I. I have no idea what these books you read are about but I assumed they were Percy Jackson-esc with like. A group of 13 year olds doing world saving shit. Idk why. But that post you just made about one of the characters being 10000 years old felt like being slapped in the face
Sjklsd so here’s the thing
I’ve been talking about the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. (sometimes called the Bartimaeus Sequence (bartseq) to include the prequel)
I’ve never read Percy Jackson but it’s definitely in the same genre of fantasy YA, and you aren’t too far off about 13yos saving the world. There’s 3 main characters, and two of them are teenagers.
Kitty Jones is arguably the most typical YA protagonist, although she‘s not a main character in book 1. She’s your typical ‚Fuck authority, I am going to join the Resistance and try to bring down the government‘ teenage girl. She was my role model in middle school.
Nathaniel (alias John Mandrake) is complicated. In book 1 he’s 12 and clearly The main character, like even tho Bartimaeus is the only one who narrates in first person, Nathaniel has the most agency and his actions create the plot. That said, Nathaniel is a horrible person. He’s a magician‘s apprentice and in this world that means enslaving magical spirits, which is obv bad but I suppose that was expected of him. But it was his idea to summon Bartimaeus (a middle-ranking spirit so WAY too much for a beginner to control) and make him steal an amulet from a powerful magician. As revenge for said magician telling Nat he‘s a stupid child (literally true) and sicking an imp on him (a little harsh, but listen, you didn’t see how annoying this child was). I‘ve argued that Nathaniel could be considered the antagonist, especially from Kitty‘s perspective, but most people consider him a morally grey protag.
Bartimaeus is the main character of the sequence. He is the only character who narrates in first person. And his inner monologue is so funny. He’s a five (apparently not ten) thousand year old djinni, with a very impressive career (according to himself) and now he’s a servant to a prepubescent boy with a god complex. And he can’t do anything about it because the one (1) thing Nathaniel has going for him is he‘s actually really good at summoning and binding demons.
Literally my favorite series 10/10 strongly recommend
