Ptolemy's Gate

by Jonathan Stroud

Grade: To Own
WARNING: Spoilers and fan-girling ahead.

Sob!


Sigh. I cried. Or almost did. I felt like I was crying, at any rate.
What a beautiful perfect ending to a terrific trilogy of books. (Except that, apparently, he's making another one. I don't see how he could. I hope he doesn't do anything stupid... (EDIT: It's a prequel. So that makes more sense now.))


--I loved the romance. I so rarely love the romance, especially if it's kind of obvious, i.e. the girl is the only girl in the WHOLE BOOK who could be the love interest. Unless the hero becomes evil, which was very possible, and leads me to the next point.
--Nathaniel. His whole story. I loved him at the beginning when I didn't realize quite how unique he was, I loved him in the middle when he was stupid and ignorant and didn't realize his fashion was appalling, and I loved him at the end, when he repented.
--And Kitty was such a suitable match for him...sigh...
--But back to Nathaniel. That was the whole tension of the book. Does Nathaniel become evil? And it was so possible that he would. And yet, the plot was tense and exciting too. It's just that the character development overshadowed the whole thing. Which is just my cup of tea.

See also the first two books in this series: The Amulet of Samarkand and The Golem's Eye.