Dear Mr. Stroud,


When I was reading Ptolemy's Gate, I noticed how Bart was talking about being so powerful in the first years of his summonings. I don't believe he was that powerful in the Amulet of Samarkand. Do spirits, such as Afrits, lose some of their powers permanently after being summoned and are then down-graded to Djinnis, and eventually, with more summonings, become imps?










Thanks for taking time to answer this question.

Hi Neji,

Thanks for the question. Sorry about the slow response!

Sprits of whatever size and status stay the same - an afrit doesn't become a djinni and then a foliot as its power diminishes. It just becomes a knackered afrit. Bart in PG is still a djinn, just a rubbish one - the difference is that he's been on earth too much. But you're right that in Amulet he's not of earth-shattering power. You have to bear in mind that Bart is prone to exaggeration, so when he talks about his great deeds in the distant past, it's wise to treat it with a pinch of salt. Maybe, though, his years of repeated summonings HAVE degraded him a tad; perhaps even when he's allowed respite in the Other Place he never quite returns with the freshness of his earliest outings... but exaggeration is the basic answer here!


All the best,

Jonathan