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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Thanks to Christmas travel, I read the first 750-odd pages in basically one sitting. Can't believe it took me about 550 of those to make the connection of a magician named Strange. It was absorbing enough, but not much stuck with me. More Jane Austen than J.K. Rowling, which was fine. I'm less into fantasy than I used to be, so the social/political aspects were at least as interesting as the magic was. I did like that I kept getting ideas of where things were probably headed but could never be certain that I was right. (  ) kristenn | Jan 7, 2010 |  The story doesn't really get me, nor the characters... I don't know why I like listening to this, even when I can't concentrate for long before the fantastic narration knocks me out... but I like it, and I've got something like 30 more hours to listen to! One of these years I may even finish it! (  ) ctorstens | Jan 7, 2010 | Best example a modern author achieving consistent writing in the style of the period of the setting I've ever come across. However it is a huge book and you wonder whether, with less love of authenticity of style and love of prose for itself, it might have been a more enjoyable read. Relationships interesting, if slowly developed, as is the alternative world history and magic. Despite an ending which seems to promise a sequel could later emerge, I didn't feel cheated by the deliberately loose threads - it seemed neatly done and wouldn't be catastrophic to leave them hanging. (  ) findantonia | Jan 7, 2010 | An astonishing achievement! First quality historic fiction, with a compelling overall sense of time and place, yet intricately interwoven with fantasy of the highest order. Much of the best fantastic fiction will take us, as readers, to the very brink of believability without crossing over. Susanna Clarke, however, boldly strides forth into the depths of her story's lush, rich complexity, steadily and subtly drawing a willing reader along with her. How could this possibly be a "debut novel" -- and can we have more, soon? Please? (  )1  jasbro | Jan 6, 2010 | 1 TheNovelWorld | Jan 6, 2010 | 
 "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" has been celebrated as an adult Harry Potter story, but it is more like a flatter and flabbier one. Chapters end with no cliff-hanging urgency, and the book is studded with unremarkable remarks. ... Somehow, the gargantuan battle for the future of English magic does not become a matter of enormous consequence. But it does become the basis for a brand new fantasy world, an intricate and fully imagined universe of bewitching tricks. Maybe that's enough.  Her deftly assumed faux-19th century point of view will beguile cynical adult readers into losing themselves in this entertaining and sophisticated fantasy.  Many charmed readers will feel, as I do, that Susanna Clarke has wasted neither her energies nor our many reading hours. Susanna Clarke, who resides in Cambridge, England, has spent the past decade writing the 700-plus pages of this remarkable book. She's a great admirer of Charles Dickens and has produced a work every bit as enjoyable as The Pickwick Papers, with more than a touch of the early Anne Rice thrown in for good measure. "Move over, little Harry. It’s time for some real magic."
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(retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:06:42 -0500)
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