Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Mar 18, 2008 emily rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: magic-witches-occult, fantasy, fiction-historical, abandoned

This was the second time I tried (and failed) to get through this book. This is doubly amazing; I almost never abandon books, especially not ones that go about dealing with magic in new and interesting ways. But I spent the first hundred pages waiting for the plot to begin, and finally just couldn't make myself go back to it, couldn't make myself care about what was going to happen next. Hearing someone compare Clarke's style to Dickens opened my eyes a little; it may make me a literary plebe, b ...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Peter rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, favorites

LOVED. IT. I liked, first of all, how charming it was--I normally don't appreciate a lot of footnotes, but these were so interesting and fun, and whimsical that I didn't mind the interruption. I liked, also, the length--which may seem like a weird thing to say, but I like existing in the world created and with the characters for a while (which is why I like series). 200-300 page novel doesn't give me enough of a sense of time passing and place and intimacy with the characters. One of the things ...more

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Aug 15, 2008 NebulousGloom (FK) rated it did not like it

Shelves: quit-in-the-middle

Hated it.

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Jul 07, 2007 Heather rated it really liked it · review of another edition

at 1024 pages, this book is more than a little bloated. the footnotes give it an insane amount of depth and whimsy, which is good since it's incredibly slow to start. about a third of the way in it was consistently intriguing, and by the halfway mark i was completely hooked. i couldn't read that puppy fast enough (it probably took me 3 weeks to read the first half, and 3 days for the second).

also,i've never read ANY of the potter books, so i have no idea how those compare in terms of english ma ...more

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Apr 17, 2008 Cindywho rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, fantasy-sf, historicalfiction

It took me a couple of months to listen to this long tale of rival magicians in the early 19th century. It had a long and winding plot that held my interest and one really creepy faerie. I'm not feeling as verbose as the novel right now, but I did like it. ...more

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Dec 10, 2008 valpal rated it did not like it

I heard good things about this book and I really tried to like it but it was SO boring. Johnathan Strange FINALLY appeared about halfway into the book and then he was just as boring as the rest of them. I couldn't finish it.

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Mar 06, 2008 Amitai rated it it was amazing

A delightful cross between Jane Austen and (a sober, intelligent) Harry Potter is the best way I can describe a book that is at the same time entirely new. Read it!

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