Dear Jonathan Stroud:

My name is Courtney and I have a few questions.

1) Do you think that commoners really understand magicians, besides their cold blooded personalities? You said so yourself in the book that magicians were so ruthless because of their past--that they were sold off by their parents and such. If that is the case, then it's not only the cruel magicians but commoners as well.

2) In the end of the book Bart said, "at the last moment, I would have liked to tell him what I thought of him," or something like that. But bart never stated what it was that he thought of him. Do you think that after Nat's sacrifice, Bart did feel affection towards him? Because throughout the whole book, there was hostility between the two, so at the end, was there any affection between them at all?

3) I doubt that many would awknowledge Nathaniel's sacrifice, besides Kitty and Bartimaeus, of course. Nathaniel probably knew it too, yet he didn't care about recognition or fame anymore, and instead, full of guilt at his years being Mandrake, became totally selfless. If you placed himself in your shoes, however, would you think of yourself as having died in vain?

4) Nathaniel gave Kitty the Amulet of Samarkand to protect her. Reading the story, though, I thought that it was actually quite unnecessary. Why did Nathaniel give her the Amulet, because it seems as though she could have survived without it. And also, if he did keep the amulet, would he have survived the fight with Nouda?

6) In your opinion, who would you rate more noble? Nat or Ptolemy?

7) Do you think that your story was more of an allegory than just another fantasy novel? And if so, did you purposely make it that way?

8) Did you plan out the whole story in the very beginning, or did you make it as you went along. [I'm not talking about slight changes, because of course there must have been some. I'm talking about the whole overall picture.]

Nathaniel's death was a hard blow, but I think that if they story ended with "and so they lived happily ever after," it wouldn't have been nearly as deep. I really enjoyed the series, and I hope you answer my questions soon. Thanks for your time :]

[sorry, that was a bit long...]
Yours,
Courtney.

Hello Courtney

Blimey, that's a lot of questions! I'll do my best...

1. You're right, Nat's mum and dad were happy to get money/status in exchange for their son. SOME commoners are no better than the magicians. Of course, magicians are just people when all's said and done.

2. I think you have to decide that for yourself. (sorry!)

3. I like the way you put it - by his sacrifice at the end Nat becomes totally selfless. I'd like to think I could make such a sacrifice, but who knows...?

4. Hmmm. Having the amulet on her meant that she wasn't affected by the explosion - which does nasty things to the grass around her. I think it DID save her. If Nat had had it, it might have saved him from the magical explosion, but I'm not sure about the falling building...

6. More noble? I suppose Nat at the end, because he had to fight himself to attain it.

7. I don't think it's an allegory. There are themes within it, and you can extrapolate things from those themes, but crucially it has to be a good story first and foremost.

8. Not right at the beginning, but about 60 pages into Amulet, I began to work out the overall shape: I had a basic structure, which ended with Nat/Bart teaming up along with Kitty to save the world; and with Nat dying. So it was pretty early.

Hope that's ok - sorry to take so long replying.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

what happened to #5?

Icyyy skipped the number five and JS answered according to icyyy's questions.

Did Nat really have to fight himself? Throughout the series, he always put his country and his job ahead of his personal well being.

He may have been more noble because of that, since Ptolemy just wanted knowledge and his death was a byproduct. Nat knew he was going to die and he fully accepted it.

(this was for #6)