History Literature / TheBartimaeusTrilogy

*** Modern technology is generally only accessible to magicians while the best the general public can get is a public payphone.

* FakeCrossover: One panel in the graphic novel shows [[Series/CoronationStreet a fat bald man opening a shop called "F.Elliot Family Butchers]].

* CastFromLifespan: In ''The Ring of Solomon'' the titular Ring of Solomon is essentially this. Touching the ring brings forth a multitude of spirits, while twisting it upon the finger calls a spirit of unparalleled power. However, even just ''wearing'' the ring causes the owner immense pain and every use ages the wearer a little, sapping their life energies.

* ComeOutComeOutWhereverYouAre: [[spoiler: Used by Ammet the marid to Bartimaeus in ''The Ring of Solomon''. Also used by Honorius on Kitty in ''The Golems Eye'' when they loot Gladstones tomb.]]

* AllMythsAreTrue: Mythology from all over the world shows up in this universe, though it is mostly explained by djinn influence - and, if Bartimaeus is to be believed, he had a hand on it.

* BigBallOfViolence: A trademark of Faquarl's, and a rare case where it's played ''lethally'' serious. Once he gets to work, all you see are the blades and [[LudicrousGibs body parts]] flying out. [[spoiler:Done to great effect to the troop of djinni set to capture his host Hopkins in the last book.]]

** Particularly so in the third book when the protagonists save the human race from genocide and allowed for the formation of a more egalitarian government... at the cost of ensuring djinn enslavement will continue forever.

* CrapsackWorld: Magicians are in charge of running the world, and their power has corrupted them into being arrogant, petty, foolish, cowardly and condescending towards their djinns and normal humans. Even the protagonist Nathaniel Drake can't avoid treating people around him like tools. There's maybe a sign that things will get better at the end, [[spoiler: though the magicians have brought on a ton of destruction through their own doing and many of them have been killed for it]].

** [[spoiler: When Kitty and Jacob accidentally cause him to crash his expensive car while playing baseball, Tallow summons his djinn, who casts a spell to disfigure the two kids for the rest of their lives. Even the enslaved spirit doing the actual magic asks him if he's sure. Jacob's family returns this to Tallow in kind by sabotaging his spellbook, causing him to botch a summoning and suffer a terrifying death by afrit.]]

* EliteMook: Most of the higher-power spirits are essentially used in this way. Jabor takes the cake, however; he has the "mook" thing completely down pat, and he's one of the most powerful djinni around. [[spoiler:At least, until Ramuthra's rift tears him apart.]]

* KnifeNut: '''Faquarl.''' He says quite explicitly that he has always enjoyed kitchens because of their multitude of sharp implements, and he never uses ranged attacks when his handy-dandy meat cleaver will do. Engaging Faquarl in melee is almost certain death, [[spoiler:as an entire squad of djinni find out the hard way in the third book.]]

* LookBehindYou: Bartimaeus once defeated a group of djinni using this trick. Additionally, in ''Ptolemy's Gate'', when Nathaniel is facing off against the mercenary for the final time, he tells him that his doom approaches from behind and shouts for "Belazael" to attack. There is no Belazael, but the tactic does get the mercenary to look behind him, allowing Nathaniel an instant to make his move.

* HeelRealization: Nathaniel in the third book.

* NoodleIncident: The "messy episode of the Anarchist and the Oyster."

--> Within the sphere: an image, moving. A creature, slow, blind, and in great pain, lost in a place of darkness. Silent, upside-down, and sagging, we watched the lost, maimed thing. We watched for a long time.[[note]]Creator/HarlanEllison would be proud.[[/note]]

* {{Trickster}}: Bartimaeus.

* HappinessInSlavery: Simpkin, a minor demon character, is happy to be a servant. Also a major theme in The Ring of Solomon, with both the human protagonist and TheDragon. Bartimaeus finds the idea of willing servitude an abomination.

* YouFailBiologyForever - Usually averted. Subverted at one point in the prequel where Bartimaeus is said to "shrug" and "frown" in the form of a moth and then snarkily replaces them with less anthropomorphic terms in the footnotes.

* HollywoodLaw: Played to a spectacular degree, though only in order to show how ridiculously corrupt and prejudiced the British law in this universe can be. A 13 year old Kitty is summoned as the plaintiff to a court case by herself, leaving out any input from her parents and/or legal guardians, and she is expected to face the court alone without any kind of legal defense or assistance from lawyers (which in this universe seem to be non-existent, as the other party doesn't get them either). At the end, however, none of this is remotely important, because the verdict from the judge amounts to a barrage of highschool debate club-level fallacies, including a blatant threat of pressing charges emitted shockingly by the judge herself (in real life, judges cannot do that, much less threatening a plaintiff with it, and even less to do it in order to restrict her testimony). As if there were more need to show it, it is also made painfully clear that the jury openly favors magicians in any case and does not see anything wrong with it, rendering all the thing meaningless.

* ExactWords: [[spoiler: Bartimaeus allows Kitty to escape anywhere but in Nathaniel's limo, because his orders were "Stop them from escaping in that car!"]] This is actually a recurring theme in the series, as demons are required to carry out the orders that their masters give them, but they can interpret those words with some liberty, making exact words important for loopholes.

* HalfHumanHybrid: The demon/human hybrids in the third book; [[spoiler: Nouda]] becomes more demon than human rather quickly, though.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In the first book, Bartimaeus hears what appears to be a large dog pursuing the Resistance. It's not until the second book where we find out that police officers in this universe are also werewolves.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Nathaniel and Ptolemy.]] Subverted with [[spoiler: Bartimaeus's master during the siege of Prague. He accidentally blew himself up trying to save the Emperor, and Bartimaeus calls this his finest moment since it freed Bartimaeus and thus saved his life.]]

* HollywoodLaw: Played to show how ridiculously corrupt and prejudiced the British law in this universe can be. A 13 year old Kitty appears as the plaintiff in a court case by herself, even with her parents explicitly refusing to have anything to do with the case, and even worse, she is expected to do it by herself without any kind of legal defense or assistance from lawyers. Which at the end is unimportant, as the verdict from the judge in charge is composed of fallacy after fallacy, and it's made clear that the jury openly favors magicians in any case.

* Fred Elliott from ''Series/CoronationStreet'' makes a cameo opening his butcher's shop in the graphic novel.

* ContinuityDrift: In the first book the mercenary clearly cannot see on all seven planes, since he is fooled by a disguise of Bartimaeus which only shows his true form on the seventh plane. However in the later books its a major part of his powers. In addition in the second book Honorious is [[spoiler: definitely hurt by iron and silver]], yet in the third book all the hybrids are [[spoiler:(mostly) unaffected by iron and silver]]. The first one has an AuthorsSavingThrow, in that Jonathan Stroud has stated that the mercenary might have learned some of his later skills. The second one is possibly justified in that Honorious is [[spoiler: possessing a skeleton rather than a living body.]]

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler:Duvall. After he is arrested, he tries to escape by turning into a werewolf and killing his guards, then jumping out the window. Unfortunately for him, they were five floors up.]]

** Most afrits and some mareds are described as being this, although it could be again Bartimaeus's particular point of view.
** The commonality of the trope with the stronger spirits, and the lack of it in Bartimaeus, could be easily explained by their relative power. Jabor and other spirits of great power are able to easily solve problems by simply smashing them, or the magical equivalent, simply never actually having to outthink an opponent or find an alternate means of executing an order than by the simplest path, whereas weaker spirits such as Bartimaeus have to outsmart the multitude of stronger foes they face and formulate cunning plans to avoid traps and defences that stronger spirits could just walk through, being more cunning by necessity. Faquarl is the only that is shown to have cultivate both his mind and his strenght even when he has enough of both to not need the other.

* EldritchLocation: The "Other Place" where all imps, foliots, djinn, afrits, and marids "live". It is possible for a human to visit, but is strongly recommended against, as it wreaks havoc on both body (staying in the Other Place too long forces the person to forget how to move their physical body) and mind (it's quite the AcidTripDimension, and the person will be trapped forever, absorbed by some spirit's essence if he or she does not have a trustworthy spirit to call upon and serve as a guide.)

* ExpositoryHairstylechange: Nathaniel's haircut between books two and three underscores the changes in his personality.

* IKnowYourTrueName: Magician's birth names are closely guarded secrets as knowledge of them protects you from most of their magic, while demons can only be summoned using one of their (many) true names. Bartimaeus knows Nathaniel's true name, which means that Nathaniel continuing to summon Bartimaeus would ordinarily be considered recklessly dangerous. However, the two have reached an agreement. Ptolemy told Bartimaeus his true name the first time that he asked. He, however, was unique-- he never employed any punishment spells against the spirits he summoned (thus no magic to turn against him) and gained their trust through politeness and dogged persistence.

* BadassNormal: Kitty Jones.
** Actually semi-normal. [[spoiler:She's highly resistant to magic, remember?]]

* AdiposeRex: The last Czech emperor was notably pudgy. British propaganda exaggerates this, claiming he was so fat he couldn't walk, and had to be moved around in a specialized wheelchair.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Bartimaeus turns into a Lioness instead of a Lion, remarking that while the mane of a male Lion is quite flashy, it creates a blind spot. (This being something that he's learned from experience.)

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Most of the government has been killed off, much of the city is in ruins, Nathaniel is dead and Kitty will probably suffer from bad health for the rest of her life. Also, with the crushing of their revolution, the spirits will get to go right back to be enslaved]]. On the other hand, [[spoiler:Nouda is dead, the world is safe from an apocalyptic invasion of spirits,]] and things are looking up for a more equal society.
** At least, [[spoiler: Bartimaeus and Kitty are alive, and Nathaniel died doing the same thing Ptolemy did - saving Bartimaeus' life. Which probably earned him some points in Bartimaeus' book.]]

* CallForward: Several in the prequel, most notably Khaba [[spoiler: and his shadow, a marid, being his equal and in love.]]

** In ''The Golem's Eye'', Jakob makes an offhand remark to Kitty that since his family runs a printing press, they can doctor any books Tallow sends to them as revenge for assaulting Jakob. [[spoiler: Later, when the various magicians perform a mass summoning to quell Honorius, Tallow attempts to summon an afrit. His book contained an error Jakob's family put in, and the afrit devours him whole.]]
*** It is suggested that this meddling could also be responsible for the yellow color of Tallow's skin, for which he is often ridiculed.

* DemonicPossession: Honorius in the second book possesses the bones of Gladstone; in addition, [[spoiler: hundreds of demons possess the British parliament in Nouda and Faquarl's rebellion.]]
** [[spoiler:FusionDance:]][[spoiler:In order to stop them Nathaniel and Bartimaeus do the same thing except that [[TwoBeingsOneBody they are in an equal partnership with neither trying to dominate the other]]. This has the added bonus that the process can be reversed, with Bartimaeus able to return to the Other Place, unlike the other demons who are trapped in their new bodies.]]

* DumbMuscle: Jabor has the personality down pat. We are never actually shown that he's dumb, and it's possible he just can't think straight when angry, but since he's always angry... It's mentioned in Bartimaeus' footnotes that Jabor is the type to "steadily paint himself into a corner" or "happily saw off the branch he's sitting on".

** In ''Amulet'' Lovelace is seen using a laptop computer. No one else in the other two books uses any technology more advanced than a telephone, unless you count the fact that some characters drive cars. Other means of communication include regular post and messenger Imp.