To as large extent, The Golem's Eye continues where The Amulet of Samarkand left off. Nathaniel is a rising star, now climbing the ranks of government and Bartimaeus is just as snarky as ever. We get quite a bit more (including POV time) from Kitty and her friends, showing that it’s not all fun and games in this particular echo of London.

On one hand, it’s interesting that Nathaniel grew up so quickly and is in government now. To go with the inevitable comparisons to Harry Potter the first book raised, it’s as if we’d skipped right by books 2-7 and went straight to Harry’s training as an Auror. I actually really appreciate that; it’s something new. EVen if it does strain credulity somewhat. He’s 14 for crying out loud…

Overall, the world building is a solid extension on what we had before, with a look into the variety of djinn and other creatures underpinning the magic of the world, along with a few other ways that things can be done (such as the golem before and a certain animated skeleton towards the end–hints of things to come…).

The characters? Well, Nathaniel is growing up and… I really don’t like him. I get that is likely Stroud’s intent, but any time you have an unlikeable protagonist, you have to try twice as hard in other aspects to make up for it and we don’t quite get there. Bartimaeus is still quite a lot of fun though.

Overall, I don’t think I liked it quite as well as Amulet, but I’m still glad I read it. Curious where the third/final book in the trilogy will go from here…