The size of it seems to intimidate a lot of readers that I think would really love it if they gave it a try. I hope she writes another one, too!

how did you like piranesi

It sounds like this book would be perfect for you! You should definitely pick it up!

Thank you for the lovely comment! I hope you love the rest of the book. I thought the end was just amazing.

It is no disrespect to Tolkien to say that Suzanne Collins has surpassed him. I would compare it to Obi-Wan Kenobi surpassing Qui-Gon Jinn: It is unthinkable that she could have written such a Flawlessly, Perfectly ENGLISH book without caring extremely deeply about understanding what Tolkien was trying to teach us about English Magic. I believe he sees her and thinks "Well done! Good and faithful servant!" She earned it the hard way in my estimation. She even improved upon an extremely important core idea: "It must be a MUSIC." I challenge anyone to read the work and claim with a straight face and calm heart that they did Not hear In the Hall of the Mountain King building up in a crescendo of FATE. I cannot describe Why I Know it was Mountain King and not Beethoven's Fifth but I know it absolutely must be so. It is not because the subject is Elves! It is because Prophecy is far more Foreboding! She found the words to the spell. She discovered a real incantation. It is not only Tolkien that she beat. She beat GRIEG at Foreshadowing. I swear she's done it! She brought Magic back to England. The Raven King is among the company of Treebeard and the Hamadryads of Bacchus that fought the Battle of Beruna. "Why is there no more Magic done in England?" sounds genuinely as powerful as "One Ring to Rule Them All" and that is no small feat.

It is big! But I found it so delightful to live in that world for so long. I hope you like it!

Thanks!

I just learned today that Clarke wrote another book that is due to be released next year! It sounds absolutely amazing from what little I've seen so far.

@@SuperPao Piranesi - its had reviews bordering on the hysterical, even in the FT!

I think you'd really like it! It takes a little bit to get into it, but after that it is just so delightful.

Funnier than the *books* of Harry Potter or any book or TV adaptation of Agatha Christie. It has peak English Dry Humor. This is a quality Lord of the Rings lacks a lot more than Agatha Christie. For that matter so does the King James Bible. Imagine that somehow someone figured out how to put the jokes back in the Bible and NOT ruin it. Like splicing Agatha Christie to Tolkien perfectly and just taking two English Classics and making them Even More English.

Thanks so much!

It is!!

You are in for a TREAT! I hope you love it!

Ohh, try it again! It does take a bit to get to the meat of the story. Especially since Jonathan Strange doesn't even show up till about halfway through. And the last 200 pages are SO GOOD. It's so worth it. Maybe I will write a paper on it sometime, or at least beef up my goodreads review.

Your not alone ... I’m on chapter 28 and I just am hoping for the end. It’s so boring so far.

I just finished it and let's be honest; you know it SUCKS.

I feel the same! Have you watched the BBC miniseries adaptation? What was your favorite bit of the book?

No I was going to watch it but I'm worried I will think of the characters differently and it will change the book for me. :/ I loved the Man with the Thistle Down Hair. I would have loved like a prequel of him and his whole backstory.

AnsHadventures That's fair. When I reread Harry Potter I have to make a conscious effort to imagine the characters like I did originally before seeing the movies. And the implied backstories are another thing that make Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell so great! You could tell that Clarke had thought up backstories for everything whether they were included or not. That made the world feel so rich and alive.

That's super impressive that you can read in a second language! I think even native speakers would have a little trouble getting used to the old-fashioned style of the novel.

@@SuperPao I've been reading books in English since I was a teenager... but this was a bit of a challenge... but that is not even the beginning of it. I read the book in 2015, at the time I was living in Germany. I remember buying it in German at local bookstore. I remember reading about the Gentlemen magicians. I tried reading the first page a couple times in disbelief. I remember thinking this book NEEDS to be read in English. So I closed the book, went to Amazon, and ordered it... In English 😅

@@teratzul I often wonder what I miss when I read translated texts!

@@SuperPao Oh dear... ! I reread the message I wrote, I can't believe I posted that without rereading. I remember writing it in a rush and thinking it'd be fine ... I'm dumfounded at the sight of it. I'm afraid that won't do! Grammar mistakes are not respectable*. I guess I just proved my non-native-speaker(...ness?)... Not too hard to prove either if you only heard a few words out of my mouth... 😅 I know I have to reread messages in my native language at least once.... In English, at least twice. * And yes, I'm a software developer...** ** And yes these are footnotes in a KZfaq text reply. I've done this a couple of times since rereading JSaMN. I don't think there are a lot of people doing this. Maybe you can help me turn this into a thing.

Don't torture yourself! There are too many books out there to waste time on the ones that you don't enjoy.

The book is PURE WASTE. It's rubbish.

@@braveconcepts opinions are like arseholes

Listening to the audiobook would be great!

Simon Prebble reads Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and he does such and excellent job! Get the audio book from Audible. It makes the novel even better.

Oh, I hope you can come across it again!

*compassion* good luck!

Your dog has great taste!

It is soooooo long, but worth it! Some long books irratate me, be I loved living in the world of this one so much that the length was a gift.

It is definitely a slow build and does a lot to mimic the pace and style of 19-century works. It took me over a month to read, but I enjoyed being in the world so much that I didn't mind the slower bits. The end does build to a marvelous crescendo, so if you can get through the slow stuff it does pay off. However, if you still find it too slow, the BBC did a pretty good miniseries adaptation. It hits all the major plot points and is casted perfectly. You might want to check it out :)

I believe the pacing was absolutely deliberate. However, perhaps like a strongly steeped tea, it could be an acquired taste and even it might benefit from a footnote on the front cover explaining how best to enjoy? 🤭 This would be extremely strange for a book but Not out of place for a fine wine, which I think I will draw it in comparison with. The purpose of the pacing is not merely to imitate the 19th century novel. It is my firm opinion she intended to put in the readers mind the song "In the Hall of the Mountain King" which is built extremely on Suspence and Fate as some of the feelings it might naturally inspire. Suspence, Foreshadowing, Doom. I read the book in jail and was able to finish it and it was entertaining start to finish. I didn't know ahead of time, that I should feel In the Hall of Mountain King playing. But it came to me so so naturally that I realized I was not alone when the BBC chose that theme for the trailer. Jail is a disorienting place for boredom to try to be cured. You might think that any book could be a distraction especially one with a lot of action but its not quite like that. The Return of the King was excellent to read under such trying circumstances because I felt understood. I felt not lied to. I felt like the descriptions of Mordor, though the exact opposite of escapism, somehow enabled acceptance better than escapism would have. I felt something similarly Doomish about JSaMN that was incredibly intense experience with little else to focus on. And there were many books to choose from but some of the more shallow ones were much less effective because they would already have been absurd to read on the outside and they were even more absurd inside. "Bergdorf Blondes?" What are they thinking? Lord of the Rings and Jonathan Strange have a je ne sais quoi. The sense of Doom is extremely important. I am forced to conclude it is with deliberate intent the author teases the pacing in a kind of foreshadowing that reverberates and not only builds up but pulls back. It does tease. It teases on purpose. I even think it may have been in her intent to make me feel the apt descriptive word is a word that hadn't existed before: "foreshadowingplay", to combine foreshadowing with foreplay. I'm not saying it was erotic. It was not in any way trashy. It was simply so teasing, playing on the senses with a mastery of illusion. Well it could be seen as erotic by some. The suspense reversed its own direction and this is obvious. I think it is by design. I think the intent is that by going backwards a wave is created that crashes down with all the more force when it returns. That repeating this wave motion builds so much force that it feels impossibly awesomely terrifying and irresistible to be caught up in its cacophony towards the end. A great deal of power is gathered up precisely by turning backwards. In my opinion. I think it's a grand orchestration by a true magician. What a real magician would actually do and why it is scary to imagine meeting one and I couldn't dream of outthinking a real one.

omg. This is the best compliment I've ever gotten. Also thanks for bringing my attention to this book! I don't think I would have picked it up if not for you.

OF COURSE. Lemme know what you think of the show!!!

It's great! Have three episodes left as of now. I am pleasantly surprised at how close they actually got to the book. Timmy is watching with me and keeps thinking that the Raven King is going to turn out to be a Voldemort type character, and I'm like noooooooo. He also keeps expecting all the characters to turn out to be totally good or totally evil, instead of all just really morally gray like normal humans.

MAKE HIM READ THE BOOK lol

I try... oh, how I try...

Like a how-to guide? No. But it does show how following patriarchal tradition and blindly trusting those in power isn't a good idea.

Definitely torture