Bartimaeus

One day, when I grow up, I want to be like Bartimaeus. Clever, cynical, self-sufficient, and completely intolerant of the general idiocy of egomaniacs and narcissists, which, unfortunately, abundantly populate both his world and ours.

The world of the Bartimaeus Trilogy is pretty much the opposite of Harry Potter's, and Bartimaeus is an antihero if ever there was one. He's a fourth-level djinni, oozing happily and freely in the "other plane" until those sad days on which he is summoned by the earth's magicians to do their various nefarious biddings. Bartimaeus is 5000 years old when the story begins, and has already served masters in Assyria, Egypt, and the like. By the time he meets Nathaniel, an eleven-year-old boy with huge ambition and a giant chip on his shoulder, he's already seen it all.

This parallell world of ours--a world in which magicians rule all the great countries of the planet and the "commoners" are kept in thrall--is intricately plotted and worked out. It feels very real. And Bartimaeus--nasty-funny, perceptive, and cowardly as often as he can get away with it--is confoundingly sympathetic.

The trilogy has its own website, and Bartimaeus is featured covering his own blog diary. I'm heartened to see how young Mr. Stroud is....and he claims to have gotten the idea for the book in a rainstorm and to have written the first sixty pages all in two days.

I find that rather inspirational.