The Golem's Eye
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| Author | Jonathan Stroud |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Bartimaeus Trilogy |
| Genre | Children's, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
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Publication date
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1 January 2004 |
| Media type | Print (paperback & hardback) |
| Pages | 570 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 224065200 |
| Preceded by | The Amulet of Samarkand |
| Followed by | Ptolemy's Gate |
The Golem's Eye is a children's novel of alternate history, fantasy and magic. It is the second book in the Bartimaeus trilogy written by British author Jonathan Stroud. The first edition was released by Miramax 1 January 2004 in the United Kingdom. There have been 6 million copies sold in 36 countries. It was a New York Times bestseller in 2004.
The book and series are about the power struggles in a magical dystopia centered in London, England featuring a mixture of modern and ancient, secular and mythological themes. The series has been described as a darker, more political and morally complex version of Harry Potter.
The book takes it's name from the cyclops-like eye of the golem, a magical artifact that along with an animating parchment, activates the golem.
Like the rest of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Golem's Eye is set in somewhat modern-day London in an alternate history in which magic is commonplace and magicians are an accepted part of society; in fact, most magicians are in positions of power. They comprise the government, and commoners are treated as inferior. The main character is Nathaniel, a magician who works for the government in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His (unwilling) partner is the wisecracking spirit Bartimaeus. Together they embark on a quest to discover the secret behind the commoners' resistance to magic and the mysterious beast that is stalking the city of London. The beast is revealed to be an invulnerable clay golem created by a coterie of magicians in an attempt to discredit and undermine the government.
Many of the characters have names of biblical persons or historical literary, scientific or political figures, but not in biblical or historical contexts. Most such persons have been transmogrified into members of the elite ruling class of magicians.
The stories (of which this is one of four sequential episodes) are set in an alternate history, the universe for the stories. The events take place in London, England and Prague, Czechoslovakia. Magic has partly displaced technology as the means of social progress. In an incongruent mix of modern and antiquarian, Britain has jets but their most modern ships are civil-war ironclads. The Roman Empire survived another 150 years until the middle of the 19th century, spanning at least central Europe. A second empire, centered in Prague, arose after conquest of the Romans by Britain at that time.
The events except the prologue, are set in approximately the current time. The only date reference for the trilogy is in this, the second book, which states that Gladstone has been dead 110 years. The historical figure British prime minister William Gladstone died in 1898, so the timeframe of the second novel is 2008, and that of the first novel is two years before i.e. 2006. The books were published in 2003 and 2004, so the author has written a (slightly) future history.
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