The Great and Secret Knowledge
In this one, James Lark phones in from jolly old London to discuss the first book in The Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud.
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Links
Torn Music: Rejected Film Scores, A Selected History
The Avengers, “The Maneater of Surrey Green”
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Notorious Scarlet and Brown
Extended Notes
I ask you
chapter one
"The sulfur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils; they licked the air like tongues before withdrawing. The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcano. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
"Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him."
kid makes sure its the correct demon.
"Are you that B-Bartimaeus who in olden times was summoned by the magicians to repair the walls of Prague?”
What a time waster this kid was. Who else would it be? I upped the volume a bit on this one…
‘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!’"
most young magicians are cautious. the kid is punching above his weight
B thinks the kid should be thinking about cars and girls and not summoning
"I charge you to retrieve the Amulet of Samarkand from the house of Simon Lovelace and bring it to me when I summon you at dawn tomorrow.”
“You what?”
“I charge you to retrieve—”
“Yes, I heard what you said.”
I didn’t mean to sound petulant. It just slipped out, and my sepulchral tones slipped a bit too."
the wizard has to send them away thrice unless they choose to leave before that
B thinks someone is taking advantage of kid
we're in London, must be close to modern day if there are racing cars
kids room is decorated spartanly - B wonders why there are no posters of pop stars or football players
the amulet belongs to Simon Loveless. He is bad news and will get it back
the Systemic Vise is some nasty spell to hurt demons
chapter 2
B can turn into animals
it hurts to be corporeal
changing forms helps but it burns up his energy
he wonders about the kid and what will happen to his rep when other demons learn hes controlled by a child
he can see on seven planes - humans can only see one
magic protections equal wealth. do people pay mages to set it up or are only mages wealthy?
the house is well defended, including three weird looking sentries
he turns into a mole to go under the shield
chapter three
B is a being of fire and air so he hates earth
you dont notice it on the audiobook but he has little asides in the endnotes
he heard voices in the house and sees a vent. he becomes a fly
chapter 4
two people in a room, one woman fawning over a dude, Simon Lovelace
he thought he might turn into this lady next time he sees the kid. i cant picture that happening onscreen lol
endnote -
"For those who are wondering, I have no difficulty in becoming a woman. Nor for that matter a man. In some ways I suppose women are trickier, but I won’t go into that now. Woman, man, mole, maggot—they’re all the same, when all’s said and done, except for slight variations in cognitive ability."
Lovelace has an imp on his shoulder so B cant enter til it leaves
B clearly hates ordinary human behavior.
"The magician was talking. He did little else. The woman gazed at him with spaniel eyes so wide and silly with adoration that I wanted to bite her."
shes named Amanda
so we have a prime minister and sycophants. is there a king or queen? a house of commons? how similar to earths is the government?
Carter arrives, one of SLs servants
he has a friend, a playwright named Makepeace. SL and Amanda will be going to the theater
he considers using magic.
"I debated sending out a discreet magical pulse to see if I could detect the whereabouts of the magician’s artifacts, but decided that it was far too risky. The sentry creatures outside might pick it up, for one thing, even if there was no further guard. I, the fly, would have to go hunting myself."
theres a frog alarm disguised as a smoke detector, so we're definitely in the electronic age
B does good spywork, following the mark, going to the most well defended door
he can turn into smoke! he goes under the door and then turns into a child.
he thinks about being the magic kid, but cant because he doesnt know his name.
instead he becomes a dark skinned boy from Bs past, someone he loved?
demons can love... kid was from the Nile, so perhaps pharaoh times?
the room is full of magical bits and bobs, which B scoffs at
theres a golems eye which is super powerful.
he figures SL doesnt know that.
he says some stuff about magical tourism.
"Magical tourism…I ask you.5 Well, with luck it might kill him some day."
according to the endnote, B doesnt care about cultural vandalism, he just finds it vulgar he sees the amulet in a glass case.
"The Amulet was small, dull, and made of beaten gold. It hung from a short gold chain. In its center was an oval piece of jade. The gold had been pressed with simple notched designs depicting running steeds. Horses were the prize possessions of the people from central Asia who had made the Amulet three thousand years before and had later buried it in the tomb of one of their princesses."
he breaks the glass and grabs it.
something on the seventh plane is coming. a portal is opening and something is coming through. he bolts for the door. his fist blows up the door
turns out the toad isnt just an alarm, it also spits acid.
B shrinks it with a compression spell. B can make force fields so he throws one up and keeps running. Something called a Detonation sends him flying into the wall.
"The impact was so great that I was sent flying headlong at an angle down the corridor and half into the wall. Green flames licked around me, leaving streaks on the decor like the fingers of a giant hand."
a red skinned demon shouts Bs name. B rolls down the stairs and looks at the front door.
The sentries are out there so he heads to the back of the house.
he comes to a kitchen with an attached greenhouse. he runs in and puts a Seal on the door to the hall.
near the fire is a cook with a meat cleaver.
"He was sitting far back in his chair with his shoes on the kitchen table, a fat, jovial-looking man with a red face and a meat cleaver in his hand. He was studiously paring his nails with the cleaver, flicking each fragment of nail expertly through the air to land in the fireplace beside him. As he did so he watched me continuously with his dark little eyes."
Its Faquarl! he and B have history, and he must be strong because B is on his best behavior
detonations hit the door but the seal holds
Jabor must be the red guy. apparently hes gotten more addicted to violence ove rthe years
"Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen,’ that’s your master’s watchword, is it? Still, he must be fairly potent to be able to have you and Jabor as his slaves.”
Faquarl does not like the S word. He says he and Jabor are playing the long game
Faquarl tells him to give back the amulet.
he cant do that. endnote 7
"Not strictly correct. I could have given over the Amulet and thus failed in my charge. But then, even if I had managed to escape from Faquarl, I would have had to return empty-handed to the pale-faced boy. My failure would have left me at his tender mercy, doubly in his power, and somehow I knew this was not a good idea."
B tries to edge toward the window. F tells him its silly and pointless. calls the sentries
triloids.
B goes to return the amulet, leaps to the side and drops the Seal.
The detonation shoots through the opening and hurls F into the fire. B bolts and gets into the garden.
The triloids come for him so he makes an Illumination, blinding them.
He tears ass through it and gets out of the yard, hitting the alarm field as he goes.
he hears hooves so turns into a peregrine falcon. he takes off across the city, F and J following
"Suffice it to say, however, that when Faquarl and Jabor landed in the Hampstead backstreet, creating an invisible obstruction that was immediately hit by a speeding moving van, I was nowhere to be seen."
i dont know what this means
chapter 5
Nathaniel
heres where we find out how awful the kids master is. hes got big white eyebrows
"Remember this,” he said in a soft voice. “Demons are very wicked. They will hurt you if they can. Do you understand this?”
master doesnt think the kid really gets it.
"Oh, yes, sir; yes, I do, sir. Demons are wicked and they are hurtful and they will hurt you if you let them, sir.”
hes only seen demons in books (are we back in time or is he lying?)
Master tells him to go to his office, get his spectacles, wear them, then return.
"Never having been beyond this point before, he had nothing but nursery stories to furnish his ideas of what might be waiting in his master’s study. Terrible images of stuffed crocodiles and bottled eyeballs sprang garishly into his mind. Furiously he drove them out again."
he enters the office. it seems ordinary. he sees the box on a table.
he heads toward it.
he tries to touch it but it keeps moving. its too hot.
the whole room seems to be alive with noises. pens start rolling in all directions.
something laughs in his ear. he lashes out.
he grabs the mastersglasses, runs for the door. it slams shut.
he hears all this motion. shouts begone. sounds stop but then start again.
he puts on the glasses.
"A hundred small demons filled every inch of the space in front of him. They were stacked one on top of the other all over the room, like seeds in a melon or nuts in a bag, with feet squishing faces and elbows jabbed into bellies. So tightly were they clustered that the very carpet was blocked out. Leering obscenely, they squatted on the desk, hung from the lights and bookcases, and hovered in midair. Some balanced on the protruding noses of others or were suspended from their limbs. A few had huge bodies with heads the size of oranges; several displayed the reverse. There were tails and wings and horns and warts and extra hands, mouths, feet, and eyes. There were too many scales and too much hair and other things in impossible places."
the demons jump him, not hurting him but menacing him terribly for twenty minutes. it was immensely traumatizing. his master never explained it or even discussed it.
it bred deep resentment in Nathaniel.
"This was one of Nathaniel’s earliest experiences. He did not speak of it to anyone, but the shadow of it never left his heart. He was six years old at the time."
chapter 6
Bartimaeus has the amulet but it sends out a powerful aura so anyone aware of magic can follow it to the source. Bartimaues still has hours to go before hes summoned again, so hes constantly moving from one hideout to the next.
small red spheres are moving all over the city, looking for it.
there were so many Lovelace had to have other magicians assisting him with the search.
finally hes too tired to keep switching and moving, so he goes to Trafalgar square to blend in with other magic items and people, as a way to obscure the amulets position.
B flies in and turns into the egyptian boy again, wearing jeans and a tshirt. tourists are looking at so called magical trinkets, snapping pictures and whatnot. some people were magicians, mostly from government. one had an imp but the majority were without demons. a few regular police and some hairy night police.
b goes to look at a stall but realizes a gang of kids are looking at him. He doesnt know why, but he tries to mill about and get rid of them. he wondered why they were following him. it couldnt have been to mug him, he was clearly broke.
he manages to lose them by going into the subway and popping back up on the other side of the road. He hunkers
down in another alley behind some bins. He smiles, thinking hes lost them.
“I was wrong.”