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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Yeesh, what a chonker of an audiobook -- I need to read it with my eyeballs next. I feel like I lost the thread a bit at the end, but I do so love a properly inhuman fey character, and I really loved the style.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don't know if it's Stockholm Syndrome (as Jennifer aka EM mentioned in her comments on War and Peace) or if I really did wind up loving this book after the two thousand years it took me to read it. What I do know is, now that it's over, I want to back the whole thing up, make a three point turn and start it all over again.
Note on the audiobook: Simon Prebble is a brilliant narrator!
Note on the audiobook: Simon Prebble is a brilliant narrator!
Absolutely enchanting. The length was intimidating, but makes all of the payoffs so satisfying.
slow-paced
I'm sad, this book just wasn't for me, and I really wanted to like it. And on paper was absolutely in my alley, regency england, magic, and nerd people but I couldn't connect with either the characters or the story, and I found it quite boring. I hoped that something would catch my attention chapter after chapter, but it took me four months to finish. I didn't give up on it simply because I bought the audiobook, and Richard Armitage's narration is a delight.
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
After more than two years: my white whale. Only the last 120 pages were read in 2025 and 100 of those over the last two hours. What an achievement. I am obliged to give it 5 stars, not because my reading experience was unblemished - it took me two years to read - but because it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, and due to my absolute, unshakeable certainty it will be 5 stars upon reread. Too and unnecessarily long? Yes. Earned? No. But it does not fall apart. It never falters. I faltered before the book did. And I'm already looking forward to picking this up again.
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Charming and imaginative.
A real tome of a novel. With great pacing, it often reads like an anthology of short stories set in this richly detailed and researched part of history. I loved all the footnotes and sense of discovery that one has while reading it, and the depictions of magic. It shares some of its themes with Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose about the nature of knowledge, which it handles wonderfully.
All in all, it is simply enchanting.
All in all, it is simply enchanting.
Clarke brought magic to the 21st century!
This compelling book written with a familiarity to the Pickwick Papers by Dickens enthralls with its own history built right into the book! Not only does Clarke expand on Norrell and Strange's life but also "historical" events mentioned by characters. Footnotes! I was so excited when I started reading her footnotes because it was like reading a story within a story!
If you like fantasy and originality and imagination, be prepared to be whisked away to parallel universe where magic is trying to make a comeback!
This compelling book written with a familiarity to the Pickwick Papers by Dickens enthralls with its own history built right into the book! Not only does Clarke expand on Norrell and Strange's life but also "historical" events mentioned by characters. Footnotes! I was so excited when I started reading her footnotes because it was like reading a story within a story!
If you like fantasy and originality and imagination, be prepared to be whisked away to parallel universe where magic is trying to make a comeback!