The Amulet of Samarkand

This story took place in London at the beginning of the third millennium. Except it is not at all the London we know. For one thing, magicians there are quite an ordinary phenomenon. As are demons—djinn, imps, afrits, and many others.

Magicians summon demons and, with the help of spells, force them to carry out their orders. The demons, of course, do not like this at all. So when a young magician’s apprentice summoned a djinni named Bartimaeus, the djinni wanted only one thing: to quickly fulfill his master’s whim—to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand from another magician—and forget the pesky boy as soon as possible. However, everything turned out to be far from simple...