The Ring of Solomon

By: Jonathan Stroud

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Fans rejoice -- everyone's favorite wise-cracking djinni is back!

Thousands of years before his fateful service to the magician Nathaniel in London, wily Bartimaeus served as djinni to hundreds of masters, from Babylon and Ancient Egypt to the modern Middle East. In this brilliant new installment in the best-selling series, history is revealed as readers travel alongside Bartimaeus to Jerusalem and the court of King Solomon for his most exciting adventure yet.

Folktales, Footnotes, and a Very Annoyed Djinni

It’s a story about the tangled journey to freedom of two “slaves”: the djinni Bartimaeus and the human Asmira. Bartimaeus, who loudly sings his own praises in the form of a hippo, resents being controlled and rebels in “subtle” and ridiculous ways. Asmira, who sees herself as a martyr, is convinced she’s acting on her own will, until she begins to question whether her desires were shaped for her from the start.

What follows is part adventure, part identity crisis, and part extended complaint from a very dramatic demon. By the end, it’s about what they get to choose and whether that choice is really theirs to begin with. Best book in the Bartimaeus series, in my opinion.