• Fish@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell. After that book I gave myself permission to DNF though, so it was a maturing experience for me. I mostly wanted to know what happened to Stephen and that’s what drove me, along with the “No mere book shall defeat me” attitude.

    I really enjoyed all of the Fae short stories actually. I’m not really a horror fan, but I found Fae, and mortals interaction with it, particularly gripping and memorable. I never put the book down when I was in Fae, trapping me along with the victims, perhaps that’s why I wanted Stephen to just be ok.

    It was just everything else in the book I couldn’t enjoy. The titular characters I found uninteresting. The setting, fae excluded, I was apathetic about. The structure, the footnotes, dear god the footnotes.

    But the Fae stuff? I’ll take 10 more of them in an anthology please.

    • frankPodmore@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      I agree with you about Strange and Norrell. The pacing was poor and it was over-long.

      But!

      Susanna Clarke’s next book, Piranesi, is actually really good. Like, really, incredibly good. I recommend it to everyone and so far no one has said anything but positive things about it. I rarely re-read books but this is one that I’ve come back to.

      As it happens, I read Piranesi first, so I found JS&MN a bit disappointing, but I’m glad I read them that way around otherwise I might have skipped Piranesi, and that would have been a mistake!

    • gina@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It took me several attempts to get through Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but I finally managed it once I decided I wasn’t going to read the footnotes. I guess that means I missed out on some of the story but oh, well. I really liked the book, but all the back and forth was too much for me.

    • Knoll0114@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Blasphemy but you can always Google if you just wanna know one thing but can’t finish. I did to the WoT and don’t regret it.

      • Fish@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I could have but for the other two reasons I wrote about. Namely, I wasn’t mature enough to DNF, and the Fae stories are really good.

        I suppose in the end it did one better by causing me to grow as a person. Sure, books have taught me a bunch of stuff but not many I can describe as being “the” reason I “grew”.

        Today I wouldn’t have read enough of JS&MrN to even hear about Stephen, let alone grow to care about him.

        I’m sure I’m missing out on a great number of good books, great books even, possibly even formative books, by how willing I am to DNF. But, there’s so many good books out there that my calendar always seems to be full anyway.

    • diegeticscream[all]🔻@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      But the Fae stuff? I’ll take 10 more of them in an anthology please.

      Have you heard of “the thinking woman’s guide to real magic”? I thought it was rad.