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A review by delgremmyaward
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
3.0
3.5
This was probably stylistically the best fantasy I've ever read . Love the dialogue, love the world-building, love the characters, but did not love the pacing. I do wonder if this book needed to be as long as it was. Because it took me months to read it, I have trouble remembering if all the setup at the beginning leads to a payoff in the end. It's the type of book that deserves a reread, but given its length, I probably won't get around to it.
Unlike others, I found no part of this boring, but it has a queer feeling to it. Once I'd been reading for about twenty minutes, I could go on for hours. Picking up the book is the hardest part because it requires some thought and some sustained attention. Getting into it, even if you've been reading it every day, is like adjusting to cold water when you go swimming in the ocean. Once you've adjusted, you can stay afloat with effort; you just really have to want to go into the water in the first place.
This was probably stylistically the best fantasy I've ever read . Love the dialogue, love the world-building, love the characters, but did not love the pacing. I do wonder if this book needed to be as long as it was. Because it took me months to read it, I have trouble remembering if all the setup at the beginning leads to a payoff in the end. It's the type of book that deserves a reread, but given its length, I probably won't get around to it.
Unlike others, I found no part of this boring, but it has a queer feeling to it. Once I'd been reading for about twenty minutes, I could go on for hours. Picking up the book is the hardest part because it requires some thought and some sustained attention. Getting into it, even if you've been reading it every day, is like adjusting to cold water when you go swimming in the ocean. Once you've adjusted, you can stay afloat with effort; you just really have to want to go into the water in the first place.