#67 in Middle grade
The Amulet of Samarkand
- 462
- Pages
- about 8 h
- Reading time
- ALA Notable Books for Children
- Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
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Our view
“The Amulet of Samarkand” is strongest as world and voice: a London run by magicians, with the sardonic Bartimaeus commenting in footnotes. The setting, with its power struggles and darker edge, is richer than most fantasy written for younger readers. Some find the central plot around the amulet less gripping than the premise, and the wit more rationed than they hoped. A good first volume for anyone who enjoys magic mixed with politics.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Amulet of Samarkand is a young adult novel of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It is the first book in the Bartimaeus Sequence written by English author Jonathan Stroud. The first edition (paperback) was published in September 2003 by Doubleday in the United Kingdom. The book and series are about power struggles in a magical dystopia centred in London, England, and feature a mix of current and ancient, secular and mythological themes. The book is named after a magical artifact created in the ancient Central Asian city of Samarkand, around which the story revolves.
Reading order · Bartimaeus Sequence
Full order & progress →- The Amulet of SamarkandThis book
8.08.0 / 10 - The Golem's Eye
8.28.2 / 10 - Ptolemy's Gate
8.38.3 / 10 - The Ring of Solomon
8.08.0 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 583 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 80% of the weight and the score stays at 8.0 — the Middle grade average of 8.0 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 34 | 6% |
| Google Books | 9.0 | 8 | 1% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 541 | 93% |
Frequently asked
What age is The Amulet of Samarkand for?
The Amulet of Samarkand sits on the Children shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 5–10. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 462 pages — longer than 58% of the ranked books in Middle grade.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Middle grade — with scores between 7.6 and 8.2, closest to this book.
