The book in question is called “Ptolemy”s Gate’ written by Jonathan Stroud. It is, as Daily Mail put it “The triumphant conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.” Jonathan Stroud was born in Bedford in 1970.He studied English in York University. Then he moved to London where he worked as an editor. Apart from the Batrimaeus Trilogy he wrote three other novels: Buried Fire, The Leap and The Last Siege. He now lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter.

The story takes place in London, though there are a few flashbacks in Egypt. The time setting seems to be when the Americans are going to fight British rule. London is the capital of the Great English Empire, governed by the hated magicians. The setting is both realistic and unrealistic, because the fore-coming war is real enough, but it is very improbable that London has ever been ruled by magicians.

The story has 3 main characters. One could argue that the protagonists are actually 4, including Ptolemy. In the first book, the main character was Bartimaeus, a fourth level djinni. There was also a second main character, a 12 year old boy named Nathaniel. His role in the story had been obscure in the beginning, though fundamental by the end. Now in the final book of the trilogy, Nathaniel is fifteen, and is known as John Mandrake, Information Minister. The third main character, Kathleen Jones, was formerly part of the Resistance, a now collapsed organization that tried to fight the magician’s rule. She is presumed dead, and but after her conversation with Bartimaeus on top of a building while a mad Afrit imprisoned in a skeleton for a century approached(previous book obviously), she realizes her ignorance and starts researching about Bartimaeus’s past. The fourth main character is Ptolemy, whose role had been obscure ever since the trilogy started. He had been mentioned many times by Bartimaeus in the previous books, and it seemed that Bartimaeus had been fond of him, which is quite queer, because all spirits hate magicians as a rule, since magicians enslave them. In this book Bartimaeus’s past is revealed. The Antagonists are Quentin Makepeace, a magician and a playwright, and Clem Hopkins. Also, as later revealed, Lord Nouda and Faquarl.

I found Ptolemy the most interesting character, because, like Nathaniel’s role in the beginning of the trilogy, it’s extremely obscure, but reveals many things about the story without ever straightforwardly stating them. The character I disliked the most was Ascobol, a dull and self-centered Djinn, who likes to take on the shape of a Cyclope. The only character who seems to go through a change in the story is Nathaniel. If story includes the whole trilogy, Nathaniel went from a neglected, 12 year old boy seeking revenge, to the government’s hero, to a ruthless magician, back to a neglected magician under strain, back to ruthless hero, to a very confused person.

Before the plot is discussed, it would be better to explain a few points. Magicians have no magic of their own. They rely on their enslaved demons to accomplish extremely hard tasks such as repainting a kitchen or murdering the guy next door. Magicians are never grown by their real parents. They are adopted by other magicians below the age of five, and they become apprentices. This is done to make sure that the magician never reveals his birth name to anyone, and may possibly forget it himself. When they turn 11 they have this ritual or something in which they choose their own name. If a magician reveals his birth name to a demon, he can’t torture the demon to enslave him properly, because the name can turn any spells back against him, and it may cause suicide. Demons are of varying degree. The lowest demons are mites and imps. Then there are foliots. Following them are Djinn, who are powerful, but hard to control. The next type of demon is the Afrit, which are not very common among magicians. The highest Spirit are Marids, who rarely appear, and usually destroy the magician before he can command them. There are even higher spirits though, and they almost never appear.

In the beginning of the story, Kathleen Jones, alias Clara Bell, alias Lizzie Temple is thought dead, though she is still plotting the overthrow of the empire. Clara Bell is a bartender, and Lizzie Temple is a girl who met an old forgotten magician, who is “interested in knowledge just for the sake of it.” She helps him gather information, while she simultaneously learns much of the magician’s crafts and spells. In the meantime, John Mandrake, a rising star in the government, has been assigned the task of inventing logos and stuff to persuade people to be pro with the war. Kathleen manages to summon Bartimaeus, and learns that Bartimaeus always respected Ptolemy because he followed him to the Other Place (the place where demons come from). Mandrake learns that there are some people who can see into the other planes (there are 7 planes, humans can see only the first one, but demons can see auras, and invisible creatures on the higher planes. Though some powerful demons can remain invisible on the lower planes, they must assume a form on the higher ones), and that Clive Jenkins, a secretary in Internal Affairs department, had this conversation with a suspicious man, and they mentioned Hopkins. Clem Hopkins is a mysterious man, who helped the Resistance, and also killed its members. In the previous book, the antagonist Henry Duvall, convicted of the destruction of half the city and attempted murder of the P.M., said a Hopkins was involved in the affair. Nathaniel sends Bartimaeus and five other demons to investigate. While the other demons perished and Bart became imprisoned in fish stew in a silver platter (silver is poisonous to demons- it destroys their essences), he discovers that Hopkins’s mind had been destroyed a few months ago, when the demon Faquarl took over his body, which kind of explained the fact that Hopkins could fly, and fire Infernos and Detonation (types of demon spells that tend to singe or explode their victim). Over the course of the story, Kathleen, Mandrake, and Bartimaeus prevent the evil Spirits from conquering earth.

The main conflict is that the Spirits are trying to take over the earth, and it takes half the book to discover this conflict. In the other half of the book, Bartimaeus, who was rescued form the fish stew, goes back to the other place to heal. He is there for a few hours until Kathleen uses Ptolemy’s Gate to enter the Other Place, to call him back to earth. In the meantime, Nathaniel manages to steal Gladstone’s Staff (a powerful weapon. This staff contains many imprisoned beings, most of them Marids. On the seventh plane or something it fill the whole room with light), while a mercenary tries to kill him and a spell tries to melt him. To defeat the other demons, Nathaniel uses the spell Hopkins used, to make Bartimaeus possess him. Though since Bartimaeus didn’t disintegrate Mandrake’s mind they are both still alive, even though they reside in the same body. Nathaniel and Bartimaeus decide to sacrifice themselves to destroy the demons. However, at the last moment Nathaniel dismisses Bartimaeus, and dies alone.

Jonathan Stroud has a unique style. Each chapter is narrated from the point of view of a different character, and therefore has its own style. Bartimaeus tells his story in first person, and his chapters are always humorous and contain hints of other adventures he might have had in the past. Kitty’s chapters are in third person limited. Nathaniel’s chapters instead, are in third person objective. Even so, Stroud manages to portray Nathaniel’s feelings through his actions and the actions of the people around him.