#15yearsbartimaeus – The Amulet of Samarkand Graphic Novel Discussion

And here we are with the last discussion post. I’m very thankful to those that participated along, even if it was for a short while or if you didn’t comment. I especially want to thank La La in the Library and Jackie B from Death by Tsondoku for their enthusiasm! I enjoyed doing it this way for the most part.

But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t like some kind of feedback haha. You can find the form here. They are all open to fill in as much as you like but there are only 5 questions. I would appreciate your feedback.

Discussion Questions

Feel free to pick and choose what you want to respond to. If you have your own discussion question or topic that isn’t in any of these questions, please leave it below in seperate comment so we can all respond to it.

We already discussed the story itself in the spoiler discussion for the book so there won’t be that many questions here and they are likely more focused on the format.

1 First impressions are important. What do you think of the cover and the art overall?

2 Do the characters look like you have pictured them in your head as you were reading the books.

3 Do you feel the story translated well to the graphic novel format? What did you like? What would you change?

4 Would you recommend anyone read this graphic novel before having read the books as an introduction?

My Opinion on the Graphic Novel

First impressions are important. What do you think of the cover and the art overall?

I am not the biggest fan of the art. I think the backgrounds are very solid but I don’t care for how the humans are drawn in this story. There is an inconsistency in just Nathaniel for instance and an even bigger difference between the Nathaniel being drawn on the cover and in the graphic novel. And in general I find the art on the faces inconsistent. Not solid quality.

Do the characters look like you have pictured them in your head as you were reading the books.

The only characters that look like I pictured them would be Bartimaeus and Ms Underwood. I had a different look for Nathaniel in my head though I suppose that is more in the details. As menacing as he looks on the cover was for sure not how I pictured him. I also didn’t quite picture Mr. Underwood as THAT old. And I have always pictured Lovelace as a smooth charming piece of ass. He does not look like a very charming ass in this book.

Do you feel the story translated well to the graphic novel format? What did you like? What would you change?

Honestly if you know the book than I can only imagine this graphic novel being a dissapointment. While it tells the basis of the story it leaves behind any of the emotional connection to make with the characters. Any of the depth is gone.

I did enjoy Bartimaeus but even his humor doesn’t quite shine through in this book. I am also very dissapointed in the worldbuilding. It is severly lacking in this book. There needs to be more explained about magicians and djinni for instance.