2005
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How do you stop a sequel suffering from a law of diminishing returns when you have introduced the major characters, the world and the magical, political and social systems with which you will be working? One way is to turn the premise of the original on its head, and that is what Jonathan Stroud does here. In The Amulet of Samarkand, our teenage protagonist Nathaniel and the delightful djinn Bartimaeus rescued the government from the sinister Simon Lovelace - now we learn that the rule of magicians is corrupt and unjust, so Lovelace's rebellion could even have been a good thing. It's a brave approach but there is always a danger that you will throw the baby out with the bathwater, diluting the things that worked in the original for the sake of novelty. Unfortunately that's what's happened in this book.

There are two major strands to the plot. The first concerns Nathaniel, now elevated to the post of assistant to the Head of Internal Affairs, investigating the activities of the Resistance, two of whose magic-resistant members he encountered in book one. A highly destructive attack by a being that leaves no magical trace causes him to re-summon Bartimaeus, and the two learn more about the political machinations within the government and some of the history of its war against the magicians of Prague, a fight won by the legendary magician and general Gladstone over a century ago.

The second strand concerns Kitty, one of the Resistance whom Nathaniel met in book one. She represents the view of the common people who live under the magicians' rule, and it is from her that we learn first-hand of its corruption and cruelty. After her best friend Jakob is permanently disfigured by a spell from a high-ranking magician and a court case goes against her, she is recruited by the mysterious Mr Pennyfeather, who has a dangerous plan to bring down the government.

It is the Kitty storyline that is the book's undoing. While the depiction of the underside of the magicians' rule is worthwhile, the brute fact of the matter is that as a conventional heroine she simply isn't as interesting, subversive or funny as Nathaniel and Bartimaeus. While the morality of resistance by violence is well-explored, it's not an exactly original theme in fantasy. The effect is to dilute the fun parts of the book, especially as the intercutting of the Nathaniel and Kitty stories is too lumpen, with Nathaniel's story put on hold for several hundred pages.

There are other problems too. Given the effort that has gone into creating a believably backbiting political class, Nathaniel's extreme youth is a very jarring note. It is simply implausible that he would be given such responsibility, and even more unlikely that grown men and women would take orders from a fourteen year old, however magically well endowed (not that Nathaniel or Kitty behave anything like normal teenagers). There is a similar problem with the people in the Resistance who all ignore the obviously dodgy character. It's a pity as there is little concession to the target age group otherwise.

Still, Bartimaeus is present and as wise-cracking as ever, albeit in smaller doses, and the eventual climax is wonderfully absurd and well worth waiting for. But I'm sorry that the winning formula of the first book has been diluted.

Comments

[kebulane.livejournal.com]

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