{"id":588,"date":"2008-03-29T20:21:49","date_gmt":"2008-03-29T20:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=588"},"modified":"2024-02-04T17:18:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T22:18:38","slug":"stroud_02-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2008\/03\/stroud_02-03\/","title":{"rendered":"Stroud, Jonathan: (02-03) The Golem’s Eye<\/cite> (audio); Ptolemy’s Gate<\/cite>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some backlog catchup, here. I’d read Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand<\/cite><\/a> because I was interested in the audiobooks narrated by Simon Jones. A year and a half later, I finally got around to the rest of the series, The Golem’s Eye<\/cite> and Ptolemy’s Gate<\/cite><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I listened to The Golem’s Eye<\/cite>, and though Jones does a fine job, I didn’t find the book well-suited to the audio format. As the first book provided Nathaniel’s backstory, so this book provides Kitty’s backstory. And I like her, but her backstory is slow, anvilicious, and copious, or at least feels that way out loud.<\/p>\n

The book does have good action sequences and Bartimaeus remains entertaining (though the combination of his first-person narration and the omniscient of the rest of the series is a bit odd), so I went on to read the concluding volume, Ptolemy’s Gate<\/cite>. This had the virtues of the prior books, with the bonus of Bartimaeus’s backstory. I was, however, dissatisfied with the ending, which resolved less than the series had promised—and in a manner that suggested I wasn’t supposed to notice<\/em>. Yes, problems are easy and solutions are hard; but if you can’t solve a problem, at least don’t try to disguise your inability with sleight-of-hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some backlog catchup, here. I’d read Jonathan Stroud’s The Amulet of Samarkand because I was interested in the audiobooks narrated by Simon Jones. A year and a half later, I finally got around to the rest of the series, The Golem’s Eye and Ptolemy’s Gate. I listened to The Golem’s Eye, and though Jones does … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Stroud, Jonathan: (02-03) The Golem’s Eye<\/cite> (audio); Ptolemy’s Gate<\/cite>“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,15,118],"tags":[402],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bartimaeus-trilogy","category-sf-and-fantasy","category-single-narrator-audio","tag-stroud-jonathan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2740,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/2740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}