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Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's an alternate history wherein two magicians return magic to England after centuries of disuse, written in an 18th century literature style. This book really was a huge disappointment from a very promising premise. The style is dead-on, absolutely nailed, but the plot and characters fall drastically short. Clocking in at approximately nine hundred pages, four hundred of them could be lost with no detriment to the story whatsoever; more than half the book are vignettes about the characters (one of which, Mr. Norrell, is so decidedly unpleasant that you can't believe she's trying to pass him off as one of the protagonists) that have little to no bearing on the actual plot. The main villain and the protagonists meet for the briefest of moments, thus bypassing any actual conflict they might have; the villain himself is nonsensical and two-dimensional and takes great delight in torturing two minor characters who are given so little characterization before their torture begins that you don't give one whit about what happens to them. Combined with references to characters who sound drat awesome but never actually appear in the book (hello John Uskglass, why isn't this book about you?) all over makes for an ocean of wasted potential. This could have been a stunningly awesome book, but as it is it's just a tedious bore. It sucks to see such a talented writer screw the pooch so badly plot-wise.
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Dec 15, 2006 06:10
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 17:10 |
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Yiggy posted:Aaaahhhhhh. Your view is completely diametrical to my own, I really liked it =( Especially Gilbert Norrell. My interpretation: I never felt like the Fairy King was torturing those characters at all, at least not out of malice and intention. Though mad, I felt he strongly covetted Stephen Black and Arabella; hes not delighted in their pain, hes enamored with their presence and existence, and quite assuredly insane. I really wanted to like it, because her technical mastery is wonderful and I like that in an author. But I do have to ask, how the hell did you like Gilbert Norrell? The entire point of the character is that he's a terrible person. I actually can't think of one positive personality trait to ascribe to him. The only people worse than he is are Drawlight and Lascelles, and they get like the first 250 pages all to themselves before anybody tolerable shows up.
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Dec 16, 2006 10:14
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